Do you often feel lonesome? Do you spend a lot of time online chatting with friends but still feel disconnected? If your answer is yes to both, you might be one of the 26.7 million out of 69.7 million in Thailand found encountering loneliness in a research conducted by Mahidol University's College of Management last year. Isn't it sad to know that one-third of our Thai fellows are lonely?
If that's not bad enough, here are more shocking figures revealed last month by Kantar Thailand, a research company specialising in consumer behaviour: 48% of married people and 47% of single people were lonely, some 53% of people with children were lonely and 76% of people living in a three-generation household were lonely.
Well, this has a lot to say about how loneliness is everywhere and can be a worrying issue for the near future, not to mention the fact that it has already become a serious problem in many countries.
In the UK, a report that more than nine million people often or always felt lonely led to the appointment of a Minister of Loneliness two years ago to tackle what then-Prime Minister Theresa May described as "the sad reality of modern life".
In the US, a study from the University of California estimated that nearly three-quarters of Americans experienced moderate to high levels of loneliness, and many surveys and research projects came to a similar conclusion -- that loneliness can erode our health, physically and emotionally.
According to research from Brigham Young University, loneliness was found deadlier than obesity and smoking. A review of more than 200 studies in the US found that lonely people were 50% more likely to die early deaths. Also, there's a study that suggested loneliness had been linked to everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's disease.
The more I searched about loneliness on the Internet, the more studies of its frightening impact came up. What interested me most was that a number of new studies suggested that social media actually contributed to a rise in disconnection and loneliness -- quite the opposite of what many are led to believe -- and, worse, chronic loneliness can cause depression.
It's hard to believe that while we're living in a world full of high technology that allows us to stay connected at all times, many still feel disconnected and isolated.
This can probably be explained by the study of an American psychotherapist that revealed that interactions experienced through social media are not the same as those experienced face-to-face, and can often leave us feeling isolated and left out, as though our lives aren't as perfect as those portrayed online.
Now I can't help but worry about our young Thai people, brought up in the era of social media and spend a lot of time there on a daily basis. You read a lot of stories about the growing number of depressed Thais taking their own lives. Who knows many of them might have been suffering from loneliness?
Loneliness is a private matter experienced in silence. It is a negative feeling that can occur when our needs for social connection aren't met. The Mental Health Department has suggested many ways to stave off loneliness: getting involved in social activities, keeping pets, exposing oneself to natural surroundings, nurturing a hobby, and engaging in religious practice.
Practising mindfulness based on Buddhist teachings can be very effective in protecting against loneliness. The core principle of the practice is that we consciously and constantly detect our own thoughts, feelings and emotions of any kind in the present moment without intervening in them or placing any judgments upon them. The point is that we simply recognise them, acknowledge them, and then let them go.
Regular practice of mindfulness has been proven to help us become aware of the fact that our own feelings and emotions are temporary and subject to change based on different circumstances. This is called "insight wisdom" in Buddhism, and can ultimately direct us to live with greater peace of mind, far from the influences of our own emotions.
As a matter of fact, many studies in the West have shown solid evidence about the benefits of mindfulness, and the practice has long been adopted for so-called "mindfulness therapy" to treat people with depression and other psychiatric disorders, both in Thailand and overseas.
Loneliness is a universal experience that can affect any age and gender, and we don't need to wait until we suffer from it to take up mindfulness. I hope that it's near the top of everyone's New Year's resolutions.
Patcharawalai Sanyanusin is a writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.