Being Alone And Managing Loneliness

I'm often alone, but I think of it as being with myself rather than by myself. I'm very happy with my own company...

I have experienced loneliness, so I do know what that's like. There's little worse than being lonely in a relationship.

Day6: yes I think frantic diary-filling can be a reaction to bereavement. After two and a half years, I am still trying to keep busy and see other people, although the feeling of panic when I am faced with two or three days on my own has now abated. I think your friend is probably finding her own way through this, and will gradually learn to get used to being alone. Exercise can be very helpful to mental health and losing weight is, for most people, better than sitting around watching Antiques Roadshow and getting lardy. If I feel cut off, I take myself out for a walk, and often meet someone to stop and talk to, which lifts my spirits.

After divorce I was very busy until the children left home. I must say that although I missed their presence and doing Mum things, after a while I learned to like my own company - in fact I relished days when I had to see no one after a very busy and hectic working life. I loved going home and being able to please myself and having no interruptions. I relish a quiet house.

I wasn't lonely as I had friends and family but even today I need space and time to myself. I need solitude and often think of going off on a silent retreat, to see what it would be like! I am curious. (I watched Eat,Pray, Love again the other night. OH was in the other room!) I think I'd cope in a silent environment. For a while.

I am gregarious and enjoy company and making plans but I'd find it too much to have to be with people every day of the week. I need time alone and OH and I have different hobbies which means one or the other of us is out - or at the far end of the garden all day!

I know I am lucky, because I have that balance. I think I would cope if alone though. I have always liked my own company.

The next phase was manically making sure I had something to do every day. I would sit with my diary on Sunday and making sure I had something to do every day of the following week

That is interesting Ginny42. Thank you. One of the group of friends I see throughout the year lost her husband of 47 years last year. She is a fit 72 but we are concerned for her as it seems she dreads being home alone and is never in, making plans to go places and see people every single day. She must be exhausted and we have noticed she has lost weight. She does go to several exercise classes a week though.

I wonder if this is something some people do when they lose their partner - a natural stage of grief perhaps?

I have been on my own for 5 years after divorcing from a very unhappy marriage. I love living on my own, like my own company and am never lonely. I am lucky to live very near my daughters and grandchildren after relocating to another area after living in the same area before then, for the whole of my life.

I have nice acquaintances here rather than real friends but drive back to Wales to stay with very close friends I keep in touch with. I have to say I am happier now than at any other time in my life.

I feel lonely although my H is here. He is academic and reads all the time whilst I need company. (don't know how we've managed for 56 years!) Downsized 2 years ago - lovely house and very convenient but it's too quiet in a Close where neighbours go out to work. Thinking of moving again but at 80 would I be any happier. Could move to Holland where our family lives( I miss the GKs very much) you

I have been with only one partner for the whole of my life, married 45 years and he died 4 years ago. Typically of my generation, I got busy straight away and have remained busy ever since, downsizing etc. One day I realised that I needed to move on, so I decided to sell this hose and buy another in an area that is more suitable for my future needs ie buses, shops and lots of clubs of all sorts

This buying malarky is what has made me lonely at times, when it was supposed to take 3 months but has taken 8 so far. My hobbies are boxed and it was over winter so I didn`t have much to do and that made me think too much and I felt lonely. Normally I just get on with life and am alone but not lonely

My next home will take very many months to turn it into that cosy nest. I am looking forward to being busy again, nice with the radio on and my thoughts. It is not just older people who feel lonely, the loneliest I have ever felt was when I was 23 in a brand new house with a new born on a housing estate, now that was lonely

Sometimes I think I'm lonely, but then I realise I'm really not. I have family who love me, even f they can't be with me all the time. I have been desperately lonely in the past. It's certainly not a thing for older people only.

I think the one thing that shelters us from real loneliness is having someone who needs you.

When my husband of thirty years dumped me for a younger woman I felt suicidal but my anger at him won over the sadness and kept me going. I got a large dog for something to live for and called her a name that means ' Life'.

I have felt lonely for several years even though my OH was here with me, because his illness made many of the normal contacts of daily life very difficult. No-one invites us round for a meal any more; we did not go out for meals as we used to etc...........

So you can be lonely in a way, even with someone in the house.

He is in hospital at the moment and I am getting used to being in the house on my own - I have found that very strange indeed. I keep a radio on; and if I go out and know I will not be back till it is dark, I put the lights on and close the curtains so it feels more welcoming when I return.

Just seen all of your replies and am going to read everyone of them carefully and look for overlapping feelings. I will return! Thank you all so much and please keep going!

www.thesilverline.org.uk/

Is a brilliant organisation for anyone who is lonely.

