Loneliness or involuntary loneliness to be more specific, is a feeling experienced by most people from time to time. However a lot of people experience this over a prolonged time like years or decades. By one estimate more than 2 out of 3 adults consider themselves lonely.

Don’t suffer alone! Loneliness is a debilatating pandemic and one of the biggest killers in the world and takes more lives each year than obesity, high blood pressure, poor diet and cancer. For instance, loneliness has been associated with 50% increased risk of dementia and other serious medical problems.

Loneliness comes with huge economic costs, both to the individual as well as to the society. By one estimate the global costs of loneliness to the society could be close to $800 billion. Loneliness causes decreased productivity, lonely people have been shown to miss on average more than 5 additional working days compared to people who are not lonely, as well as their need for more healthcare, both physical and mental. On individual level, loneliness has been shown to negatively affect employability, both getting a job and keeping the job. In other words, loneliness can affect individual income severely. Below are some of the health conditions in which loneliness is a significant risk factor: