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How to Deal with Living Alone

woman Living Alone

Have you moved into your new apartment all by yourself? Or are you planning to do the same in the near future? Are you finding it difficult to adjust to the new situation? If your answer is yes, then you seem to be having minimal interactions with other people on a daily basis. This could very well lead you to adopt an unhealthy style of living. You must be able to make out the difference between living alone and living as a recluse. Living alone does not mean that you shut yourself up from the rest of the world. You should always keep in mind that solitude is okay as long as it is healthy. If, however, you isolate yourself from others, it is not a good sign.

Problems of Staying Alone

Man is a social animal. He needs to interact with others to maintain a healthy mental condition. When you are living alone, you need to make sure that you remember certain points. Otherwise you might as well get into a situation where you start avoiding people deliberately; you start suffering from bouts of depression, anxiety and paranoia.

It is essential for every human being to talk about the day’s events with someone else. It might be about anything – like the difficult situation you went through at work, or the tiff you had with your colleague. You need to mirror yourself regularly. If that does not happen, you will stop receiving feedback on your behavior patterns, communication styles, habits etc. Besides, if the grind of day-to-day living gets pent up within you, stress starts building up gradually. It might later develop into painful physical conditions as well. Hence, without regular updates about yourself, you can develop abnormalities, unusual logic and patterns of thought, unsocial behaviors and self-destructive habits.

Ways to Cope with the Situation

Quite naturally, therefore, you need to keep certain points in mind when you decide to or have already moved out in order to stay alone. Some of them are discussed below.

  1. 1.   Meet new people – Makeit a point to connectwith people around you. Put in that extra amount of effort to go out and say hello to people you meet in your apartment complex. You should always ensure that you are present at the events that are organized by the apartment residents. It is one of the best places to socialize and also the place where you can interact freely with your neighbors.
  2. 2.   Get involved with some charitable organization – You can very well join a charitable organization in your locality. Being part of some social work, volunteering at a local shelter, nursing home or working with other charitable trusts helps you to rejuvenate yourself and connect with yourself afresh.
  3. 3.   Keep a pet – A pet wouldmake you feel as though you are not staying alone at all. While you take some time out every day to look after him, it will help you be on track. At the same time, you can meet new people when you take your cat or dog out for a walk. It would prove to be refreshing for you too. You will also have company to talk to when you visit pet shops.
  4. 4.   Take classes on personal development skills – Adulteducation programs available locally provide you with the option for gathering new information, developing fresh skills and organizing personal enrichment classes. These are the places where you meet people with similar interests. You never know, you may very well develop strong friendships with some of them in future.
  5. 5.   Surf the internet for your areas of interest – If you are feeling low, it is always helpful to surf the web. Even if you are not meeting people face to face, you can join chat rooms and make friends with new people – those whom you have never met and will not in future too. You can enlist with social media sites. Even if you are not chatting, a good way to stop feeling blue is to research a certain topic which interests you. You can study the topic, start reading about it or even writing.
  6. 6.   Invite friends over for lunch or dinner – Call your friends home when you are feeling lonely. They are the people who know you best and can cheer you up better. The mere sound of your mother’s voice over the phone can act in a therapeutic manner and make you feel that you are not alone.
  7. 7.   You can always avail professional help – If you really think that you are having problems coping with the challenges of living alone, you can seek professional help from support groups, therapists, and other organizations who are into dream-sharing. In case you are going through a self-destructive mode – feeling constantly depressed, thinking of attempting suicide, or submitting to some form of addiction or the other, then you should immediately seek help from the local psychotherapist.

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