What loneliness does to your brain

Myke

Loneliness can increment your hazard of heart infection by 29% and stroke by 32% which is gigantic numbers and isn't something to disregard. We're progressing to conversation around how loneliness influences your brain and body the thing with loneliness is that it's very complicated once you are missing in important social associations, your body is cognizant of the truth that you're alone so it begins to turn up the dial on your push reaction.

  Your thoughtful anxious framework begins to go on tall caution so it's normal merely might feel more neurotic, it's common simply might feel more suspicious of individuals and not feel as open to interfacing with other people and it turns down the dial in certain parts of your brain where you are feeling adore, association and relationship at that point you hit into this horrendous cycle and that's what researchers allude to as the Conundrum of forlornness/Paradox of loneliness. Since forlornness

 drives you to withdraw and makes it harder for you to need that important interaction that would resolve this feeling. 

  There's a chain reaction that happens with the hormones in your body, first thing is your cortisol levels go into complete disarray, it's what peaks when you drink coffee, it's also what what wakes you up in the morning and that kind of buzzy feeling but it's also what elevates when you get stressed your dopamine increases. This is a feel-good hormone but it really drives you towards quick rewards so that may be drinking, gambling and going out without thinking about the consequences for yourself.

  You'll also see a decrease in serotonin oxytocin and your natural opioid levels when you speak to a friend or you eat a meal that is just so delicious, you'll get these natural rushes of things which will be natural pain relievers. Those things will all decrease when you're feeling lonely you start to see this cascading effect on your physical health so the short-term effects are an increase in anxiety, an increase in stress so you may retreat just generally, feel more tired generally, feel less of an Impulse to go out and also feel this increased anxiety and paranoia in a lonely body. The longer term effects are you're more likely to be sick more often, more likely to be susceptible to the flu, covid, a slight cough that's going around in your office that's also linked to pain in your body so chronic pain, back pain or just generally feeling run down most of the time. Your sleep quality is not very good so you may sleep exactly the same amount of hours but you'll wake up and you're quite tired, you're slightly uneasy.

  Loneliness impacts your memory that can lead to cognitive decline. It can be a precursor to dementia, increased inflammation caused by loneliness or honestly by anything that directly impacts the heart and heart disease is the number one killer in the US. Loneliness can even affect your life expectancy it can increase your risk of premature death on a level that's comparable with smoking which is the number one preventable cause of death in the US and around the world. It's hard to believe but there is really strong evidence to suggest that just connecting with people even if it's one small piece of the puzzle will at least shift the needle a little bit towards making you feel better physically as well as emotionally there's actually a lot of research that shows that hearing the voice of someone you care about has a direct impact on your brain and on your  nervous system but there are other things like art. 

  Art therapy has really grown in recent years and it's something that in some rehabilitation centers, art therapy is really integral. There's a lot of research that just seeing nature is really good for you, so going outside, speaking to people, picking up the phone, exercising, speaking to strangers.

  Ultimately, what you're really looking for is understanding what makes you happy. You're not looking to be surrounded by people and you're not looking to engage in a social scene just to be there what you're looking for is to connect with people on a level that really really deeply connects with you and that will have a really tangible physical effect act on you.

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