The Hidden Value of Social Security Disability Insurance: Why It’s Important During Benefits Enrollment
With decades of experience in the insurance industry and as someone who has experienced a difficult period of isolation, I’m increasingly interested in the relationship between loneliness and health-related disabilities.
Today, America is in the middle of a loneliness epidemic that affects about one-in-two adults. Think of it. That’s almost every other person around us. Being cut off from friends, loved ones, or our communities is more than a bad feeling. It is associated with an increased risk of stroke, dementia, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The U.S. U.S. Surgeon General’s Office reports that the health effects of loneliness and isolation are similar to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Loneliness is a complex emotional mix of sadness, anxiety, fear, and heartache. On that, I would agree. After my husband died over a decade ago, I have lived alone while continuing to work and spend time with family and friends. However, the years of being my husband’s caretaker and the imposed isolation of the pandemic were very difficult. Research shows that the loneliness experienced during the pandemic can still be prevalent and pervasive.
Loneliness is more than just isolation – it’s the experience of craving more social interaction than you currently have, and no one is immune. “Loneliness exists on a continuum, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. “Most people experience loneliness at some point in their lives, and labeling people as lonely can be stigmatizing.”
I can tell you personally that loneliness is connected to fear and anxiety. I can be sitting in my living room, quietly reading, and my heart will pound, and a feeling of anxiety takes hold. Recognizing the symptoms, calling a friend, walking, and trusting good counseling help.
Still, there is no one way to experience loneliness. It can be the worry of not finding your place in the world. It’s the heavy weight of grief after losing a person, a place, a community. It’s the anxiety when you remember how long it’s been since you saw your best friend. It’s a sense of foreignness despite being surrounded by familiar faces.
Here’s where things get interesting: the steps to overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation are changing. Ending the loneliness epidemic won’t happen entirely by recreating the kind of social and workplace communities we knew before the pandemic. There are signs that a mass evolution is underway. “Take the smartphone, a device that gets a lot of blame for our lack of physical connection and that has led to other, but no less meaningful, forms of togetherness,” says Eric Kleinenberg, at New York University. “The internet is the main way people meet their spouses these days. I think about cases of people with rare diseases who can share information, get better care, and feel connected because the internet allows them to do so. I think about trans kids, who are at risk of distress because they feel so rejected and alone in some families and are now able to talk to people like them — to get messages that affirm them.”
The need for physical togetherness won’t go away. Connecting with others, staying active, and seeking professional counseling are still effective and valuable. But, the personal connections we knew in the recent past at work, with our friends and families, are diffusing and shifting. We’ll find ourselves connecting more on FaceTime, Zoom, and Instagram. They may appear more fragmented, but they’ll help reduce loneliness by exposing us to larger groups of like-minded people and broader world experiences we couldn’t imagine just five years ago.
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