U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently declared loneliness a public health epidemic, warning that isolation can increase the risk of an early death by 60%‚
At the equivalent of smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month (but we should work to increase our awareness all the time) and loneliness is among the strongest predictors of suicidal ideation; suicide attempts and other suicidal behavior.
Furthermore, loneliness and social isolation have been linked to other physical and mental health outcomes, according to the U.S. Veteran Affairs department.
Let’s brainstorm small things we can do daily to help reduce the loneliness of others around us.
This is a crawl, walk, run effort and must start small to keep it sustainable.
What do you think? How should we start?
