This is self-work and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. At self-work we discuss psychological and emotional issues and what you can do about them.

Whether that's learning self-acceptance, taking action, or seeking therapy or treatment.

Eight years ago, I extended the walls of my practice to reach those of you

who might already be knowledgeable about mental health treatment, but also to those of you

who might say you'd never darken the door of a therapist.

And yet you are here.

I'll answer your questions while I invite you

to take a few minutes for your own self-work.

So now we have three things, being physically alone, feeling emotionally lonely,

and then isolativeness as in depression. Isn't it kind of interesting that emotional loneliness isn't listed

as a clinical symptom of depression? I think it probably deserves to be, but somehow didn't make

it into the criteria. That perhaps is another episode.

Welcome to this week's edition of self-work.

The Surgeon General Vyevac Murphy has stated that there is an epidemic of loneliness in the United States

and the World Health Organization has declared loneliness as a pressing global health threat, with a mortality effect equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

The loneliness country, according to statistics, is Brazil.

The lowest levels of loneliness were observed in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic,

Croatia and Austria. Those measurements were taken in June of 2023.

Whether you blame addiction to social media, addiction to cell phones, the pandemic,

the political uproar, or even wars in many countries, what really matters is that it exists.

For those of you who've been listening to self-work for a while,

you know that we talk about and focus on,

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