How Loneliness Affects the Immune System

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Loneliness impacts the immune system, mental health, and physical health in dramatic ways. But you can counteract its effects through intentional human connection. Loneliness contributes to depression, anxiety, heart disease, a weakened immune system, cognitive decline, and other mental and physical health problems, but you can find ways to connect with others in a way that strengthens your physical health, even during coronavirus. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanuts... Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanut... Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=12292020 Sign up for my newsletter: www.therapynutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/bes... Therapy in a Nutshell, and the information provided by Emma McAdam, is solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and is not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. If you are in crisis please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to therapy in a nutshell. I'm Emma McAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and this is the podcast where I condense mental health skills into bite-sized nuggets of health.
0:15.0	If coronavirus has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that we're all connected. I've learned that an illness that
0:22.5	started half a world away can impact whether my kids get to play with other kids in the
0:27.2	neighborhood or whether my husband has a job. But unfortunately as the virus has taught us all
0:34.0	that we're dependent on each other, it's also forced us to choose social distancing as a means of fighting it.
0:39.3	And being away from social interaction has its side effects.
0:44.3	In this episode, we're going to talk about how loneliness and isolation impact mental health,
0:49.3	and also how loneliness impacts our immune system, our heart, and other aspects of physical health.
0:55.2	And we're going to talk about a couple of ways to mitigate those effects and to stay as healthy
0:59.7	as possible.
1:08.2	I hope that for many of you, lockdown orders have lifted and things are getting a bit easier,
1:13.6	but with social distancing measures, life is far from back to normal.
1:18.6	And I think that most of us have really struggled with social distancing.
1:22.6	Social isolation is hard on mental health.
1:25.6	Research shows that loneliness contributes to depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, and it's just lonely and discouraging.
1:34.3	But loneliness is also stressful on the body. Social isolation and loneliness is linked to a bunch of physical and mental conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease,
1:46.1	and a weakened immune system. It's also connected with cognitive decline and Alzheimer's. A large study
1:51.6	by Julianne Holt-Lundstad found that a lack of social connection heightens health risks as much as
1:58.5	smoking 15 cigarettes a day or having an alcohol addiction.
2:02.6	Other studies have shown that loneliness and social isolation are as harmful to physical health as obesity and high blood pressure.
2:11.6	Loneliness can cause inflammation in our immune system, which over time increases our risk of chronic diseases.
2:18.3	And when people feel lonely, your immune system is weakened in a way that actually makes it harder to fight off viruses.
	...

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