Feeling lonely around a lot of people isnt a contradiction in terms. Of has been living in hamburg for 6 months is a biologist who moved here for work now all he needs is a new circle of friends. Coming i come from a small town with 20000 residents a big city has lots of people but you can feel lost. Or you see other people since you dont know them you still feel lonely if i feel i maybe even lonelier because there are so many people. Fascinated ive never been the kind of guy to go into a bar and chat to people. Maybe as a student in a student pub but otherwise ive never done that its just not my thing just. His family lives far away in southern germany christiane lived in one will for before taking the job and homework leaving his University Friends behind. Openly admitting youre lonely is still a social taboo yet one in every 10 people are thought to be affected by it with grave consequences. Studies show that chronic loneliness can make people ill physically as well as mentally. Yet doctors and scientists are only beginning to understand why that is. Is loneliness a personal problem or a serious social issue. Like christiane many people feel lonely and isolated after a move. Germanys federal Statistical Office says each year 6 percent of the population moves home christiane works on his own out in the field with no colleagues for companionship. Modifying hitting it at 1st i spent many nights sitting at home on the sofa but because i didnt know where to go to meet people mr coffin couldnt summon the energy to find out how to finish the noida. Christiane adi says apartment is located in southern home bored in the enix of a Single Family home. Originally he planned to move in with his long term girlfriend but then they broke up. I think im someone who doesnt much like being alone but im trying to enjoy the single life and learning to deal with it even though its quite an adjustment and not so easy to miss in this office. Affronts i just feel so lonely and socially isolated as i live off the beaten path. Id say im a bit depressed because i just miss people human contact and image of conduct. But how can you find new friends its not easy to meet other singles in this neighborhood which is mainly home to families. But Single Person households are increasingly common in europe. In germany 41 percent of people live alone. In sweden its a huge 51 percent while in portugal in slovakia its just 22 percent. Christiane decided to take action after finding out about a friendship app called 25 friends registered users can meet up at gatherings or activities with a limited number of participants christiane quickly created a profile providing his name date of birth and a photo now he was ready to meet other users the bigger the city the more invitations there are to join in Group Activities they didnt use days on line dating is commonplace so i thought why not i mean its worth a try. I think for me itll probably be perfect but im on the go a lot so i can get to know people in the city on the way of magick and the town. But the whole university in the western german city of both researchers investigate the effects of loneliness on the human psyche. Michelman as a psychologist and her research she differentiates between being alone social isolation and loneliness. Against mr she says im kind is important to realize that loneliness isnt the same as being the love and we understand loneliness to be the subjective feeling that the social contacts the relationships you have arent enough that you have fewer than youd like all maybe the relationships on just good as youd like people suffer from that it hurts as much as physical pain. Some people need a lot of social contacts others feel well connected with just 2 friends but being a lonely for a long time changes a person and possibly others to good story in the league there are studies which suggest that loneliness is contagious one of the effects of loneliness is that you withdraw from others as well simply become a somewhat more unpleasant person. The size that means relationships suffer when a passenger is lonely and in the long run your partner can start to feel lonely too i know some of. The causes of loneliness are as diverse as the people themselves however theyre identifiable risk factors primarily Health Problems or major life changes like a separation a move or unemployment or Mental Health issues like depression. But what about being poor. Sociologist sebastian link is the coauthor of a study which examines how poverty influences social relationships. Then there from the hollywood when we talk about poverty we need to be conscious that poverty is a phenomenon thats accompanied by social withdrawal and a sense of shame and charm good food and im here and of course that also makes the poor less visible. I dont see it. In germany anyone who earns less than 60 percent of the average net income so less than 1100. 00 euros per month is said to be poor. Link study shows that poverty makes it hard to build and maintain social relationships poor people dont fully participate in society. Today is a must and link is visiting a neighborhood project in berlins courts back district he greets the organizers. Social workers Carla Miranda in tim organized neighborhood meetings along with free cooking courses art classes and yoga sessions. They lend a sympathetic ear to the local problems they dont match up on the forget if i know i dont have much money where can i meet new people if i cant go to restaurants all the cinema thats hard to see this here is very low threshold and i just come in and theres something for me there are people who greet me and want me to stay and most of whats on offer here is free. Cost and also. The boston link study shows that after 2 years of living in poverty people are less likely to meet with friends and its to mean that almost all the longer people live in poverty the more their social fabric changes. For instance we can see that when people have been poor for a longer period of time there are fewer contacts who are rich in resources in their close social network. And thats that. Cooking with friends is a free weekly event. Today over 30 local residents are taking part. In. What. Student and single mom jennifer hope now feels shes in good company here this is what they do and again its really a question of money i dont get any student grants or any other Financial Aid