According to a study I heard about today on the radio, more than a third of adults are lonely. Interestingly, people in their forties suffered the highest levels, according to a study published in the latest Journal of Clinical Nursing.
The study, by a team of UK and Australian researchers, showed that 35 per cent of the 1,289 people who took part in 30-minute telephone interviews were lonely. “Understanding what makes people lonely is very important as loneliness can increase the risk of health conditions, such as heart disease and depression, and other problems such as domestic violence” says Professor William Lauder from the University of Dundee, Scotland, who spent two years working in Australia.
You might think that the older you get the more lonely you get, but it’s not true. “One of the most interesting findings of this study is that it challenges the belief that retirement is linked to diminished social contacts and that people get lonelier as they get older,” said the doctor.
My guess is that people in their 40’s who are working so hard to support their families, and focusing all their free time on taking their kids to various programs, have little time for community building activities. Older folks have broader horizons and take time widening their circle of contact.
But, to me, the most interesting part of the research was the finding that, “People with strong religious beliefs were far less likely to be lonely.”
Hmmm… Makes you wonder… If you could find a way of combining family time, community time, and expression of religious beliefs…. You’d come to shul! (Maybe that’s why so many feel so good when they do.)
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I keep coming back to this post. Below states " Understanding what makes people lonely is very important as loneliness can increase the risk of health conditions, such as heart disease and depression, and other problems such as domestic violence” says Professor William Lauder from the University of Dundee, Scotland, who spent two years working in Australia."
I know that to be true. But I do not believe that people with strong religious beliefs are less likely to be lonely. The Jewish religion is one steeped in tradition of family and friends. If you are left without either it is one of the most difficult religions to practice. To cone to synagogue and look around at all of the people who are family and friends and not to be part of that is more difficult than to stop coming.
If you are one of those people who, after you say " Good Shabbos" or "Good Yuntiff" to goes home to isolation, you simply stop coming to synagogue. You do not believe any less in your religion, just in your ability to join in the practice of it. But the belief is as strong as it ever was. But no less lonely
Your health suffers, and the silence is deafening.
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