How long do you go without speaking to someone?

Me too! I have to find people to talk to. It is more or less impossible to ever get a direct answer from OH without him creating riddles.

What is wrong with answering "Yes" or "No".

For me, days can go by without talking to another soul. Walking the dog does help, I find other dog walkers at least greet you and will sometimes stop for a chat.

As long as it takes. I certainly don't go out of my way to make inane conversation with strangers and my children have commented that it's normally old people who chat to strangers at bus stops or in shops. I make sure that I'm not one of them if I ever catch a bus.
Meanwhile, I'm perfectly happy with my own company and could go weeks or months without conversation if I had to, without resorting to talking to myself.

I spend so much time chatting in text or forums that I have begun to find speaking and handwriting unfamiliar and a bit of a hassle lol

I haven,t spoken to my wife for years..can,t get a word in.

I love going out on long walks by myself, so that I don’t have to talk to anyone. I know it’s different if you are in forced isolation, but I love my own company - no arguments, no put downs and no criticisms. I just love it. I can do what I like ,see what I like and eat what I like.

Being alone and being lonely are of course not necessarily the same thing.
But I do wonder if one of the reasons older people are so willing to chat to strangers, checkout assistants etc is that they have few people to speak to? Apart from just being nice, friendly people that is!

I think as some get older we lose the energy and enthusiasm to actually join groups. All that small talk . When I was young I loved it. We just need a few good friends but I have found my friends and I have moved and then it’s difficult to make really good friends. I go to a women’s group. Last one in. They have known each for years. I must have gone at least 10 times. I think they know my name but I am just talked at. So last time I thought I really can’t be bothered to go. Is it just me?

I think its easy to say it doesn't bother you not to speak to anyone. I found it incredibly easy when it was a choice.
When you realise it no longer is, and there is nobody to say "how did you get on?" it becomes a different matter entirely.

I can go days not chatting to anyone and that’s fine as I’m happy in my own company.
I have a dog so I know my voice still works lol

That's a very pertinent point MissA

Several days at a time. I am mounting a personal campaign to discover ways to stop the loneliness. I have my grandaughter 2 days a week, she is two, and I long for adult company. So, l have joined the local art club, tried the choir, but you only get to sing and there's no time to make friends, so am hopefully doing some private fostering in the autumn for a Chinese girl from Macau who wants to study in the U.K. Fingers x'd. It would mean I have someone to take care of again. And exploring any other ways to make new friends now my son has fled the nest. But it is difficult if you are disabled.

When you say you can't leave the house, does it mean you dont have one of those car things that whizz along? Or that there isnt a dial a ride in your area? Or that you can't ask anyone into your home? I have several friends who visit housebound friends weekly. Or a shared taxi service for some things. Ours is organised by an older persons group & seems to go to Sainsbury mostly. Costd £5 per person. Takes 4 - 10 depending on demand.

What upsets me most is that no one calls to my home. I go and call on others but they never call on me. I am cautious re going out at night, as I have a dog, and new neighbours, who may disturb him. Although I do leave the radio on.

I ring the one relation I have left regularly but she never calls me. I have one good friend but she has a neice and brother who visit her for lunch every Sunday. It is Sunday and holidays like Christmas and Easter when families get together that I feel alone.

I am trying to find a bungalow in a nice over 55 community but they are hard to find. One for sale near were I used to work and the church the school was attached to. Just been told it is "under offer" don't really know what that means.

Gabri, I don't think it's inane to chat to strangers; it shows friendliness and makes a connection however small and fleeting. It can make a big difference in a lonely persons life.

Lyndie that has been my experience too! I don't have children and find that excludes me from many groups as conversations tend to be mainly about the achievements of grandchildren.

Same here, oldwoman. Plus in a rural area.

I am fortunate that I am able to get out and about, but I still miss chit chat with one friend and we keep in touch with Whatsapp and email. Both of us have had tough times and we find just a chit chat keeps us going. Sometimes it can be just a few sentences other times it can be a huge email! My husband doesn't know what we find to talk about!

I chat with my kids throught the day on FB. An old friend has been e mailing me everyday for years, as she works from home and I have become her colleague in the office, although 250 miles apart.

Some days though, no real conversations and if everybody else died of or gave up on me, I would hate the intrusion of Silver line..........Esther Rantzen is in my opinion a public menace with her ideas. We need a less hostile environment, more benches to facilitate people being out and chatting, more local shops being subsidised to provide that face to face meeting with people. I have worked in several charity shops over the years, the same people come in every day, for a chat mostly, the shops are subsidised with cheap business rates and free staff, the high steets are empty of normal shops, that are being priced out.

The fabric of communities is being decimated, and then refabricated with nonensical projects. The libraries do so much for the lonely, they are under threat, rural buses have been cut, old fashioned youth clubs for young people replaced by expensive juggernaughts like Kids Company......there are some things that we have to hang on to, like High Streets and corner shops and milkmen. We are funding the artificial, when the natural networks are starved out of being.

Marieeliz, under offer means someone offered to buy the house at a certain amount and it was accepted. But they haven't completed the transaction yet and are probably still having surveys done. It's not too late to try and make a higher offer if you want to, as the agent is obliged to put it to them and they may change their minds and accept yours. I don't really approve of this practice but just giving you a factual reply. As for the not calling on you issue, is it because of your dog? If not, then take the dog with you when you go to see them! It will keep you safer and stop it being disturbed by the neighbors in your absence.

I'm fairly content with my own company - I've never been a fan of 'small-talk'.

When I go to the local bus stop - which is right outside our main hospital - I always get "press-ganged" into conversation by some complete stranger whose opening gambit is predictably "I've just been to see a consultant at the hospital" and that forces me, out of basic politeness, to ask "why?" and then they're away!

Yakkity,yakkity,yakkity ad nauseam. A stranger's entire intimate medical history is poured into my ears, operations, medications, complications, relapses, tests, tests, tests.......

I can't wait to get back home, shut the door and barricade myself inside utterly solitary peace and quiet!

Margs, even more polite might be "Oh dear, well I won't pry" and turn away lol

If you are mobile then there a a heap of things to do out there, you just have to bite the bullet and join. It isn’t easy of course as most groups can feel very cliquey but persevere, friendships take time. For those not able to get out and about of course it is difficult but groups like this really help alleviate that feeling that you are the only person in the world on their own.

I don't get a chance, ReadyMeals - it's like they've gone to autopilot and they chunter on and on and on, oblivious to my glazed eyes and my very soul being gradually sucked out of my brain......

When I go out without the 'serial bigamist' I find it really easy to talk to people I don't know but that may be down to where I live. Everyone here seems to be friendly. Even walking along the residential roads everyone says 'hello' or good morning/afternoon. That applies whatever their age.

When catching the bus to the city it feels like there is a local bylaw that says we all have to chat, because we always do.

Yesterday while waiting for my exercise class a much younger woman started to speak to me and I felt we got to know each other really rather well in 10 minutes. A couple more weeks and we will be good friends!

When I went to order my new glasses on Friday the young man who served me was really friendly and now I know all about his autistic son and his little daughter. I think active listening may have a lot to do with it.

I do have one friend who does most of the talking and I can't get a word in edgeways but she is fine in other respects!