A Look at Growing Chronic Loneliness
There is solitude, something all of us need from time to time, and then there is loneliness. Loneliness is defined by one U.K. charity as being overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling of separateness at a very deep level.1 Someone can experience abject loneliness at any age and with any number of friends, online or otherwise. Sometimes this type of loneliness is temporary, such as when someone loses a spouse or moves to another city. In other cases, it can become chronic. It is the effects of chronic loneliness that have prompted the U.K. to appoint a "loneliness minister" and the U.S. Senate Aging Committee to address social isolation and loneliness.
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has an M.S. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an M.A. in bioethics from Trinity International University. She resides in Dallas and currently works as a freelance science writer and educator.
