New evidence from the past few years has shown that teenagers and young adults are just as likely as older people to experience serious loneliness. Because loneliness has previously been most often associated with ageing populations, this problem has received comparatively little attention. We know, though, that young people often feel loneliness more keenly. It intersects with growing rates of reported mental ill-health among the young, and seems to be lasting longer and longer into adult life.  Young people, of course, are not just one group – the experience of becoming a student and moving away from home, for example, is very different from that of going to school or finding work in a town with nothing much to do. Each pose their particular challenges, and are complicated further by all kinds of other factors. This enquiry group will focus on the specific difficulties of loneliness in adolescence and early adulthood, and will think about the barriers to belonging that young people face, and how they can be overcome.

One of the biggest predictors for loneliness is the feeling that you don’t ‘fit in’ with a seemingly ‘normal’ group, even though this group is almost always either imaginary or outnumbered. There are all kinds of complicated reasons why some people can find it harder to access supportive and nurturing friendships and communities. All too often, these are the direct result of social exclusion, stigma, inequality, and structural systems of prejudice and oppression. This group will look at how identity and life history affects loneliness and belonging, whether in positive or negative ways. You will consider how loneliness can be a political problem – for example, in refugees, people of colour, or LGBTQ+ people – and think constructively about their specific experiences and needs, in the context of cultures and environments which can be alienating, othering, and hostile.

Loneliness has a complicated three-way relationship with mental and physical health. On the one hand, loneliness can be an important route into serious long-term problems such as depression; it can also lead to various negative physical outcomes, including increasing the risk of heart disease. On the other, we know that it can result from different types of illness and experience too. Experiences of chronic diseases – and some disabilities – can be profoundly lonely, especially when the right arrangements to accommodate divergent needs haven’t been made. The widespread assumption that healthy and able bodies are the norm leads to all kinds of structural barriers. Feelings of loneliness can also be a big part of depression or psychosis, and social anxiety can make it harder to form and keep necessary relationships. In this enquiry group, you will consider loneliness, health, and illness, exploring the connections between them and thinking critically about potential solutions to the problems you identify.