#Loneliness

[support]

Everything okay?

If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone. There are many support services that are here to help. For 24/7 peer support and other resources, message KokoBot on Tumblr.

If you are in the United States, please try:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or dial 988 or (en Español)

The Trevor Project (LGBT crisis intervention) or dial 1-866-488-7386

Trans Lifeline or dial 1-877-565-8860 (en Español)

The National Domestic Violence Hotline or 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Rape Abuse & Incest National Network or 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

S.A.F.E. Alternatives for Stopping Self Abuse or 1–800-DONT-CUT (366–8288)

National Eating Disorders Association

If you are outside the United States, visit IASP to find resources for your country.

For more resources, please visit our Counseling & Prevention Resources page for a list of services that may be able to help.

[feral-ballad]

Zehra Naqvi, from The Knot of My Tongue: Poems and Prose; “Beneath the dome”

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

The Company of Strangers (Cynthia Scott, 1990)

[notasadness]

[stutterhug]

A Great Eye

[metamorphesque]

Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. 

Carl Jung, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones. 

Franz Kafka, “Letters to Milena”

[lostdeepindarkthoughts]

[identitty-dickruption]

four things that are true at the same time:

once you control for things like ethnicity and socio-economic status, “male loneliness” is not statistically more likely than “female loneliness”. in fact, white women are more likely to be lonely than white men — but this is not statistically significant in all studies. particularly note that the loneliness is worst amongst the disabled, regardless of gender

the loneliness felt by black men and queer men (and other men within minority groups) is likely of a different nature than the loneliness felt by other groups, and so probably requires different solutions

we are all lonely at the moment at higher rates than ever before, regardless of identity, and creating conflict about who is loneliest doesn’t help that. in fact, I’d wager that these kinds of debates probably make it worse

if you want people to stop feeling so lonely, you need to work on making them feel less alienated from the world. and a lot of us are doing an awful job at that at the moment

[aqua-regia009]

Jakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855-1924)

[zanephillips]

Pet Shop Boys - Loneliness (2024)

[flowerytale]

Safia Elhillo, from Alone, Home Is Not a Country

[feral-ballad]

Zehra Naqvi, from The Knot of My Tongue: Poems and Prose; “A poem for the sixteen-year-old reading in the dark”

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Éric Rohmer, 1984)

[vroomvroomwee]

Does anyone else feel lonesome?

Not lonely. Not alone. Just... lonesome. Like you don't feel connected to anyone. Like you never feel that you will find anyone that understands you, that will see you truly, let alone someone who will even like you. You see friends everywhere, but you don't see yourself in their place, like that is not for you, like you're not made for that and that's not made for you. You see people having fun and laughing and dancing and getting drunk and falling in love and you just... don't feel that for yourself. Like you're not supposed to have that, like you can't because it's not for you and you're not for it.

Like you're supposed to be seeing all these beautiful things in the world but not experience them yourself. Like you want to experience so much, experience everything, but be overwhelmed by it so you don't do any of it.

Like you want to be everywhere and do everything, but you don't belong anywhere and can't do anything. Like you're not supposed to be here. Not in a self-deprecating way but in an incongruous way. You want to live you want to be alive, but you feel you're not supposed to be. Not here at least, not like this. Just a presence in the world, not an active member of it. Even your body doesn't feel like home, your face isn't a face you recognise, like you're not supposed to have either. Like you're just supposed to be.

Like you're supposed to observe, but not experience.

[retrocausality]

They should invent a human interaction that doesn't feel like chalkboard scraping.

[mindblowingscience]

Being lonely isn't just associated with physical and mental health issues during waking hours. New research by a team of US scientists links our sense of loneliness to our nightmares, affecting us even while we're fast asleep. The researchers found bad dreams can increase in frequency and intensity when people are lonely, potentially as a result of the added stress caused by the lack of strong social bonds.

Continue Reading.