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The Mental Health Foundation announces ‘loneliness’ as this year’s theme, 9th-15th May.
Mental Health Awareness week aims to raise awareness of the impact of loneliness on our mental wellbeing and the practical steps we can take to address it. Reducing loneliness is a major step towards a mentally healthy society.
‘’Loneliness is affecting more and more of us in the UK and has had a huge impact on our physical and mental health during the pandemic. That is why we have chosen it as our theme for Mental Health Awareness Week 2022”, said Mark Rowland, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation.
With loneliness comes stress, anxiety and depression. These three are classed as neurotic mental illnesses, the most common mental illness within the UK, affecting 1 in every four people.
What is loneliness?
Loneliness is a subjective feeling about the gap between a person’s desired levels and their actual level of social contact. It refers to the perceived quality of the person’s relationships. Loneliness is never desired and lessening these feelings can take a long time.
Loneliness affects millions of people in the UK every year and is a key driver of poor mental health. The Foundation’s Mental Health in the Pandemic research has found that loneliness has been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. The Foundation has been tracking loneliness levels in the UK during the pandemic and found the experience has been much higher with devastating impact.
Loneliness has been an important factor contributing to higher levels of distress, resulting from people’s sense of isolation and reduced ability to connect with others. Further polling also found that loneliness was one of the leading issues that the public felt needed to be addressed. Loneliness can also be attributed to internal factors such as low self-esteem.
Main influencing factors of loneliness
When we think about loneliness, we often relate this to the older generation. Contributing factors to loneliness include situational variables such as physical isolation, moving to a new location, relationship breakdown and changing schools for children. The death of someone significant in a person’s life can also lead to feelings of loneliness. Working from home and not having too much communication and interaction can see many of us experiencing loneliness.
More ideas and solutions for you to choose the ones that work for you
Take it slow
If you’ve felt lonely for a long time, even if you already know lots of people, it can be terrifying to think about trying to meet new people or opening up to people for the first time. But you don’t need to rush into anything.
Try peer support
There are many different types of peer support service, which provide people with a space to use their own experiences to help and support each other, including experiences of loneliness and related mental health problems.
Make new connections
If you are feeling lonely because of a lack of satisfying social contact in your life, you could try to meet more, or new different people.
✔Look at what classes, activities and groups are available to join based on your hobbies or interests. This could include online groups if you can’t attend things in person.
✔If you are able to, volunteering is a good way of meeting people. Helping others can also really help improve your mental health. It is also a good idea to check that you will receive adequate support from the organisation you are volunteering at.
Try to open up
You might feel that you know plenty of people, but what is actually wrong is that you don’t feel close to them, or they don’t give you the care and attention you need. In this situation it might help to open up about how you feel to friends and family. If you don’t feel comfortable opening up to the people you know, you could try speaking with a therapist or a using a peer support service.
Talking therapies
Talking therapies allow you to explore and understand your feelings of loneliness and can help you develop positive ways of dealing with them. For example, therapy can provide a space for you to discuss the emotional problems that make it hard for you to form satisfying relationships.
✔ Look after yourself: Feeling lonely can be very stressful and can have a big impact on your general wellbeing, which might make it even harder to make positive steps to feeling better. Think about how some of the following are affecting how you feel and whether you can do anything to change them:
- ✔ Try to get enough sleep: Getting too little or too much sleep can have a big impact on how you feel so it’s important to set and stick to set times for going to bed and waking up.
- ✔ Think about your diet: Eating regularly and keeping your blood sugar stable can make a difference to your mood and energy levels so honour your fullness and hunger cues and choose healthier options for snacks.
- ✔ Try to do some physical activity: Exercise can be really helpful for your mental wellbeing, and can improve self-esteem. OneWellness Clubs in Harrogate offers in person and online classes so head over to https://clubs.onewellnessonline.co.uk/taster-sessions/ to book your first class free.
- ✔ Get outside: Spending time in green space can help your wellbeing improve by connecting with nature and taking in what you see, smell, hear and feel.
- ✔ Spend time with animals: Some people find spending time around animals can help with feelings of loneliness, whether through owning a pet or spending time around animals in their natural environment. If it is possible where you live, you could try visiting a local community or city farm – the organisation Social Farms and Gardens has a list of outdoor community projects across the UK, many of which have animals available to the public.
- ✔ Avoid unhealthy habits: Choosing alcohol, drugs, gambling or comfort eating to cope with difficult feelings about yourself can make you feel worse and can prevent you from dealing with underlying problems.
- ✔ Be careful when comparing yourself to others: It can be difficult to stop comparing ourselves to others. We all do it, but it can help to just be aware that things are not always what they seem from the outside. For example, on social media, we very often only see what other people want to share about their lives, and this can make us feel like we are the only ones feeling lonely. It’s important to remind yourself that you don’t know how other people feel when they are alone, or when their social media feeds are turned off.
How OneWellness can help your organisation boost knowledge of mental health awareness
At OneWellness, we deliver a half day accredited training course aimed at organisations wanting to upskill their workforce and best equip to support one another. This course ensures everyone has an awareness and understanding of Mental Health, rather than just ‘Mental Health First Aiders’. It’s the best way to improve your overall workplace culture around the topic and provides a safe space for people to talk openly. This approach ensures that no matter who someone is talking to, that colleague has some skills and awareness to listen and signpost. We also share ways in which individuals can manage their own emotional wellbeing which is key to maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself. We also offer a one hour Introduction to Mental Health webinar ideal for organisations with remote working and provides an insight into what is meant by mental health, how to look after our own mental wellbeing and talk to colleagues we feel may be struggling.
With mental health awareness week landing on Monday, we are reducing the fees of our accredited Mental Health Awareness Course and Introduction to Mental Health webinar for one week only. Supporting the mental wellbeing of yourself and your staff is vital to creating a happier, healthier workplace enabling people to be their authentic selves. Looking after your people is crucial to attract new talent, retain employees and hit your business goals. For further details and to book your organisation in, please email hello@onewellnesscorporate.co.uk