How many suicides, mass shootings, new drug/alcohol addictions and other anti-social behavior stem from people feeling isolated, disconnected and many horribly different from their peers? How much human misery results from these feelings of detachment? You only have to look at the result of prisoners placed in solitary confinement to understand how damaging, often permanently, social isolation can be. The United States is one of the few nations in the world to embrace criminal solitary confinement on such a mass scale (from SuperMax prisons to administrative segregation)
Smithsonianmag.com (2/19/14) explains: “Exact numbers are hard to come by, but based on a wide swath of censuses, it’s estimated that between 80,000 and 81,000 prisoners are in some form of solitary confinement nationwide. In contrast to stereotypes of isolated prisoners as the most dangerous criminals, [Craig Haney, a psychologist at UC Santa Cruz who’s spent the last few decades studying the mental effects of the prison system] estimates that a third of isolated prisoners are mentally ill, and a disproportionate number are minorities, partly because alleged gang membership is grounds for placing a prisoner in solitary indefinitely.
“The physical details of an isolated prisoner’s daily experience are worth examining. ‘Prisoners live in their cells, 80 square feet on average—a bit bigger than a king-sized bed. In this environment, you sleep, you eat, you defecate, you live all of your life,’ Haney said. Most prisoners spent at least 23 hours per day in this environment, devoid of stimuli (some are allowed in a yard or indoor area for an hour or less daily), and are denied physical contact on visits from friends and family, so they may go years or decades without touching another human, apart from when they’re placed in physical restraints by guards.
“This sort of existence takes a clear toll on prisoners, according to surveys and interviews Haney and colleagues have conducted with about 500 of those in isolation from four different states. Their work indicates that most of these prisoners suffer from severe psychological stress that begins when they’re put in isolation and doesn’t subside over time.
“A majority of those surveyed experienced symptoms such as dizziness, heart palpitations, chronic depression, while 41 percent reported hallucinations, and 27 percent had suicidal thoughts—all levels significantly higher than those of the overall prison populations. [An unrelated study] found that isolated inmates are seven times more likely to hurt or kill themselves than inmates at large.
“These effects, Haney says, don’t only show how isolation harms inmates—they tell us that it achieves the opposite of the supposed goal of rehabilitating them for re-entry into society. ‘We are all social beings, and people who are in environments that deny the opportunity to interact in meaningful ways with others begin to lose a sense of self, of their own identity,’ he said. ‘They begin to withdraw from the little amount of social contact that they are allowed to have, because social stimulation, over time, becomes anxiety-arousing.’” But the extreme version of isolation in prisons is much more obvious than the everyday experience of hundreds of millions of people in day-to-day life.
There’s another word for in everyday society: loneliness. We see it everywhere. Teens who are different and have trouble socializing. Elderly living alone, spouses and friends died off, abandoned by family members who may live very far away. Or just too busy to spend physical time with family. We see a lack of human connectivity from disemboweled electronic communications with social media, texting and emails… no eye contact, no seeing body language, missing subtle cues that fall by the wayside in digital communications. People often do not leave their homes to go to the movies, shop, dine out or attend sporting events. They have massive access to home media and delivery services.
The United Kingdom has figured out that loneliness is one of the biggest issues in the British Isles. The January 26 Los Angeles Times provides the details: “British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the creation of a new ministerial portfolio in her Cabinet: combating loneliness… With more than 9 million British adults reportedly experiencing chronic loneliness — and a stack of studies documenting the corrosive health effects of such social isolation — May said it was time that a high-level government official coordinate a ‘first-ever strategy’ to address the scourge.
“‘For far too many people, loneliness is the sad reality of modern life,’ May said in launching the government effort. ‘I want to confront this challenge for our society and for all of us to take action to address the loneliness endured by the elderly… and by those who have lost loved ones — people who have no one to talk to or share their thoughts and experiences with.’
“The government campaign makes the United Kingdom a pioneer in tackling a public health challenge that has emerged in an age of transient families, growing social diversity and crumbling political consensus. The Campaign to End Loneliness, a British philanthropy, says more than half of Britons older than 75 live alone. And about half a million older Britons can go a week without seeing or speaking to anyone.”
Mirroring what we see in U.S. prisons, the impact of loneliness in society is deeply pernicious, and this hardly a secret to the American psychological and medical community: “In 2016, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that Americans are ‘facing an epidemic of loneliness and social isolation.’ A long-running survey called the Health and Retirement Study suggests that about 28% of older Americans feel chronically lonely.
“The result of all this loneliness goes beyond widespread emotional distress. Research has shown that people who routinely feel lonely or cut off from friends and family are more likely to suffer high blood pressure, develop heart disease and be diagnosed with dementia. UCLA researchers have found that lonely people suffer higher levels of chronic inflammation, making them more vulnerable to a wide range of health conditions.
“Compared with people who have strong social connections, those who acknowledge chronic feelings of loneliness are more likely to see their function decline as they age, and are 50% more likely to die prematurely...
“As a risk factor for early mortality, loneliness’s impact is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and greater than that of obesity, according to a by experts from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Unsurprisingly, social isolation greatly increases the risk for depression and the poor self-care that typically accompanies it — a vicious cycle that makes loneliness a root cause of all manner of illness. Psychologists have identified another vicious cycle: Lonely people experience brain changes that make it more difficult to form new social connections. For instance, they’re more likely to view others’ faces as threatening, making it harder for them to bond with others.
“University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo, who has studied loneliness and its effects for decades, said the British initiative ‘constitutes an important recognition for the significance of loneliness in people’s life.’” LA Times. For those who are busy with their lives, too busy to deal with family members suffering in isolation, concerned with higher taxes if we were too address this often cruel aspect of life, I simply ask you to think again. Spend some time with someone who craves contact but cannot get it. Care. And let those who can make a difference know that this is a priority for us all. Imagine what it is like when someone cannot connect with anyone else, either because they forgot how or never learned or simply do not have the opportunity.
I’m Peter Dekom, and I am leaving in a few minutes to visit a 92-year-old aunt.
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