Loneliness and the Red Balloon

This is a story about a red balloon.

Or maybe it's a ping-pong ball. I'm not really sure. 

The red balloon is surrounded by yellow happy faces. Red is alone in a sea of yellow.

Red is not really "alone" - he's surrounded by others - but it's possible he's feeling lonely.

Or not. Inanimate objects might not care if they're surrounded or not. Who knows.

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Loneliness is one of the most common symptoms of anxiety and depression. Worrying that others don't see me, feeling different or "othered" from the crowd around me, not seeing what everyone has to be so happy about, envying their carefree spirit, etc. etc. etc. 

And that's just on the train ride to work. 

Social isolation refers to an objective state in which we have limited social connections and interactions. Loneliness, on the other hand, is an entirely subjectivestate, in which we feel socially and/or emotionally disconnected from those around us. As such, socially isolated people are not necessarily lonely, and lonely people are not necessarily socially isolated. (Read more about that here.)

So let's talk about the Red Balloon. 🎈