Mental Health Awareness Week - Loneliness
It is mental health awareness week this week and whilst I feel mental health should be prioritised daily this can allow creating new conversations and awareness around mental health and wellbeing. This year the chosen theme is loneliness which is a great theme as no one really talks about this. Being lonely is not the same as being alone. You can be in a room full of people and still feel lonely. To be alone means to be physically separated from others, literally on your own. However, with loneliness, you feel emotionally alone and emotionally separate. There are many different reasons we may experience feelings of loneliness, new job, bereavement, relationship breakdown, new parent, situations at work or school, the result is usually the same feeling of sadness, detachment, and isolation from others with the idea that no one understands. Feelings of loneliness can be your brain's response that you need to connect with others, especially like-minded people, even though this ma