Loneliness Can Break Your Heart

(by Jody, Mental Health Matters)

We all need human contact. Human beings are social creatures by nature and although isolation is a comfort for many, human communication is vital to survival. Isolation, in many cases, leads to a deep sense of loneliness which is such an overwhelming feeling.

You feel like you have no one and nothing, and will do almost anything not to have to feel it. It is like you are drowning in a lake with people in sight but no one close enough to throw you a line.  That is the worst kind of loneliness.

Feeling like this is not only emotionally devastating but research is showing that loneliness and social isolation can impact a person’s health, causing problems ranging from high blood pressure and obesity to heart disease and stroke,  much the same as anxiety and depression. Some researchers have indicated the increased rate of illness as high as 30%.

It could be because people who feel alone are generally isolated and tend to take poorer care of themselves. They have worse diets, generally not enough sleep or exercise and are more prone to not sticking to their medication routine or doctor’s appointments.

After all, when you are alone, you are reliant on your own motivation, and let’s be honest, when you are feeling that low, self-motivation is a near impossibility. Top that off with the depression or anxiety or whatever other mental health issue you are dealing with and the cumulative of those factors could drive up blood pressure which could in turn lead to heart issues.

Loneliness is an independent condition, even though one condition may affect the other. So for example it you were treated for depression or anxiety, the symptoms of those may dissipate but that does not mean the loneliness does.

There have been studies on the biological effects of loneliness, particularly on the stress hormone cortisol, as well as the link tied to hardening of the arteries which also leads to high blood pressure and increases risk of heart disease and stroke.  Researchers define loneliness as the gap between a person's desired and actual social relationships  and chronic loneliness can wreak havoc on your blood vessels and heart by undermining regulation of the circulatory system so the heart works harder and the blood vessels become more subject to damage.

Though they may not be aware of it, lonely people tend to perceive social interactions as more negative and threatening than others do, leaving our brains on constant alert for social threats. This persistent state of stress affects the cardiovascular system. Studies have found that people who were less socially connected had higher blood pressure as well as higher levels of inflammation markers in their blood, while others suggested that the risk of solitude is comparable to that posed by high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even smoking.

Loneliness and isolation also appear to take a toll on a person’s lifespan, with some research suggesting that the increased risk for heart attack, angina or death by heart disease is 30%, and the increased risk for stroke by 32%, for both men and women.

So as much as your illness is telling you to isolate and feeding into your feelings of loneliness, try and fight it the best you can. Try to allow yourself a small support group, be it with friends or family or even in the online world. Sometimes the company of a distant stranger is welcome; non-judgmental support from people who may be struggling with loneliness can be as well. Not only is it important for our mental health, but as studies may be proving… loneliness can literally break your heart.

Being alone can break your heart——literally.


- Jody (Jody's Blog)

Read all of Jody's Columnist Posts

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Jody

Guest Blogger
Writer
Survivor, Warrior, Conqueror

Visit Jody's website at

Jodyb2016 Wordpress

  

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly and Jody

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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The Bomb In The Brain

I found this study done on Adverse Childhood Experiences based upon Childhood Abuse. There is a ton of information in this presentation but it really shows the affects of child abuse on the person as they grow older.

To find out what your Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) score is, go to the following link: www.acestudy.org/calcuator

According to the website of this information, www.acestudy.org , an ACE is described below.

Please note that the above links are no longer valid.  For detailed information on the study, go to http://mindbodythoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/adverse-childhood-experiences-ace-study.htmll

Growing up experiencing any of the following conditions in the household prior to age 18:
-Recurrent physical abuse
-Recurrent emotional abuse
-Contact sexual abuse
-An alcohol and/or drug abuser in the household
-An incarcerated household member
-Someone who is chronically depressed,mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
-Mother is treated violently
-One or no parents
-Emotional or physical neglect

The ACE Study used a simple scoring method to determine the extent of each study participant's exposure to childhood trauma. Exposure to one category (not incident) of ACE, qualifies as one point. When the points are added up, the ACE Score is achieved. An ACE Score of 0 (zero) would mean that the person reported no exposure to any of the categories of trauma listed as ACEs above. An ACE Score of 9 would mean that the person reported exposure to all of the categories of trauma listed above. The ACE Score is referred to throughout all of the peer-reviewed publications about the ACE Study findings.

