Lonely: Learning to Live with SolitudeA brave and revealing examination of an overlooked affliction that affects one in four Canadians. Despite having a demanding job, good friends, and a supportive family, Emily White spent many of her nights and weekends alone at home, trying to understand why she felt so disconnected from everyone. To keep up the façade of an active social life and hide the painful truth, that she was suffering from severe loneliness, the successful young lawyer often lied to those around her — and to herself. In this insightful, soul-baring, and illuminating memoir, White chronicles her battle to understand and overcome this debilitating condition, and contends that chronic loneliness deserves the same attention as other mental difficulties, such as depression. "Right now, loneliness is something few people are willing to admit to," she writes. "There's no need for this silence, no need for the shame and self-blame it creates." By investigating the science of loneliness, challenging its stigma, encouraging other lonely people to talk about their struggles, and defining one person's experience, Lonely redefines how we look at loneliness and helps those afflicted see and understand their mood in an entirely new light, ultimately providing solace and hope. It is a moving, compassionate, and important book about a topic that is affecting more among us each day. |
Contents
Two TRUTH Struggling with popular notions of | 37 |
Three THE LONG HAUL Recognizing chronic | 71 |
Four HEART AND SOUL How loneliness weaves | 101 |
Five PARADOX Loneliness and the mystery of | 133 |
Six HANDLES Thinking about a state that | 165 |
Nine PROMISES PROMISES Public and | 271 |
Ten THE GOODBYE LOOK Listing luck and | 299 |
Epilogue LONELY | 327 |
Acknowledgments | 333 |
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Common terms and phrases
able actually aloneness antibody anxiety asked avoidant personality disorder become began behavior Cacioppo chronic loneliness clonazepam close cognitive shifts companionship conversation cortisol Craigslist culture Danielle depression describe disorder divorce ecopsychology emerged emotional experience Facebook fact feel lonely felt friends genetic Genevieve going hard Hawkley idea immune system interaction Internet isolation John Cacioppo John Prine knew lack Laura less liness lives loneliness research lonely and nonlonely lonely person looking means meant menopause mother ness networks never notes notion percent problem with loneliness psychologist question quirkyalones realized reason relationships response says seemed self-help sense of connection simply situation social networks social skills someone sort sound started stigma stress struggling talk tell tend there's things thought tion told Toronto trait trying UCLA Loneliness Scale what's words writing