The Major Loneliness Epidemic That’s Affecting Many New Yorkers

There's a nationwide loneliness epidemic and it is having some crippling affects on many in and around Upstate New York.

In January the US Surgeon General wrote about the loneliness epidemic that our country is currently facing and how it is also affecting him. For many of us that is due to isolation. There are many factors for that isolation, but the biggest is still the fallout from dealing with the COVID pandemic. Many are still operating how they were for the years we endured that.

Other factors that are contributing to this epidemic are social media and the fact that you don't need to go out in public to interact with people. You can simple message or text them, rather than meet in person to have a conversation. However, talking to your device isn't same as human contact.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says that this feeling of being isolated can have devastating effects on our mental health. He said that he never thought about how profound an issue this really is until he started traveling around and realizing how many people were feeling the sense of loneliness.

I started traveling the country, I started hearing this everywhere I went, students telling me they were on campus with thousands of others, but yet nobody knew them. Parents were saying this. CEOs were saying this.

 

He says that many of us have isolated ourselves. Whether that is work or job related or other factors, we need personal relationships. He said that loneliness isn't a disease, but instead a overwhelming feeling we get when the needs in our lives are greater than what we currently have met.

Make sure you check in on your friends and family. A simple "How are you today?" could go a very long way.