The Power of Loneliness

So a friend of mine forwarded an interesting article (see below) to me about loneliness that of course struck a nerve. Much like the author I moved to Portland about 7 years ago, mainly to go to grad school, but also to get the hell out of LA. Unlike the author I have family and few friends and had more then enough acquaintances well before I moved. The first few months were great mostly because I was also working out 2 hours a day and dropping about 50 pounds as a whole. But I had problems connecting to people, so even when surrounded by friends, family and great people I wouldn't really socialize, or mainly minimized my real socializing. Now jump forward about a year and I had finally landed a job and was trying to do grad school full time. My exercise regime slowly was going into the toilet and I was starting to bing eat to deal with the stress. Worst of all I had basically stopped socializing as I didn't have the time for it. Now fast forward 2 years when work ended for me, I had basically dug a big hole for loneliness for myself. On the good side I had pushed myself back into grad school full time to deal with the extra time I had since I wasn't working. But to be honest I needed the work time as it was main source of interaction. So for about a year I kind of unlearned how to socialize. I also didn't want to sad sack and fill my family and friends with my overall depression. On the good side I was exercising regularly again. But threw it all I was still bing eating to deal with the stress of it all. Today, I'm no longer in Portland and away from that world. I still feel lonely at times, but I'm actually less stressed. But my years of bing eating starting to play havoc with health. Loneliness in my case has led me to be unhealthy in my daily diet and as such I am starting to deal with the health risks that went along with it. ugh. OK, I'm done sharing. Loneliness Is Deadly Social isolation kills more people than obesity does—and it’s just as stigmatized. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/08/dangers_of_loneliness_social_isolation_is_deadlier_than_obesity.html