That was the goal of Natalie Eve Garrett when she thought of collecting stories about loneliness .
In the book , The Lonely Stories : 22 Celebrated Writers on the Joys & Struggles of Being Alone , Garrett wanted to share personal stories of loneliness .
Garrett said she hopes the stories give people suffering from loneliness comfort and perhaps even joy .
“I think we all have felt alone .
We all feel lonely .
And we all will continue to feel lonely sometimes .
I think when we read about varied experiences it can be a way of using loneliness and aloneness to connect with each other .
And that was really my hope with the book .”
The writers and stories in this collection are all very different .
Some are tragic , such as the death of a loved one .
While others are lighter , such as feeling alone at a Star Trek event .
This variety is something Garrett wanted readers to also experience .
The book project was sold in 2019 .
And then COVID-19 spread around the world .
Suddenly isolation became a part of nearly everyone's lives .
People were separated from friends , family members , co-workers , and neighbors .
At the same time , many people were forced to be around their immediate families all the time .
For some , this led to a different kind of loneliness – a loneliness for oneself .
The book The Lonely Stories also deals with the challenges of a lack of solitude , or as we often call it , alone time .
Garrett talked about the difference between loneliness and solitude .
“They're not the same .
Solitude , I think , is chosen whereas loneliness happens to us .”
A writer and a painter , Garrett found being in quarantine with her two young children to be both good and bad .
She was able to spend much time with her family .
But this also meant she did not have time to paint .
When talking about the lack of time to herself , Garrett used the words “longing ” and “crave ” – both mean to deeply want something .
“During the pandemic , I really found myself longing for alone time .
I have two small children .
They're 9 and eleven , and we were all quarantining at home together .
While most of the stories were written during the pandemic , only a few writers deal with the pandemic directly .
In the story “On Witness and Respair ,” Jesmyn Ward writes about her husband dying at the beginning of the pandemic .
Her whole family caught what they thought was just a severe flu .
Her husband did not survive .
In “Exodus , 2020 ,” Emily Raboteau describes the emptying of a large apartment building where she lives in New York City .
One by one , neighbors and friends left the city for safer places to live during the pandemic .
Several writers describe the loneliness of leaving their culture .
Jhumpa Lahiri's “Trading Stories ” is about her parents ' struggle to fit in to a different culture and how that affected her life and work .
Writer Jean Kwok shares the experience of her family moving from Hong Kong to New York City .
They lost everything : money , jobs , and more .
In “Perpetual Foreigner ,” she wrote :
“But the heavier price was losing our language , our friends , our culture , and in some ways , one another .”
Some of the writers wrote about choosing to be alone for personal or creative reasons and the challenges they faced .
-- In “Maine Man ,” Lev Grossman wrote about nearly losing his mind .
While in his twenties , he chose to work on a book in a small town , isolated from other people .
-- In the story “Javelinas ,” Claire Dederer wrote about facing her alcohol addiction during a period of solitude .
-- And in “Am I Still Here ?”
Anthony Doerr , a man addicted to the internet , wrote of his struggle to turn off social media and reconnect with nature and himself .
Loneliness is not just a mental state .
It can also lead to serious physical health problems .
The U.S . Department of Health & Human Services National Institute on Aging says that loneliness and isolation can be harmful for older people .
Loneliness can lead to high blood pressure , heart disease , depression , a decrease in mental abilities , and even death .
Younger people are not protected against the harm of loneliness either .
Researchers at Harvard University have found that in the United States loneliness has increased in young adults and others since the beginning of the pandemic .
The Harvard study was released in February of 2021 .
This includes “61 % of young adults and 51 % of mothers with young children .”
Garrett told VOA that sharing stories of loneliness is a way to bring attention to the problem and to feel connected to others .
"So , I'm really grateful that so many extraordinary writers joined me on this lonely journey and made it really un-lonely !
And that's the Health & Lifestyle report .