How prevalent is loneliness in a dense urban environment like New York City, where we often interact with dozens of people a day just going about our business?
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.May is Mental Health Awareness month and to kick it off U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an 81-page report that says the US is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. But how prevalent is loneliness in a dense urban environment like New York City, where we often interact with dozens of people a day just going about our business?
The human body and mind can experience enormous strain and trauma and still endure. But that survival leaves traces both physical and psychological. I think it's really important to acknowledge that, as the surgeon general does, marginalized communities are actually at high risk in this epidemic of loneliness.
And so, of course, if you're following social distancing protocol, it's going to be a little bit awkward to start interacting with people. And when we're lonely, our brain changes and starts scanning for what we call neutral social signals. So say you're at a party, you look at somebody's face, they're giving you kind of a neutral gaze.
But simultaneously, there is this deep longing for life as it used to be. We have to remember that of the 140 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, a very small fraction come to countries like the United States or Canada. So the people that come as refugees and asylum seekers are the ones that had the social networks, the skills, the financial security to be able to cross multiple international boundaries.
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