Why Are We Ignoring Family as a Solution to Loneliness?

The problem of loneliness presents a great sermon outline:

The answer to loneliness is:

1. Family

2. Church (We have therapy sessions Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night)

3. Friends

4. Jesus Christ, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother.

You insert the Scripture and illustrations.

David R. Brumbelow

Loneliness is an inward condition. People do not feel lonely because they have a lack of friends, family or church. I think this is why the church struggles with mental health issues, and looks at them oftentimes through simplistic solutions. I look at it as akin to someone who is sick in the church, and the answer they receive at church is just pray to the great physician. We would argue that while prayer is a piece of it, it is also just as important to see a doctor. Loneliness is not from a lack of friends. This is increasingly becoming an epidemic as well as other mental health challenges and I am increasingly concerned that the modern church does not have a clear idea on how to handle this.

dgszweda wrote: This is increasingly becoming an epidemic as well as other mental health challenges and I am increasingly concerned that the modern church does not have a clear idea on how to handle this.

How about encouraging people to get off social media, to spend time building real relationships with real people, and to engage in activities that promote building friendships?

For example, in 2021, I took two six-week sailing classes at a local sailing club in my community. These classes taught me how to sail, they forced me to interact with real people as we all learned a new skill together, and they provided opportunities to build friendships (or at least make new acquaintances). As I reflect now on these 12 weeks, they were a lot of fun, I met a lot of interesting people, and most of us enjoyed spending that time together.

So, if you're lonely, get off your computer. Put your phone down. And, go find group activities that encourage social interaction and teamwork.

This kind of social interaction and bonding should be taking place within the local body of Christ. However, we've isolated ourselves from one another out of fear, sickness, political polarization, etc.

....is that Murthy, as a prominent advocate of the fairly extreme measures taken to "combat" COVID (many of which turned out to be counter-productive), has IMO contributed a LOT to social isolation (and transitively, loneliness) in our country. Maybe a mea culpa on his part would be in order?

That noted, I do applaud his efforts here, though I'd note that what needs to be done first is to combat not loneliness, but rather isolation. They correlate, but as David notes, they're not the same thing. I remember back in early 2020 as a friend of mine (pathologist at Mayo) lamented the fact that extreme isolation was likely to kill as many people as COVID would.

An interesting point of reference is that during the Vietnam War, many were concerned that about 20% of soldiers were using hard drugs like heroin pretty heavily over there, and what the consequence would be when they returned to the U.S. Happily, only about 1% of soldiers continued to use heroin or other hard drugs when they got back--the return to family structures, and the end of being part of an unwinnable war (at least how we were fighting it), removed the perceived need.

And that's where I think the article is dead on. We subsidize unwed parenting through welfare, the tax code, family law, and more, and then wonder why we've got so many kids who don't see both parents, and why they show the pathologies of broken families.

As David notes, it's not a complete fix, but a great improvement for our government would be a good look in the mirror and asking the question "how can we stop screwing this up?"