What Social Isolation Does To Your Brain – How To Undo The Damage

I didn't choose to be lonely, but society is full of bullies and narccsistes that socializing has become a nightmare.

I love being alone. I purposely isolate myself, although I recognize it may not be healthy; I think it goes beyond being an introvert, depression, and anxiety (generalized/social). It's literally a way of life and not many people can understand it.

I love being alone. I enjoy being around people in small doses. As long as you keep your mind active by reading and learning new things, I think you'll be fine.

I'm 68 and retired. Live alone with my 3 dogs and love it. Social media is destroying kid's sense of reality and friendship.

having social anxiety from a young age really messes you up, more than people realize. prayers and action we can all get through this

TRUST IS A BIG FACTOR. If people weren’t so darn untrustworthy most people wouldn’t isolate themselves from others.

There are so many people who are either bullies, jealous, thieves, liars, backstabbers, gossips, tattlers, etc., it is really hard to socialize. It can be a lot of trouble or even dangerous in some cases. Loneliness is a problem but life is a problem. Finding the right people to spend time with is more trouble than it's worth in many cases. I like my privacy and spending time helping innocent animals. At least I don't have to worry what they're doing behind my back

I don't go out of my way to avoid people; I enjoy authentic interaction. But if I have to change who I am when around them in order to be accepted I'd rather be alone.

I have more damage caused by people. Prefer to stay alone, have my own peace. People traumatized my head terribly. Since I'm alone I feel much healthier mentally and physically.

I was practically raised in a social isolation environment full of bullying and mistrust. It is extremely difficult to combat social anxiety and re-wire your brain when you are lacking even the basic social skills that most children learn in a young age.

There are many commenters that are explaining "why" they isolate or the reasons they don't want to socialize. This presentation is not about why you isolate or the reasons you may feel lonely, it's about how to heal or regenerate your brain when you're experiencing isolation for long periods of time.

I love being alone and it is the best thing ever because people are worse than being alone. It is my way of life since childhood

I self-isolate to survive. I absolutely love and cherish being alone and being left alone. I am able to interact with coworkers and neighbors just fine, but when I get home I don’t have people over or answer the door for anyone unless it’s an emergency with a neighbor or something. I want to move to a very rural, private area where the closest neighbor would be a mile away. My solitude is my salvation. 🕉️🧘🏼

Crippling social anxiety, poorly managed depression/OCD/ADHD, and the pandemic took the last seven or so years from me, and the enormous weight of realizing just how much time I've spent in a state of derealization/depersonalization just recently hit. I feel absolutely crushed, but also grateful for insights from individuals like Dr. Marks. Sending an internet hug to anyone reading this, who may be trying to pull themselves out of their isolation. We can do this.

Good to see there’s people out there like me it may feel like we’re alone but we stand out

I love being alone. I'm fed up of controlling people who try to own me. They are everywhere. But I own myself, no boss, no government, no significant other half will ever own me. That makes life a perfect bliss.

I used to be a people person, nickname Social Butterfly lol Now that I’m slightly older (late 30s), I’m finding being alone is the way to be for me. A lot of people are mental and emotional vampires, many like to gossip, others are just straight up rude and ignorant, and it’s increasingly harder to find people who are genuine and trustworthy. Being around people is exhausting to me, and that can’t be good for my brain either. So I choose solitude 😊

Whatever damage is allegedly done by being isolated can't be worse than what evil humans will do if you give them a chance.

I was neglected physically and emotionally my whole life. So I just trust like a needy kid and it’s human nature to destroy weakness. I stay away from people now, I just don’t understand why people are so evil.

I only enjoy being with my family. I don’t have a friend circle in college or stuff since i don’t need a group of friends in college. When I first entered my college I was the one to make a boys gang and solve fights in the class…since I was the Class Representative but later with time I realised many things so I stopped socialising in college. Staying without friends taught me to not care about others, To respect and value yourself and your family. I realised that people do what’s common even if it’s bad….they just want to get accepted by others…..and for that they can do anything. When you tell them it’s bad they get offended. Society doesn’t accept the truth since it has drifted far away from it. People hurt your feelings by joking and when you tell them that joking has limits and they are like ‘You can’t take a joke’. By saying ‘You can’t take a joke’ they simply mean that ‘You are not letting me taunt you about a thing you don’t like’. People don’t know boundaries they mix everything up. Nowadays people are literally sheep. So if you choose to be alone or limited then it’s a wise choice and a strong one. Not everyone is strong nowadays. It’s in your hands to be peaceful…