Social isolation is a term that many of you may be familiar with right now during social distancing. You’re stuck at home, away from society, and unable to get much social interaction with others. Today I’m going to talk about the risks of social isolation. This is a sponsored post, though all opinions are my own.
Social isolation doesn’t just occur when there’s a crisis in the world. It’s something that someone suffering from mental illness can frequently do to themselves. Often anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders create this pattern of behavior where one isolates because they don’t want to engage in everyday life.
How dangerous is social isolation?
Social isolation can be pretty dangerous to your physical and mental health. This process of withdrawing from society to protect or avoid your uneasy emotions can lead your health into a downward spiral and become an unhealthy coping mechanism if you don’t learn the risks now and work to develop a new pattern of behavior to handle these emotions.
Many things can cause social isolation but the risks of social isolation are the same regardless of why you’re stuck in this situation. Sometimes we get so hurt by an intimate partner that we withdraw from society, unable to cope with the uneasy emotions and end up living in this isolated stage to protect ourselves from being hurt again.
What Are The Risks of Social Isolation?
If you’re currently isolating yourself or know someone who is in social isolation, here are some of the risks of social isolation that you need to know. This information will hopefully allow you to move forward and seek the online mental health therapy you need to resolve these uneasy emotions and in turn be an active part of society again.
Loneliness
It’s been proven time and time again that loneliness can deteriorate a person’s health. One of the risks of social isolation includes loneliness. The longer you go without social interaction with family or friends, the higher your chances are of becoming increasingly lonely.
Increased Depression
Social isolation can lead to a deeper depression than what you started with. As you continue to pull away from society and everyone who cares about you, you may find that depression will start to sneak in. While you may be isolating yourself because of depression, this practice will make it worse.
Ruins Health
Your stress levels may go up and anxiety may increase during social isolation. This can cause a huge deterioration in your overall health. Your immune system may stop functioning properly, your cardiovascular health may start to go downhill, and your mental health may sink to an all-time low.
When it comes to reviewing these risks of social isolation you may soon find that removing yourself from society and pushing away close connections will likely start to make you feel worse than that first day you started to isolate yourself for protection. If you or someone you love is currently social isolating, I highly suggest you reach out to them and consider helping them find ways to cope with social distancing, and perhaps even to seek online mental health therapy to get them back on track to being healthier and living a better life again.
