Mental Health Awareness Week 2022: how coaching can support you when feeling lonely.
Here at fifty50 Coaching, we celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, the UK’s national week to raise awareness of mental health. This year’s theme is Loneliness, a complex feeling which affects millions of people.
Mark Rowland, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said:
“We hope this year’s theme of loneliness will strike a chord with many of us who felt lonely and struggled throughout the Covid pandemic.
Millions of us experience loneliness from time to time. We know that some people are at higher risk of experiencing loneliness and the evidence shows the longer we feel lonely, the more we are at risk of mental health problems.
Loneliness deserves more attention, and we’re calling on everyone who has struggled as a result of being lonely to share their experiences. We must work together - as individuals, as a society and through government policy - to reduce loneliness and prevent mental health problems by investing in welcoming social spaces and new community initiatives.”
To mark the occasion and join with thousands of people all over the UK who will be using this week to raise awareness and support those struggling with loneliness, our Director of Coaching and Wellbeing, Verity Symcox, highlights some of the ways coaching can help combat loneliness and help you, or your people, realise their mental health potential.
What is loneliness?
Loneliness and being alone can often be confused, but they are very different. Most definitions of loneliness describe it as the feelings of being alone or experiencing solitude; however, loneliness is a complicated emotional state where people may feel empty, isolated and unwanted. People who feel lonely often crave human contact and yet feel disconnected from others. Anyone can feel lonely, and it can happen when you’re in a group with lots of people, or in any social situation, and even sometimes people can feel lonely when in a close relationship. It is a complex emotion, unique to each individual.
Feeling lonely by itself isn’t a mental health problem; however, it can have a negative impact on your mental health, especially if you’ve been feeling lonely for a long time. Equally, having a mental health problem could mean you’re more likely to feel lonely or experience social anxiety, finding it more challenging to engage in social activities.
Significant evidence and research show that the longer someone feels lonely, the more at risk they are of experiencing a mental health problem. Some research suggests that prolonged loneliness is associated with an increased risk of suffering from depression, anxiety, sleep problems and stress.
What causes loneliness?
Many things can cause someone to feel lonely, and it isn’t fully known why certain experiences can make people feel lonely. However, some life events can bring about feelings of loneliness, for example:
Bereavement
Relationship break down
Relocating
Starting a new job
There are also some social factors which may increase the likelihood of someone feeling lonely; these can include:
Being a single parent
Being estranged from family and friends
Belonging to a minority group
Managing a chronic or invisible illness
Experiences of discrimination or stigma
Financial problems which prevent people from ‘joining in’
Mental health problems
Three ways in which coaching can help support loneliness
Coaching can help people to distinguish between feeling lonely and being alone and looks at proactive ways to help you improve social interactions to boost wellbeing. Coaching will also help you to nurture new relationships and break negative thinking habits, which can all help you to feel more connected and less isolated; this may be by raising self-awareness, or by helping you to set specific social goals, or even just holding you to account for being brave and trying something new.
Provides a dedicated time for reflection
Reflecting with your coach can help you identify any obvious (and less obvious) reasons you may be feeling lonely. Your coach will help you work through the emotions that come up and help you interpret what those feelings are saying.
Learning to be alone
Sometimes it can be hard to be alone, and harder still for people who are used to being surrounded by people. Coaching can help you to learn to be alone, to find activities to fill alone time and understand when time alone may be beneficial for your mental health and wellbeing.
Being Proactive
Coaching future focus helps to create new, more healthy habits. So instead of getting caught up in negative thinking patterns and doom scrolling on social media, coaching can help you create a new, healthier way of thinking when you’re alone. A proactive approach could extend to building new relationships or nurturing existing ones even when feelings of loneliness set in.
For more information on fifty50 Coaching and how we can support your people and their mental health, please contact us at info@fifty50coaching.co.uk.