LONELY? YOU'RE NOT ALONE

The number of women experiencing chronic loneliness is on the rise. Here's why - and what we can do to tackle it

- LOUISE COURT

There are many things we expect to change as we get older (more laughter lines, needing stretchy waistbands and reading glasses…), but having no one to talk to is probably not one of them. So it may come as a surprise to learn that an epidemic of loneliness is affecting women, particularly from midlife onwards.

Despite living in an age in which we’re more ‘connected’ than ever (mobile phones, the internet, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp groups), the number of over-50s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025/6, compared with around 1.4 million in 2016/7. According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, between December 2021 and February 2022, 3.3 million people said they felt chronically lonely or lonely all the time – and the majority were women.

This is worrying for many reasons. Loneliness can lead to depression and anxiety, and contributes towards dementia, high blood pressure, heart disease, alcoholism, sleep problems, obesity and a weakened immune system. In fact, research has found that loneliness is as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.