Some mental health experts weren’t happy with presidential candidate Marianne Williamson when she said that antidepressants get overprescribed for cases of “normal human despair.” But she was right that as a culture, we often rely blindly on medicine, rather than embracing holistic change.
For those who think there is medication for everything, scientists are working on a new pill to prove it. Researchers have been trying to use pregnenolone, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland, to cure loneliness, and University of Chicago scientist Stephanie Cacioppo thinks it can work.
“A lonely mind lies to you all the time,” Cacioppo told Smithsonian magazine. “It’s like when you’re driving in the winter, and the visibility is really bad. The idea is that a pill could defrost the windshield for you, and finally you see things as they are, rather than being afraid of everyone. You become more open to listening to others.”
Loneliness won’t go away merely due to a pill. Cacioppo says the drug should clear the way for patients to cure loneliness themselves. There are plenty common-sense solutions: meet up with your friends when they make plans, regularly attend a church or join a club, get a dog, or volunteer so you can remember problems more significant than your own.
On the other hand, don’t spend your evening watching what your other friends are doing over Instagram. Millennials, it appears, are particularly susceptible to this temptation.
Through what has been dubbed the fear of missing out, young people may spend more time agonizing over their friends’ lives on social media than actually participating in their own. According to a recent poll by YouGov, almost a third of millennials say they have no close friends. One in five says they have no friends, period.
According to interviews with Generation Z girls by the Wall Street Journal, high school girls may be even less engaged. “We found that many girls spend their Saturday nights home alone, watching Netflix and surfing social media,” the authors wrote. “In a 2018 national health survey by Cigna, girls reported the highest levels of loneliness on record.”
Loneliness appears to be growing in the United States, and researchers are right that drugs won’t cure it. If you’re feeling lonely, it’s probably a sign that you need to be with people. Or, country music might have the answer. As Kacey Musgraves sings in Lonely Weekend, we need to embrace the joy of missing out. “Even if you got somebody on your mind,” she sings, “It’s alright to be alone sometimes.”
