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Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

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Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#61

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

There is an organization doing this in Spain, Adopta un Abuelo: https://www.eib.org/en/stories/isolation-elderly

https://adoptaunabuelo.org

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#62
post #61

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

There is an organization doing this in Spain, Adopta un Abuelo: https://www.eib.org/en/stories/isolation-elderly https://adoptaunabuelo.org

That's awesome, and fitting, since my daughter has an Abuela. :-)

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#63

[flagged]

> All the government programs he advocates for are just pale imitations of the vibrant communities that humans were made for and which modern society has done its best to destroy.

Humans were not made for anything, and for most of the existence of our species, there were no churches, indeed no buildings of any kind. Until ~10k years ago, with the development of agriculture and permanent settlements, humans lived in relatively small hunter-gatherer groups. These communities may indeed have been "vibrant", but they were organized around family and survival, not religion.

Contrary to your claim, churches and organized religion have been made possible by modern society, not destroyed by it. It's unclear where exactly you see the destructive causes, apart from the progress of science that has tended to undermine religious belief?

In the United States, churches are tax-exempt. In that sense, they are promoted by the government in a crucial way.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#65

[flagged]

It's hard. I belong to an atheist-inclusive church, but I've been skipping for about a month and I'm reluctant to show up again. Words like "community", "fellowship", "connection" are used a lot, but there's no obvious checklist for me to follow when I wake up Sunday morning feeling like a piece of shit and having no desire to inflict myself on others.

Actual pieces of shit don't care. It's very likely more mental than you think. Delete facebook, join the gym, meditate, etc.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#66
Would you like to know why some people are lonely? Because they have interacted with people before and found the experience to be quite objectionable.

I am lonely because I have dealt with too many assholes. And if it kills me sooner, good. Humanity is a garbage species full of opportunistic and adversarial people just waiting to find new people to exert power over.

I can't wait to leave this hellhole.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#67

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

Maybe a scheduled get togethers of a retirement home group with a that student org either at the home or the university could work. That way it's easier to have a person trained to chaperone, a more controlled environment, and reduced general overhead for planning.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#68

Would you like to know why some people are lonely? Because they have interacted with people before and found the experience to be quite objectionable. I am lonely because I have dealt with too many assholes. And if it kills me sooner, good. Humanity is a garbage species full of opportunistic and adversarial people just waiting to find new people to exert power over. I can't wait to leave this hellhole.

[dead]

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#69
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dismissive but practical take is "well yeah there's nobody in the room to call an ambulance when you have the heart attack you'll most likely have", which mindfulness classes and support groups don't help with. There's practical benefits to having people around.

By these statistics there aren’t enough healthy people to provide care for those that are less healthy The challenge here is that healthy people don’t desire to be around unhealthy people. Society provides no incentive or social benefit for otherwise healthy people to be around the unwell to call the ambulances. Even as a nurse, hospice worker or caregiver, the pay/benefits are non existent for the amount of emotiona…

You don't have to be that healthy to call an ambulance! As long as not everyone in the sick-and-poor commune has a heart attack at the same time this should be a safe enough system.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#70

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

A liability for having tea with elderly citizens?

> A liability for having tea with elderly citizens?

In their homes? It's a mountain of liability. The elderly tend to be a combination of paranoid and senile.

The first time they misplace a checkbook or forget some valuable was already given to some grandchild they'll accuse the most recent new guest in memory of stealing.

And that's just one of an infinite number of possibilities having spent zero time dwelling on it.

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