All By Myself: Is Loneliness Making You Physically Sick?

Have you been picking up doses and bugs left, right and centre lately? Are you feeling a bit rundown? If your poor immune system has been taking a battering lately, maybe it’s time you looked at your emotions because researchers believe that loneliness could be making us sick.

Yes, believe it or not, researchers now think that feeling lonely could be having a severely negative impact on our physical health.

A study conducted by researchers at the Ohio State University College of Medicine discovered that people who would class themselves as feeling lonely actually experience worse health than people who aren’t lonely.

Researchers revealed that lonely people experienced the reactivaion of dormant viruses and were more likely to produce inflammatory compounds (bad compounds) when they were stressed, in comparison to people who were perfectly happy being single and people who were in relationships.

It's complicated: loneliness can strike at any time, even when you're in a relationship

Unfortunately, treating loneliness isn’t as simple as getting a boyfriend or finding someone to crush on and we should note that you can feel lonely at any stage in your life, whether you’re married, single or dating someone.

The researchers are now trying to see why loneliness causes such poor health so they can develop treatments to stop the sad emotion from impacting our immune systems.

If you’re currently feeling a bit lonely there are a few things you can do to alleviate the symptoms. Don’t isolate yourself away from your friends and family, instead reach out to your loved ones and tell them how you’re feeling. Spend time with the people who make you feel loved. Ask your mam or your best friend for a hug and dedicate some time to looking after yourself.