This week is national Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) and this year’s theme is all about the relationship between loneliness and our mental health. Loneliness affects millions of people in the UK every year and can be a key driver of poor mental health. After the collective challenges we have all faced over the past two years, raising awareness and insight to this important topic has never been more needed.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 4 adults feel lonely some or all of the time. There’s often not one single cause, and similarly there’s not one solution to fit all. It has been proven that the longer we feel lonely, the more we are at risk of developing mental health problems. Additionally, those of us who are currently experiencing mental health difficulties are more likely to feel isolated and be at greater risk of feeling lonely.

Loneliness can be a cause and symptom of wider mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

For Mental Health Awareness Week, we wanted to help raise awareness of the impact loneliness can have on our overall wellbeing. Often, the stigmas attached to our mental health (and in particular loneliness) can make it challenging to talk about and prevent people from seeking help. Severe loneliness and poor mental health are closely interlinked and it can often feel like a vicious cycle.

“One thing I've learned is the difference between feeling alone and feeling lonely – and how you can feel lonely in a crowd full of people, but quite peaceful and content when alone.”

Loneliness can affect anyone regardless of age, social situation, or how many friends they have. Here at Devon Mind, many of us have found ourselves increasingly affected by loneliness due to the many challenges and changes within our working and personal lives over the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have created a short presentation about what loneliness is and how it affects us which you can view below. We hope that the presentation can be of benefit to anyone currently struggling and can also help raise awareness for the key signs to look out for, so we can all better support those around us.

In addition to sharing our own presentation, we also wanted to highlight some other important ongoing campaigns and resources worth checking out, to offer further support, information and advice.

The Mental Health Foundation has created the Loneliness and Mental Health Report, which explores what it’s like to be lonely: its causes, consequences, and some of the groups of people who are more likely to experience severe and enduring loneliness. Keep an eye out for their #IveBeenThere social media campaign, encouraging people to open up and share their struggles with loneliness.

National Mind are currently running a campaign to encourage us all to be more open about our mental health: “If this speaks to you, speak to us.” We all experience and talk about mental health differently, but we aren’t always listened to and we aren’t always represented. Mind wants to change that. We’re here to fight for mental health – for support, for respect, for you. To find out more about the speak to us campaign, click here.

Additionally, for further information, support and tips about loneliness, visit the Mind online resource hub here.

Throughout the week, we will be sharing more information and insight about loneliness on our social media channels, and would love for you to join our communities! You can follow us here: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. In addition to talking about this year’s theme, we will also be sharing some practical tips and advice on how to start talking about our own mental health and, importantly, how to go about accessing support.