from the state i have to and the money myself and with 2 children its not that easy to meet people to date or anything like that. And here i can come into contact with all kinds of people and bring much child along oh thats a huge help because then take us and thats actually impossible. Creating meeting places and letting everyone participate fully in society are important for combating social isolation and loneliness. The swiss town of talk isnt one of the worlds richest countries but even prosperity cant always keep loneliness at bay. My own woman tyler is 77 years old and lives alone. A man esteemed that youre sad and it makes you tired. Thank you think what do i do now. And withdraw a little bit if i need to cut it she says that its just awful to feel so lonely and so and someone just. Minus a partner died 2 years ago they lived together for 21 years and she nursed him right to the end. After his death my own health began to decline as more side of a fight but you just have to go on. And there are days that go really well where youre happy. So you cant understand when suddenly the sadness hits you. But when youre so alone and theres no one around to talk to and its not easy but it. Dentist senator shine for hard. Run these sometimes you dont want to go out anymore youre just blocked somehow they have their country. And some part of my loneliness in old age is particularly challenging i think because especially among the very elderly loneliness has very specific causes that are almost impossible to combat for example or Impaired Health thats simply age related or the loss of a close relative and those cant be easily replaced you can just tell someone find a new spouse and youll be well again. My you used to be well connected in her neighborhood she also met her former partner here. But the older people went away and younger ones came for 4 and people used to have time for a chat but that happens less these days as i know any better. The ones provincial town of talk is now a booming Business Location that attracts expats from all around the world. d was on a fast didnt he was born into spells out the consequences. Thank you god even soon its evident how many single households we have how many expats who are here for a few months or years and then disappear. People have less and less contact with one another so the family unit is in decline and fall off if we keep Building Family homes which are then occupied by singles. Its problematic when we see neighborhoods going to pieces and the resulting lack of solidarity. Those on a fast bend is cofounder of the Kiss Foundation short for keep it small and simple since 2016 its team has been establishing new Neighborhood Networks and soup to prevent social isolation only our idea is to strengthen social cohesion too quickly i say quickly in quotation marks to quickly get people connected so that they can support one another in growing that is the basically they take responsibility on their own to strengthen solidarity thats whats most important to us he said. This helps neighbors help one another with car rides shopping or going out on walks no money changes hands instead the networks 200 members document the time spent its then credited to their time account. So they can seek help in return or save up credit for later. In the biggest demand is for conversation 1960 hours were booked last year along. Help with everyday activities was next but 1917 hours. Has changed my as life. Through it she meant you did fisher whos been paying my regular visits for a year now. Where you know your. Great great the mom would then go out. And if you did is a lawyer who lives nearby today shes helping my attend her garden something she cant do want to her own. Regular interaction has been shown to increase peoples Life Satisfaction coos member unit fisher profits to the owner. Oh yes molly steamer you months that i 1st time someone from kiss is always on hand they introduce the people and see if theyre a good match. I hope that we would get along. But when i saw her i knew right away that she was right for me. And so we found one another. Shes a wonderful woman who always helps me. Even. Knowing that their help or is being compensated with the time credit makes it easier for some to accept assistance if. They dont feel like theyre accepting charity. So this kid can see here is if it gives both of us a sense of security i can go away on holiday knowing someones looking after my garden someone who knows about gardening as you can see. And in turn she knows that if somethings up she can call me on the roof and say that is so reassuring isnt it today you did has added another hour to our time account it could be an investment that will pay off in the future when she herself might be in need of companionship or practical help. Here. At the university of casa sociologist yarnall shaw been conducts lectures and research on social isolation and friendship. Now and then he enjoys being on his own and having time to think but being alone by choice is not the same as being lonely. At a wall and this sort of taking time out and focusing on yourself are ways in which you also test the boundaries of being human and so many signs of costus that in a way being alone is a very particular and in the modern day also highly prized life experience. And its a specifically human one you want encounter any other way. And this withdrawal is actually a unique opportunity to learn something about yourself so you can view it positively to the phone. Lines or come out as operatives that. Still few people can stand being alone for too long after a certain time the desire for contact interaction becomes overpowering. Experts call this impulse to seek the company of others the real affiliation motive. Here mentions its a talent isnt possible there are social creatures which ultimately means that we as a group needed others to survive i think about the stone age alone is didnt get far according to this theory the feeling of loneliness evolved as a warning signal so that when we were 11 and this ng outgrew us when we no longer feel part of it we suffer suspects who wish and that makes us try to rejoin now try and stop them thats a few of us who has ruined because. The biology of loneliness is also being probed in southern germany. Here near xylem in play constance 200 barbary apes live on 20 hectares of woodland in groups of up to 40 