How living alone harms your mental health?
Staying alone comes with a lot of perks like the liberating feeling of waking up on your own terms, doing anything in the house according to your own timings, and asking no one before making a decision. Although complete privacy and the freedom to eat in your bed might sound fun, but living alone comes with a lot of other disadvantages. Studies have shown a relationship between living alone and some common mental disorders.
According to Statista, in 2019, approximately 36.48 million people were living in single-person households in the United States. A few decades back, the concept of staying alone was restricted to being a forced situation. But the current trends suggest that it has become a choice. However, this preference for a way of living has many psychological effects on our minds.
These are some of the immediate effects of such a lifestyle.
- No human contact and social isolation
When you are living on your own, you begin to like your own company, and that makes it easier for you to stay indoors rather than being with friends outside. You become anti-social and lose human connection.
When you are alone and have no one to talk to, the only resort for entertainment becomes your mobile phone. Spending too much time on social media can influence your mind in a negative way as it keeps reminding you of all the things that you couldn’t achieve, giving you a lot of time and material to think about.
- Boredom
Having only your own company is good for a while, but after a certain point in time, you don’t want to come back to an empty home. You would want to have a conversation about how your day was, or you would want some company during your meals. Pets could help you for a while in tough times, but the human touch is irreplaceable.
- Poor health habits
With no necessity to follow a schedule, eating and sleeping habits take a back seat in your priority list. Most of the time, one might not feel like cooking a meal for one, so junk food becomes a convenient choice. Sleep also has no fixed schedule as you can keep the television and lights on till however long as you want as you won’t be disturbing anyone but yourself. Also, motivation for physical activity becomes very difficult.
These habits have a burdensome impact on your mental health, and researchers have indicated that these could lead to the following mental health issues.
When you do not have anybody to talk to or share your feelings, a sulking feeling overpowers you. An empty house makes you feel empty from inside as well. Social isolation may also lead to negative suicidal thoughts if not treated on time.
- Depression
Accumulation of thoughts of loneliness may lead to a depressed state of mind where it becomes difficult to find happiness in your life. This feeling of sadness and grief aggravates if there are other added problems in life.
The feeling of being nervous or worried about any situation may not be dependent on being alone. But social isolation does provoke anxiety. It worsens the situation making the person unhappy and anxious.
In all of the above situations, one must seek therapy or talk to friends or family for help. Mental health should be handled with seriousness right from identifying its primary stages. Especially if you are living alone, make efforts to keep the human connection alive in your life.
