You're listening to Life Kit, from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

Raise your hand if you've been lonely before.

I'm guessing if we were in a room together, every hand would be raised. It's a hard thing for a lot of us to admit because we may have gotten messages that

that's needy or weak, but everybody gets lonely.

The challenge isn't to avoid loneliness, but to see it as a signal.

Just like thirst is a signal you need hydration, loneliness is a signal you need human connection.

Jeremy Nobel is a primary care physician and public health practitioner at Harvard, and he created an initiative called Project Unlonely, which

partners with campuses and communities to address loneliness and social isolation.

He says the problem is if we don't satisfy that longing to be with other people, we start to withdraw even more.

The signal just gets stronger and it starts taking you into some, what you might call spiraling circles of increased anxiety around connection.

That can lead to depression or problems with alcohol and drugs.

And we know that significant sustained loneliness also increases risk of physical illness too.

Increases risk of heart attacks, stroke, or death from either by 30%, increases the risk of dying

early by 30%.

But Dr. Nobel says we don't have to end up there.

We can interrupt the spiral. NPR Health Correspondent Allison Aubrey talked to Dr. Nobel recently about his book Project Un Lonely,

Healing Our Crisis of Disconnection.

On this episode of Life Kit you'll hear that conversation

with practical steps you can take to feel less lonely and open up to connection

again. I was struck in your book that you identify three types of loneliness. They're psychological, societal, existential. Can you describe the differences?

Absolutely. So loneliness is, it's a mood state, it's an emotion, just like love. There are different kinds of love. Why shouldn love there are different kinds of love why

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