animals. Behavioral ecologist like Nadine Miller kline hope their research on these primates will provide insights into Human Evolution and that we cant really look at whether animals are lonely because thats subjective what we can look at is social isolation and integration and asks how do they influence their health. Barbary apes have very differentiated social relationships the males tend to forge a close alliance of similar to human friendships those who dont make enough ties remain on the groups fringes. And. Always choose one animal to be your focal subject and then collect data for certain amount of time once youve gathered the data you can see how many partners you animal interacted with how many it groomed and how many partners it came into contact at all and from that you can draw conclusions about the animals relationship structure those. Well connected males are more successful in the fight to climb the social ladder they also meet. Their needs in the palm side where lots of aggression occurs like now during mating season and animals have a lot of aggressive interaction that can be stressful but the animals who have strong connections experience less stress the animals who have few strong connections and are bit isolated are far more affected by the stressful situation that i thought is a stress exhibits one few female. She tests for the presence of the stress hormone cortisol in the animal species. Apes release cortisol when they feel threatened as to humans. This response triggers our emergency fight or flight response. That boosts our Blood Pressure blood sugar level and circulatory system. Our immune systems and digestion are dialed down. Chronically Lonely People become chronically stressed which can seriously impact their health. The risk of having a heart attack rises by 29 percent a stroke by 32 percent and the likelihood of dying prematurely by 30 percent. So chronic loneliness reduces Life Expectancy as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Having high Blood Pressure. Or being obese. In the u. K. The British Red Cross says loneliness has reached epidemic levels here over 9000000 people for almost one 5th of the population have said they are always off them only. In 28000 the government appointed a loneliness minister. Tracey crouch pursues a strategy called social prescribing. We find out how it works and from the southwest of england. From in the mendip district in somerset has just 28000 residents but it boasts an Extraordinary HealthServices Network run by doctors and dedicated locals. Today a few of them are paying a visit to the mens shed. Its a workshop designed to combat social isolation. Men often find it harder to admit theyre lonely than women. Patrick abraham started the project 2 years ago. If you put 12 men over 65 in a room and said talk to each other about your life your relationships your health and your aspirations 6 will leave the room immediately and the other 6 will sit around the walls and say nothing if you throw a broken little mother in there and say hey guys fix that within 2 hours i will know whos what i was at school say i have who they are and then me and Everything Else. The longer people are socially isolated the tougher it is for them to reintegrate thats how it was for even williams. After a long stint living in australia he returned to frome 2 years ago. Although his sister lives here hes had trouble meeting people my fellow so im a bit on the out so you know like a group of people when youre on the outside youve got to make the effort to step in and well show you a person really seen sister found out about the men shed on the internet through the Health Connections network and urge them to go there. Point came down and open the door. For the body looks just like the usual pub you know you walk open to all who came nobody looks at you through the 0 one word and even if they were said come in come and you know we have a laugh and a joke of it and we talk about talk about things in general we know that we can fix parts in 3 minutes really and a lot of stuff you know once a week gives you something. For and for to calm you know you have got to calm you come because you want to and because you want to meet people. Today julie carey downs is also visiting the mention she works for Health Connections mendip and has an overview of all the networks initiatives its her job to maintain and expand the network. But it didnt change and you just say. She asks if the shed could open in the evenings too so younger men could come and think for fame people who are working with d. V. D. And stuff to comment because its like once they finished but they quote i suppose actually they expect if they could i think from a say yes just as just 766 sell them a stock it might you cases because that way my aunt juley culture selfhelp connector. Thats because she connects doctors in patients with the many public and private outreach programs for people in from. By getting the community itself involved to feel that it belongs to them theyre not being. Told what to do move west to find things that actually part of it and they feel like i know that i want people how fast they tend to. You sort of join in things i dont know. 6 years ago a doctor at this medical practice declared war on the in the news. Local dr helen kingston realized many of her patients were suffering from social isolation. And so was their health. Im part of this community it matters to me what happens here and i know my patients very well ive been here for over 20 years so when you see individuals that you know very well and see them struggling its a human instinct to want to try and turn things around and make a situation but responds to those needs than just the medical ones. Over the years helen kingston observed that around 70 percent of her appointments werent just about physical complaints but she lacked the resources to help these patients. Then in 2013 she finally got the resources to make a change. She built up a team of people whose 1st task was to gather info on all the services and Assistance Available to the people and from everything from choir rehearsals to debt counseling and selfhelp groups. Now when doctors are talking to their patients they have the in forth their fingertips and can offer advice. Gojira is known as social prescribing. Patients needing more support to refer to a Health Connector like julie carey downs well it is its quite a holistic approach that youre asking people about their health and wellbeing without giving up clinical medical and its supporting them to become more in control of their own health and wellbeing and more resilient. Kingstons team to break the vicious circle of social isolation and illness in many cases they succeed people end up in crisis less often they end up in hospital less often and as a result of that those very expensive emergency admissions that are using up so much results within the n. H. S. Have reduced. One study found that the number of unplanned hospital admissions and from fell by 14 percent. In the surrounding areas admissions rose by 28. 