Solitary TV dinners for one, quiet hours spent with a book in the bath, sleeping solo or simply roaming around a desperately silent house. If you have a busy family life and a thriving social circle, it's likely this alone time is much-needed bliss. But for the millions of people in the UK who are suffering from loneliness, solitude is a frequent source of misery that can be crippling. In fact, lack of social connection can be seriously bad for our health - and equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. So isn't it time we tackled the problem of loneliness?
The loneliness epidemic
As a nation, we are getting lonelier - the number of over 50s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2026, a rise of 49% in 10 years. With longer, darker nights and shorter, colder days, feelings of isolation can increase around this time of year - especially with Christmas around the corner, when the social connection seems to be at the forefront of everyone's minds. But what can cause loneliness in the first place?
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2022 de Woman & Home UK.
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