Dealing with Loneliness: Tips and Tricks

The saddest part about me feeling so alone is the fact the I live with at one point was the man I wanted to grow old with. I sleep in the same king size bed with my/ our beautiful cat in between us!! We have ZERO physical anything for the last 7years. I am 47 yrs old if I'm not at work I'm snuggling with my beautiful cat and I color as intricate posters and coloring books as possible. I might have 3 real friends left in life. My grandmother my friend Beth and my cousin in Illinois I live in Connecticut. It took me 2 days with 1 stop over to sleep to drive to Illinois for her surgery last year!! I'm OK with the lack of friends it's less drama. But the lack of communication, and ZERO intimacy with the shell of a former man I ❤

I do love my phone 😀. I think I’m really having a hard time with not working. Had to quit my job in the spring as a teacher.

I completely understand about feeling lonely and down when living with a chronic illness. I tend to get bouts of loneliness and depression as well. One thing I like to do is reach out to friends via text when I’m feeling that way. I check in to see how they are doing or send them a fun meme, video, pic, etc. Scrolling through my Facebook feed and interactive helps too. I have a friend with chronic illness who is super social, so she has been feeling particularly isolated of late. One thing that helped her is having Zoom get togethers. One thing she’s done is have a paint night. Everyone gets together over zoom to paint the same picture and enjoy cocktails together (much like you would do at one if those art places).

Find someone to communicate to online! I find this app to be a great platform for this - we can meet people with the same issues and talk things through.

I revisit TV series I've seen before. Tiktok really helped when I quit my job, I was really missing my community.

I watch a lot of YouTube and TikTok. I also help run a support group on Facebook for anxiety and depression. A lot of our members also have health issues that go along with it. I've started a YouTube channel of my own, and a TikTok I just started. So that helps with planning videos, editing, recording, and that stuff. But I'm honestly just on my phone a lot.

Play games online, have pen pals, FB groups,