Why loneliness is increasing, and how to fight back

While it’s not something people talk about much, loneliness is a common feeling, with three out of every five people reporting they felt lonely in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened this crisis: a Harvard University survey taken in October 2020 found 73 percent of respondents felt at least occasionally lonely. Slightly more than one-third felt alone “frequently,” “almost all the time,” or “all the time.”

Loneliness is more devastating than many of us realize—it has a profound impact on a person’s mental and physical health, and has even been found to be an accurate predictor of early mortality. For those of us who have been suffering from loneliness, it can help to understand what it is, why it makes us feel the way we do, and how, exactly, we can overcome it.