Archive for the ‘Stigma of Loneliness’ Category
How did you get past stigma to write about your own loneliness in LONELY?
I wish I had an answer to this question. I’m not sure that I really did get past the stigma. I just know that I was able to turn the stigma “off” while I was writing. Cooped up in my office, with no social representations around me (no Internet, no radio, no TV), I was able to create a space where I could write about my own loneliness without fearing negative evaluations.
Do you think the stigma against loneliness and solitude will ever lift?
Yes, I think we are at the beginning of a (long) process which will probably result in the easing of the stigma against loneliness. Stigmas remain in place so long as people possessing the stigmatized trait remain silent. It’s the silence that allows the stigma to go unchallenged.
As more people talk about loneliness, ideas about loneliness will begin to change. This has happened with depression, and it can happen with loneliness. It will take time (I’m talking years here, people), but no stigma is fixed in stone, and the stigma about loneliness can and should lift over time.