Loneliness is epidemic, culturally frowned on, and completely curable. Whether the ache is chronic or a seasonal twinge,Loneliness is and has always been a good friend of mine. Painting is and was always my way to diagnose it, treat it... Hoping to heal it.
Absolute Loneliness
This malady occurs when we believe, rightly or wrongly, that there is no one who understands us and no one who wants to. Absolutely lonely people have few personal interactions of any kind. Isolation creates indescribable despair, for which typical self-help advice—"Have a bubble bath! Try aromatherapy!"—is ridiculously inadequate. The only saving grace of this state is that it often hurts enough to motivate people to try the following prescriptions. The kind of loneliness that can be cure by basic human contact. If you're living completely on your own, you must find understanding somewhere, somehow. No matter how scary it is to learn and use social skills, absolute loneliness is scarier. The best method to break out of solitary confinement is to seek to understand others, and help them understand you.
Separation Loneliness
If you force yourself to communicate with people appreciatively and curiously, you'll eventually emerge from absolute loneliness. However, you'll still experience what I call separation loneliness. Traveling, empty nesting, and almost any job will distance you from friends and family. Only since the Industrial Revolution have most people worked in places away from their homes or been left to raise small children without the help of multiple adults, making for an unsupported life. Use separations to remind yourself how wonderful it is that you have people to miss.
Existential Loneliness
The final type of estrangement is a bedrock fact of the human condition: the hollowness we feel when we realize no one can help us face the moments when we are most bereft. No one else can take risks for us, or face our losses on our behalf, or give us self-esteem. No one can spare us from life's slings and arrows, and when death comes, we meet it alone. That is simply the way of things, and after a while, we may see it's not so bad. In fact, existential loneliness, the great burden of human consciousness, is also its great gift—if we give it the right treatment.
One word—art. Seek art from every time and place, in any form, to connect with those who really move you.
Loneliness, far from revealing some defect, is proof that your innate search for connection is intact. So instead of hiding your loneliness, bring it into the light. Honor it. Treat it. Heal it. You'll find that it returns the favor. Despite of I, myself, needing help, I hope I can help someone with my blog.
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