5 percent during the same period. The project has successfully tackled a serious problem. And some kite hats then is has Serious Health implications and thats why its so important to combat social isolation to learning this is problematic when it becomes chronic when it occurs for long periods in such cases loneliness can lead to illness we know that loneliness is associated with a whole range of physical complaints including cardiovascular problems obesity and possibly dementia there are numerous studies which show that Lonely People even die early at the mentions were finished album. Right and carried by. Evelyn cohen moved to from from london to be near her family to live with her daughter and son in law. She lost her husband 31 years ago so things are going well at the moment i guess is that Everything Else you know i dont think so i quite. I dont think id live as long as i have. Im 99 i would hide if i live till next september i should be a 100. I used to have loads and loads of friends and you know but im the only one left the whole circle my for all the rest of got. A year ago evelyn suffered a severe blow when her only daughter died from cancer at the age of 73. Evelyn withdrew but she didnt want to burden her son in law and grandchildren with her grief meanwhile her health steadily deteriorated. You dont know what is happening and why it is happening you know when. You dont know if you can cope or know but its a case of got to admit. Evelyns doctors were concerned so Health Connector contacted her and now visits regularly. Evelyns condition has gradually improved. Somebody that is what you call neutral more or less you know when they can stop. It you can talk and you can that the tears roll down him and you know do the relay and they make you feel youre much better yeah it was like a lifeline really. And is there anything that you want to ask me at the moment to say anything that you need to know. Increase on the pension talked about. It ok yeah. If something nice to actually i dont take it. Julie has one more appointment today a Training Course at a high school in front. She wants to know with loneliness is an issue for the pupils. Im cheveley im from have connections made 1st of all ive got a brief power point but im going to get you to do some work while. Heres. These young people are in their final year of high school. So julie hopes to convince them to become volunteer Community Connectors. The idea is how do we get everybody out to the community to know about our website know that we have based in the medical practices to support people and also get them to let us know where the gaps are unless where Community Connect is coming and what youre going to be doing is signposted and youre not going to take in anybodys information youre not going to become slushy not taken anything like that youre just going to tell people about where they can go to find out about groups and services. During. Its but 1st they need to understand what influences health and well being. The next week on these social media social media thats why i think in part to everyone the idea is this its always youve always got you figured out you 4 with scott people who are spaced way better than you so you can really damage your self image and yourself were in fact a lot of young people feet isolated and lonely and i think that is the area that we are trying to lock up set in groups for come the new year. But sometimes social media can help young people make friends. Christiane ids is heading for home board city center. He hopes to help make some contacts there to the friendship 25 friends. Tonight theres a gathering where people will eat burgers and play billiards. With total strangers. And some owners are registering is one thing you are going is another you have an accounting to go but you must set off and dare try it. But even in the real world social media has a big influence. Some people post their entire lives on instagram you think how awesome theyre doing great every day theyre on vacation or doing core stuff but it depends whether you let that influence you or not if you say ok im jealous or if you hear things rationally and say its to good to be true. To date theres little reliable data on how social media is changing our relationships but the us study found that people who use social media for more than 2 hours a day were twice as likely to feel lonely as people who used it for less than 30 minutes per day. Just compromise in my is the sure the problem with most of the studies on this topic is that we cant tell whats cause and whats effect does social media make people odia already Lonely People tend to use social media because they have fewer contacts offline having a contact offline and. The studies cant answer that question in principle you can say that social media can enrich and expand social relationships past when they start to replace offline relationships when people only chat online and dont have any personal contact in my home and then it becomes problematic and contact babbitts. The group is arranged to meet in front of the burger restaurant. Or if. I were the only doctor in the 1st into the episode yes. I mean. Its true that thats what i promise ill take one of the founders of the friendship app organize this event. 