You're listening to lifekit from NPR.
Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.
Raise your hand if you've been lonely before.
I'm guessing if we were in a room together, every hand would be raised.
It's a hard thing for a lot of us to admit because we may have gotten messages that that's needy or weak, but everybody gets lonely.
The challenge isn't to avoid loneliness, but to see it as a signal.
Just like thirst is a signal.
You need hydration.
Loneliness is a signal.
You need human connection.
Jeremy Nobel is a primary care physician and public health practitioner at Harvard, and he created an initiative called project unlonely, which partners with campuses and communities to address loneliness and social isolation.
He says the problem is if we don't satisfy that longing to be with other people, we start to withdraw even more.
The signal just gets stronger and it starts taking you into some, what you might call spiraling circles of increased anxiety.
Around connection that can lead to depression or problems with alcohol and drugs.
And we know that significant, sustained loneliness also increases risk of physical illness, too.
Increases risk of heart attacks, stroke, or death from either by 30%.
Increases the risk of dying early by 30%.
But Doctor Nobel says we don't have to end up there.
We can interrupt the spiral.
NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey talked to Doctor Nobel recently about his book project healing our crisis of disconnection.