Doodle it is much, you have all become my family x

annie I know it’s not much but you have many friends on GN

I have lived alone for over 20 years so use to it , but have been very lonely for nearly two years because of things which happened,

I am not widowed but have spent many months with DH away and actually we are both people who like our own company and can manage alone.

I felt more lonely with small children and as soon as they became independent I liked having time for myself

I made a very good friend 30 years ago. We were like sisters and shared so much fun together and holidays and just talking. I've lost her to dementia and I thought I would never get over it but slowly other friends have become closer, probably because I had more time for them. I am close to the 'other' grandma of 2GDs.

It is important to move onwards and not dwell on the past. Of course my DH is still my main contact and I realise that wihout him I would feel terribly lost.

At first when I divorced I was too stressed to think of anything remotely social. Then I went through a phase of going out, but would stay only for an hour or so and then make my excuses and leave, heaving a sigh of relief when I was home and closed the door shutting the world out.

The next phase was manically making sure I had something to do every day. I would sit with my diary on Sunday and making sure I had something to do every day of the following week. I called friends, booked tickets, planned a trip, phoned a decorator, planned a bathroom refurb, you name it. Realising that anything which needed doing was down to me was a shock. I gradually worked through the manic 'got to be with people' stage and settled down and although I don't enjoy being alone, I just slowly accepted it.

Being alone at this time in my life was not something I ever planned or wanted, but although I still miss my ex a lot, I'm reasonably calm about spending the rest of my life alone. I still work contracts and stay busy on the upkeep of my home and garden. I would have liked to be married still, but it was not to be and I accept the loneliness which comes with that.

I think the world falls into two groups, those who look to the company of others to make their world work and those that actually need time on their own to function.

Life alone is inherently easier if you fall into the second group. Most couples contain one person in each group.

When the time came my sister and I were relieved that our mother died first, because she was a a people person, and while she had a wide and busy social circle, she would have found time at home alone without company very difficult to cope with, whereas our father was quite content, if he went a day without going out or seeing anyone. He would be busy around house and garden or sitting reading. My parents were happlily married and he never ceased to miss his wife's company, but he could manage on his own.

I was widowed two and a half years ago, and I am sometimes lonely. I am sociable and busy and spend a lot of time out and doing things or seeing people, but there's still a lot of time - more than I would wish - when I am alone; sometimes this is OK but other times I feel lonely. As widowed people say, "I have plenty of people to do things with, but no one to do nothing with."

I think our generation may be the last in which it's quite normal to have been with one partner, as I had, for 50 years. We married young, and usually for life. Most younger people today spend some years as young, single adults, and may have a succession of serious relationships, or more than one marriage, perhaps with gaps in between, so being single is part of adult life for them. When my husband died, I had never lived on my own, never done a supermarket shop just for myself, never been in sole charge of a house, a car, a garden, etc, never had to come home in the evening to a dark and empty house, never slept alone for more than a few days at a time, never gone out without someone having a general idea of where I was going and when I'd be back ....

It has been a huge adjustment for me, and I know other widows will be nodding in agreement. The constant companionship of a long and happy marriage is something that can't be replaced, and the resulting emptiness causes feelings of loneliness at times. I think it's something I'll just have to live with.

I'm alone but not lonely. After many years of seeing to the family, working and doing all the other things a housewife does it's given me the chance to shake off my shackles and reflect back on an extremely busy life. I look at it as being a well-earned rest. Suffice to say I travelled a lot and made a few visits to daughter and family in Oz.

Now I can please myself all of the time, meal times, what to eat and when though it took a long time before I realised that there was no-one else to consider.

Provided you've got reasonable health is a bonus and also a loving family albeit busy themselves but knowing that they'd be around if needed. I've never had to worry them thankfully.

Yes, even after 25 years today when my husband died, I do miss him at times and found it difficult for the first few years but realised that I'd have to carry on working and it was by working which kept me sane I think and it gave me the opportunity to re-connect with life after a death during the 6 years before my retirement---it helped a lot being with friends and colleagues at work.

Because I'd been relatively fit helped a lot too as it must be dreadful for those who've relied on a husband/wife/partner and who suddenly find themselves bereft. I can't imagine how they get by and I feel sad for them.

Being strong minded, as I am, is a positive, and hard as it is after bereavement I'd forced myself to think straight because of what there is to do in the aftermath.

One thing I didn't do was to bother about finding/ looking for someone else and I was only 54 at the time. I didn't feel the need nor did I think I'd find the person who would match up to my late husband but I don't feel as though it's been wasted years at all as I have a big family and extended families/relatives.

The lonely feeling is usually caused by not belonging. Not belonging is caused by a variety of problems which might include :

permanently being with people or a person with different values or lacking friends who share the same values

permanent loss of a significant relationship

unusual personality such as being autistic

lack of social skills

low self esteem

a few rare people are unwilling to relinquish their values in order to fit in with others