Minister for Loneliness
UK did it in 2018.Now Japan has also appointed a “Minister for Loneliness”.I am sure some people still laugh at this concept or may ignore it, but I have been cautioning for the past twenty years that the greatest epidemic we are facing in the twenty-first century is the Epidemic of Loneliness. Japan woke up because of the sudden increase in the suicide rate. Are we waiting for something like that to happen?
Loneliness grows on you very slowly. You think of it in other terms i.e. you are very busy, you are caught up with work, you need a vacation, your friends are just not available, you are unable to connect to people around you, etc. What we do not do is to acknowledge that we are slipping into loneliness.
In the worst case loneliness leads to suicide. But many, many more people suffer from isolation, emotional detachment, sense of frustration and the frustration of not having someone to connect with love and warmth. Please do vaccinate yourself, and provide help for vaccinating whoever you love or care for.
-Ali