Here are some major points highlighted in the presentation that I found of great interest on this topic.

1) Two thirds of girls and one third of boys have been sexually abused.

2) Two thirds of British mothers said they hit they routinely hit their child in the first year of life.

3) Of participants struggling with obesity, 66% reported 1 or more types of abuse.

4) Physical and emotional abuse were most strongly associated with obesity.

5) People with more than a 5 ACE score were 7 to 10 times more likely to have problems with illicit drug use.

6) People with a score of 4 or higher, 16.1% became alcoholics as adults.

7) Adverse child experiences increased the attempted suicide rate two to five times.

8) Adverse child experiences showed a strong relationship to the presence of adult diseases including ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures and liver disease.

9) Likelihood of becoming an adult smoker having a score of 4 or greater was 12 to 16%.

10) Chronic Depression accounted for 58% of women and 35% of men with a score of 4 or higher.

11) After 50 years from the time of the adverse childhood experience, more than 97% with a score of 4 or higher used antidepressant medications.

12) The more that people have experienced adverse childhood experiences, the more prevalent it is that they have unexplained symptoms when visiting the doctor that cause them pain and discomfort.

13) For a score of 4 or higher, 34% had impaired childhood memory issues.

14) The greater the number of childhood adverse experiences, the higher the absenteeism on the job, the more serious financial problems that exist and the greater the job problems for that individual.

15) The greater the number of childhood adverse experiences, the higher numbers of teens having sexual intercourse by the age of 15, the higher the number of teen pregnancy and teens becoming parents.

16) Having more than 50 sexual partners in your life time (sexual promiscuity) is greater with the increased childhood adverse experiences.

17) For those with a score of 4 or higher, COPD and breathing difficulties are found in 17.5%.

18) The greater the number of adverse conditions, the lower the life expectancy and by a very significant amount. About 20 years gets shaved off of the life expectancy of those with severe child abuse. It is not inevitable and you can do things about it but if you don't, than it is chilling what happens.

19) Exposure to physical abuse, sexual abuse and intimate partner violence in childhood were 3.5 times more likely in women to report victimization and men to be 3.8 times more likely to report intimate partner violence perpetration.

20) Child abuse by relationship to the victim is mostly by the parent (78%). Unknown abusers account for 3.9%, doctors and professionals at 1.1%, and relatives at 6.5%. Clearly, of the people in this study, the parents who are known to the children are the biggest perpetrators. Most child abuse victims know their abusers.

Much of this information is not surprising to me for I have lived through it and know it all too well. Some of the results were more dramatic than I realized but they make perfect sense to me.

Often people think that the unknown sex offender or child abuser living somewhere down the street is the biggest threat and time and time again, I continue to tell people, it is not so! Yes, they do abuse children and they should be watched closely. The bigger problem though is that most child abuse victims no the people abusing them and in this study, 78% of the abusers were parents.

All too often, we fail to open up to what is really going on in our society and until we remove the log from our eyes, child abuse is going to continue. Too much in our society is set up to give protection to those who do this. From churches offering forgiveness hoping the abuser will sin no more to the laws of our land favoring the abuser over the victim.

Please take a moment and view the presentation on YouTube that I have posted below. You will see first hand the stats I was trying to highlight in this blog post. The details are more chilling but again, we as a society need to wake up and say no more! We need to say, no child is going to be abused. Unfortunately we focus on everything else rather than what truly matters and so our children continue to be less than human in the eyes of our society.

How much longer can we continue to hide from the effects of childhood abuse and trauma?


Presentation Video on Youtube: The Bomb In The Brain, Part 1