Stress and Relationships

Loneliness as a Stressor

Because the presence of social relationships confers a number of benefits, the lack of relationships may act as a stressor. Loneliness is a strong feeling of emptiness or social isolation. Lonely people often feel disconnected from others and may find it difficult to form social relationships.

Loneliness is associated with three factors that may influence disease: negative health behaviors (e.g., eating high-fat foods, smoking), insufficient bodily repair processes (e.g., sleep), and increased emotional and physiological reactivity to stressful events. However, the effects of these pathways on disease occur over a long period of time. For example, eating a single high-fat meal does not immediately increase one's risk for cardiovascular disease, but a consistent high-fat diet could have a cumulative negative impact over a prolonged period.

Social relationships may indirectly affect health by influencing lifestyle and health behaviors (e.g., exercising, cessation of smoking). Lonely individuals tend to engage in more health-compromising activities and behaviors than those who have more social relationships because they do not have as many people encouraging positive health behaviors (e.g., eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep) and discouraging the negative behaviors (e.g., restricting smoking and eating fatty foods). Loneliness may also influence normal restorative processes. For example, lonely individuals have poorer sleep efficiency, and during sleep, repair, restorative, and growth processes take place. Additionally, those who are deprived of sleep also experience more negative mood and impaired cognitive functioning. Finally, loneliness may also influence disease by affecting the ways in which people react to stressful situations. Repeated and frequent exposure to stressful situations may be beneficial to a point so that individuals can develop resistance to them, but excessive stress may leave individuals vulnerable to disease. For example, recurrent exposure to stress can create opportunities for people to develop coping strategies to deal with the stressors, but too much stress can be overwhelming and leave people susceptible to developing negative health behaviors or insufficient bodily repair processes, both of which can lead to disease. Having supportive social relationships may buffer individuals against this stress. For example, an encouraging friend or partner when one is stressed may diminish physiological and emotional reactivity to the stressor.

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