Jobs and studies have always forced people to stay away from families.
Sometimes, people end up getting good roommates with whom they develop a steady and healthy friendship that lasts life long. But for some unlucky ones, sharing room with someone ends up in a nightmare.
As a result, they prefer living alone to avoid the hassle and drama of a roommate. But according to a new study, living alone increases the risk of mental disorders.
Is living alone harmful?
It’s a sad truth that most students leave their parent’s place to settle down in bigger cities where they have to survive alone. There are no routine or diet habits that they are able to follow. As a result, their health deteriorates and soon they start feeling homesick.
Most think that it’s a physical health-related issue which can be fixed by a quick visit to hometown. But this new study really points out the effects of living alone. The gist of the study was, ‘The prevalence of common mental disorders was higher in individuals living alone than in those not living alone in all survey years.’
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Study of mental disorder and living alone
According to the study, the prevalence of people living alone in 1993 was 8.8 % followed by 9.8 % in 2000 and 10.7 % in 2007. Mental health problems are more common in people living alone regardless of age and sex, says a study.
This was published in the journal PLOS ONE. The researchers had collected data on 20,500 individuals aged 16-64 living in England. These people participated in 1993, 2000, or 2007 National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys.
The aim of this study was to find whether a person had a common mental disorder (CMD). It was done using the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised (CIS-R) questionnaire which was focusing on neurotic symptoms. Once the study ended, they found a positive association between living alone and common mental disorder.
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Why living alone increases the risk?
The study also noted that in different subgroups of people, living alone increased a person’s risk for common mental disorder by 1.39 to 2.43 times.
‘Living alone is positively associated with common mental disorders in the general population in England,’ according to the co-author Louis Jacob from University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France. Additionally, the lifetime prevalence of CMDs was 30 %.
In plain words, these mental disorders have a major relationship to the quality of life, physical illness, and mortality. The researchers suggest things that can tackle loneliness, might aid the mental well-being of individuals living alone.
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In Conclusion:
Try having a pet that needs less attention and keeps yourself occupied. Engage in gardening, reading or pick up some hobby which requires you to dedicate a specific amount of time towards it. Because if you have no other option but to live alone, you must take precautionary measures so that you don’t lose your brains.
Keep a healthy social life and stay away from the loneliness monster if you want a stress free life.
