Loneliness is NOT just for the elderly: People in their late twenties are just 'as isolated as pensioners' as new study discovers three 'peak' ages for feeling alone
- Loneliness associated with the elderly hits at a much younger age, study finds
- Peaks are in a person's late 20s, mid 50s and late 80s according to new findings
- The San Diego study found with more wisdom, a person is less lonely
Loneliness is hitting people much younger than expected, according to a new study which has found there are 'three peaks' of mental isolation.
While feeling alone is often associated with the elderly research has found it actually impacts people much younger.
The three key spikes are in the late 20s, mid-50s and late 80s, research published on Tuesday in the journal International Psychogeriatrics suggests.
Researchers at UC San Diego's Center for Healthy Aging were stunned when they 76% of the 340 people they studied to be moderately to severely lonely - and that trends of loneliness hit earlier than expected.
Dr. Dilip Jeste, senior author of the study said: 'One thing to remember is that loneliness is subjective. Loneliness does not mean being alone; loneliness does not mean not having friends
'Loneliness is defined as 'subjective distress.'
'It is the discrepancy between the social relationships you want and the social relationships you have.'
Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego said there are a multitude of reasons for the experience of loneliness.
He said: 'So the late 20s is often a period of major decision-making, which is often stressful because you often end up feeling that your peers made better decisions than you did, and there's a lot of guilt about why you did this or did that.
'It's a period of stress, which increases loneliness.
Loneliness is hitting people in their late twenties and mid-fifties according to a new s
Those in their late eighties have to deal with the loss of loved ones and can become isolated
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'The mid-50s is the midlife crisis period.
'Typically, your health begins to decline, and many people learn that they have pre-diabetes, say, or heart disease.'
And loneliness is harmful, the study found.
Dr Vivek Murthy, former US surgeon general compared the impact to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Loneliness was aslo linked to decline in health and the reverse was also found. People who are lonely are more likely to become sick, the study suggested.
While society expects the elderly to be lonely it impacts people at a much younger age, a study discovered
The more wise a person is the less lonely they will feel, researchers discovered in California
Feelings of loneliness has been linked to cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure.
One 'optimistic finding' of the report was that
Within the dark clouds, Jeste also found a silver lining: An inverse relationship exists between loneliness and wisdom. 'In other words, people who have high levels of wisdom didn't feel lonely, and vice versa,' he said.
The study measures participants emotion management, empathy, sense of fairness, insight, compassion, altruism and decisiveness to determine their wisdom.
They were able to evaluate those with most wisdom felt less lonely.
