Instead, we found two different mechanisms by which loneliness gets under the skin. The possibility that the adverse health effects of loneliness can be confronted may help ease the concerns of social scientists worried that cultural changes are creating more lonely people. The number of people who live alone is expected to grow to 31 million Americans by 2010, a 40 percent increase since 1980. But loneliness is not just being alone. It involves feelings of isolation, of disconnectedness and of not belonging, each of which can occur when a person is in a crowd or alone.
Lonely people perceive their world as less reinforcing and more threatening.
They may not have a romantic partner or close friends, and they may not identify with or be accepted by valued social groups. In our heart of hearts, we believe that things like stress make you sick, believing makes you well and being lonely may make you sick. If you understand all the parts of how you can go from feeling lonely to getting sick, then you can better figure out ways to overcome these problems. The U. of C. and Ohio State researchers studied 89 young people and 25 older people who scored highest on a standard loneliness test. They were compared with people of the same age and socioeconomic level who were not lonely.