09/05/2022
Let’s Connect !
Mental Health Awareness Week 9 - 15 May 2022:
This year’s theme being the impact loneliness can have on our mental health and the difference connecting with others can make.
Loneliness can be experienced wherever you are in the world, whether that’s somewhere you find yourself isolated, like many did during the pandemic lockdowns, or ironically, even when you are among huge crowds of people, surrounded by loads of other human beings.
My first personal experience of loneliness was when I moved to London for my first proper job, as a fresh-faced graduate. I moved from the city of Manchester to the city of London, thinking nothing of it, apart from being really excited.
Straight after my move and for what seemed like a lifetime afterwards, I felt like the loneliest person on the planet. I tried to socialise after work, tried to get to know my work colleagues and I went out and about at weekends, but I still felt completely alone. Almost everyone at work was much older than me and commuted into London, few stayed behind after work and fewer still were around at weekends. I found myself wondering if this is what the whole of my adult life was going to be like - living among millions of people, but feeling like I was just on my own all the time.
What kept me going were the regular phone calls I had with family, the occasional visits I had from friends coming to London for a weekend, as well as spending time with the couple of friends I knew who’d also moved to London at the same time as me.
Despite the huge expansion of internet enabled communications since then, people can still find themselves feeling lonely. If you know someone who might be feeling this way, please just give them a quick call, maybe invite them out, or just have a chat with them and see how they’re doing. The impact you’ll have will be immeasurable.
Remember: Awareness without action is just awareness. You have to act for your awareness to mean anything.
