Isolation Can Be Hazardous
“WARNING: Isolation may be dangerous to your health.” Similarly worded notices are usually reserved for serious dangers to a person’s well-being, as well as threats posed by chemicals and drugs. But recent findings indicate that this is a warning that may justifiably be issued to those who, by circumstances or choice, live a life of isolation.
For example, the impact of losing a marriage mate can be very injurious. Time magazine reports that “the coronary death rate among widows between 25 and 34 is five times that of married women in the same age group. At all ages, the divorced are twice as likely as the married to develop lung cancer or suffer a stroke.”
However, loneliness produced by isolation also takes its toll among adults who have never been married. A study made by Dr. James Lynch of the University of Maryland shows death from heart disease to be two to five times as high for single persons. This study indicates that the likelihood of a bachelor’s spending time in a mental institution is 23 times as great as for married men, and a single woman’s 10 times as great as for a married woman. It is very evident that this doctor did not examine records of those who are living in close harmony with the inspired Holy Bible, such as the Christian witnesses of Jehovah. The statistics about these would be very different. According to the doctor’s statistics, loneliness due to isolation can bring about mental and emotional anguish that constitutes a threat to life.
The experience of so-called distress centers in large cities reflects the seriousness of the problem. Consider metropolitan Toronto, Canada, with a population of more than two million. At just one of several distress centers some 33,000 telephone calls were received within a year’s time. That is one call every 16 minutes. About 75 percent of the callers were people suffering from isolation, “the walking wounded,” as one doctor termed them. Six percent of them were suicidal. The Toronto Star spoke of them as persons suffering from an “invisible disease” that has reached epidemic proportions. Dr. Vello Sermat defined it as “a feeling of utter desolation as if totally separated from other individuals. . . . A lack of human ties.” Many of those suffering from isolation are the aged, including widows and widowers.
Sadly, the aged who live alone are often the victims of crime. In a number of large cities these unfortunate ones are forced to continue living in rapidly deteriorating neighborhoods, where young hoodlums consider them easy targets. Thefts, savage beatings, rape and torture have been the lot of some of these lonely senior citizens. Fear causes these older persons to isolate themselves further. They may bar their doors and board up their windows, and have food and other necessities delivered to them.
The young, too, have suffered from the perils of a solitary life. Some have thought that they would create a new life-style that was not dependent on the conventional togetherness of the past. They have hoped for a happier way of life. But has it been truly satisfying? The Toronto Star reports that the fastest-growing rate of suicides in the province of Ontario is among the 20- to 30-year-olds. Then there are those who realize too late that they have become victims of wrongly motivated persons. As one 26-year-old put it: “He told me he was crazy about me, . . . he sent me flowers . . . bought me dinners . . . and then he told me the truth. He was living with another woman.”
Problems of Isolation
Even the ‘single swingers’ are beginning to find that a person cannot easily deny what is natural in life. Despite what appears on the surface, there is a growing awareness among the young that constancy in companionship is what is really desired and needed for a satisfying life. In an article called “Alone in the Crowd—The Cracks Are Showing in the Singles Dream,” Canada’s weekly newsmagazine Maclean’s observed: “More women—and some men—are admitting to being tired, frustrated and bored by casual sex.” Sex in itself has not been the answer. Something is lacking: Genuine love and a commitment. With the years passing all too quickly, many face the problem of finding a suitable marriage mate. The summary of their self-induced isolation has turned out to be—swinging in the 60’s, sulking in the 70’s and aching today.
Manifestly, something happens to the reasoning processes of a person who is isolated by choice or by force of circumstances. What often occurs is that, contrary to the counsel given in the Bible, he thinks too much about himself, even giving in to self-pity. He becomes critical of the omissions of others and overemphasizes their failures toward him, sometimes attributing bad motives. He waits for others to be friendly and feels they have failed him if they are not. An example is a young married woman with two children. For a period of time this mother kept herself from the company of persons whom she knew well. When a friend mentioned not seeing her recently, she responded: “I did it to see if anyone noticed or cared.”
So there are clear indications that a failure among people in general to form solid human relationships can endanger a person’s health. But what does a person do if the circumstances are seemingly beyond his control? How can he adjust to unwanted changes in his life?