This article is featured in The West Australian and is republished with permission.
More West Australians are seeking help for loneliness, prompting doctors to warn that it should be taken seriously as a health issue.
Psychiatrist and Australian Medical Association WA president Kyle Hoath said he and his colleagues were seeing “more and more of it” across demographics.
“People would be surprised, a lot of people tell me they’re lonely or they feel they don’t connect with as many people as they used to,” he said.
“It’s not something that’s just my older clients, it’s increasingly young teenagers, young twenty-year-olds that are finding themselves lonely and struggling to connect.”
Loneliness has been on the rise across Australia and much of the western world for years, fuelled in part by the growth of social media and the loss of community and exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.
Loneliness increases the risk of anxiety, depression and a range of illnesses — including premature death. A World Health Organisation investigation found loneliness and social isolation contributes to 871,000 deaths globally every year.
And while loneliness is sometimes associated with old people, research suggests that is not the case. A report from Ending Loneliness Together, released ahead of Loneliness Awareness Week next week, found that 15 to 24-year-olds were the loneliest age group in the country.
Dr Hoath said loneliness did not discriminate and could affect the old, the young and people with seemingly busy lives.
“A lot of people go to work and are busy but are still lonely. Being around people doesn’t mean you’re not lonely,” he said.
“There’s definitely a strong overlap there with mental health: you’re about four to five times more likely, if you feel chronically lonely, to suffer from depression or social anxiety. This isn’t just sadness, it’s not a soft issue: loneliness literally can hurt the heart and that’s why we intervene.”
While social media often cops the blame for social isolation, he said it could also be a lifeline for people to connect with others.
Australian Psychological Society president Dr Sara Quinn said there was a big difference between being alone and being lonely.
She said loneliness was a normal human emotion but one that could have serious health consequences. Young people, middle-aged men and those who had recently experienced a significant life change like retirement may be particularly vulnerable.
“It’s fixable and you don’t have to go it alone,” she said. “The challenge is that everyone feels it differently. We’re starting to recognise that it is increasingly a health issue.”
Experts recommend people suffering from loneliness try joining a club or sporting group that interests them, reconnecting with friends or family and seeking professional help.
Sharon Officer is one example of how to find social connection in an age of isolation.
She set up a local knitting group, Shorehaven Yarners, three years ago after retirement and a move left her feeling “adrift.”
“I’ve lived in my other home for 25 years so suddenly I lost all the social networking that you have at your job and I also lost neighbours that I had for 25 years, so here I was in this lovely new home with my daughter two streets away but I didn’t know a soul,” she said. “So I felt a little bit adrift.”
Having recently learned how to knit, Ms Officer posted on her local Facebook group to see if any other knitters fancied a coffee and a chat. What started as a group of six at her local cafe has grown into a group of 25 women ranging in age from 18 to 87.
“It’s just been the best thing, we all became firm friends so we’ve helped each other with moves, with appointments,” she said. “We swap yarn and lend each other things and go on outings together. It’s just been the best thing I ever did.”