“We’re all lonely together”

– “Heavy” by Birdtalker

There are over 7 billion people on the planet.

65 million of them live in Britain.

And of those 65 million, 9 million identify as lonely.

It’s the newest disease flooding through the world. Loneliness. Not that it’s anything new, but the number of people who are suffering from it is growing yearly, and that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

850,000 have dementia. 2.5 million have been diagnosed with cancer.

But 9 million, 9 million people suffer from loneliness.

And yet, we’re rarely alone.

There are more people on the planet then there has ever been before. We’re packed into cities and towns. Cell phones and other technology give us the ability to be in constant communication with people. But we’re lonely. How are we lonely?

The answer comes in the difference between “alone” and “lonely.”

Alone is defined as there not being anyone around. And lonely, lonely can happen anywhere. It’s being sad because you are without friends or companions. Or, just feeling as though you have no one.

Most of the time, feeling lonely comes in bursts. When you haven’t seen your friends in a while. When your friends are in relationships, and you aren’t. When other people hang out without you. Loneliness becomes a real problem when it persists. When you go weeks feeling isolated from the world. Surrounded by people but not interacting with them, feeling connected to them.

It’s when we experience that sort of excruciating, slowly cutting pain that darkness forms.

10 percent of the United Kingdom is depressed.

Last year 5821 people in the United Kingdom committed suicide.

The darkness is growing. There are more people than ever before. We are more connected than ever before. And we are more lonely than ever before.

“We’re all lonely together”

– “Heavy” by Birdtalker