20 participants have registered but just 8 have shown up this time and i think its really good it was just the start but it didnt send a reason. To the apps target audience is 25 to 35 year olds it attracts people whove just moved here like christiane and those who just want to expand their circle of friends. Help us make of life make use of what is in the physical thats here to get you to specify and look at. Them and this is just because i got to talk and washed out this is after finding friends to play sports with over an Online Platform rahman i tell you realize there was a real need for a friendship app. It was not terribly sexy to say youre using a friendship up but this is a real problem that many people have. We organized group gathered and tried to make them as not true as possible its not remove some of the shame the protection of being in a group is also an important factor so its all good people like coming to such events because they dont make them feel strange. The group has reserved 2 tables at the Billiards Club next door. With. Some of the guys tell us why theyre here. Stephanie says shes following which is tough for me. I know a little german. But when you come to a city where you dont know anyone nights like this are quite helpful and its a model and its your my long term relationship ended and through that i lost all my friends and getting to know folks in a big city is tough so the ups being good for that so far. Have the sunlight and thats it i told people about it when they asked what are you doing on the weekend i said playing billiards inning burgers who with total strangers people dont think thats strange these days lots of things are done online but the 1st time its like meeting up with 10 or 20 complete strangers or 1st you have to make small talk but once the conversation flows it is better to nice being quite nice. But will real friendships emerge from this 1st meeting. At the university of casa yano sholden in his Research Group or working on friendship networks. The sociologist knows that for around 10 percent of germans friends are more important than family. When i come to a certain degree friends can qualify as a substitute family. From what weve seen in studies that applies across the board. So all the forms of practical support you need in life can generally be provided by friends childcare helping build you up again after emotionally tough phases of life. Where i see major difficulties is in the area of caregiving personal hygiene washing calming us everything that goes into basic day care and the stats show that friends hardly ever do this. For his Research Young children analyze of lots of statistics but he also conducts many biographical studies. Today hes interviewing a subject. And the student narcissa has volunteered to take part in a detailed biographical analysis. And were doing a study on up peoples and peoples lives and asking how you perceive them specifically how they change your social network in the end zone which if im not one such as this basically there are a few constants in my life. My family. And the 2 or 3 friends ive had since grade school with. The last major of people in narcissus life occurred a year ago she and her then boyfriend split up. The end of a relationship is one of the biggest risk factors for loneliness. And thats my circle of friends has actually changed that investment apart from my best friend that is shes almost like family is so. Out as a so shes friends with your mom and sister too yeah yeah you could say that yes its a unified whats interesting about this case is that the most stable relationships are those that are also connected to family so the friendships which survive the breakup were those where there were also relationships to family members a friend from her neighborhood a close friend who had other contacts in the neighborhood that through them her network was refilled or healed guy it. But even Family Structures can break down reducing the number of people that someone can turn to in an emergency. Calls with a shortage of connective resources. There are definitely situations where it becomes clear that theres no longer anyone there or just one or 2 people. Here the discussion revolves around how they deal with that how do they bear such a phase of extreme social isolation without anyone to support them. And then we go into details on that and the thai. People who suffer from chronic loneliness often require psychological help. And the consequence for lines on coyote paradoxically one of the consequences of loneliness is that people withdrawals so its incredibly tough to reach Lonely People because by definition theyre not easily reachable. And one of the symptoms of loneliness is not being able to go and seek out other people and thats precisely the problem for many programs all measures designed to tackle loneliness they arent able to get through to the people theyre actually trying to reach. One. Mid january homburg. Has had some luck in finding a friend. Thinking theyre going. At an event organized through the friendship that he met terrence they hit it off right away. You know if i had often enough ive always been this way i never had tons of friends just a couple really good ones and id count terrence as one of them. Sold him off point of this is how its all going to come to the friendships i want to feel i can trust someone confide in them and and the sauce. But also that you can rely on one of the other one thats at the dinner to bring the things that are on your mind. If they can that might make it easier for the other person to do the same kind of light of life stuff. Finding a friend over social media for christiane the gamble has paid off. Though hes not likely to forget the pain of loneliness for a long while to come. I think that this means you can find something positive in everything positive. In my case id say its how you only know the value of friendship when you no longer feel so alone as well and if it then if you are nice it is and how bad you felt before or you only noticed that afterwards. Being alone is part of being human to avoid becoming lonely it helps to take action early on and build up a social network. We can all contribute but it takes much more than that and yeah if we as a society speak out and stress that learning this is something normal something many people feel that would go a long way to helping those affected of course that wouldnt solve the problem but it might encourage us to talk about it a bit more of the sphere. Stackhouse. Out of the comfort zone. Into the crisis zone theater director milorad doesnt shy away from human suffering he demands an incredible amount from both his actors his audiences the artist activist crisis boyer milorad on meet the artist marks 21. 30 minutes on. Like dusty boots muddy tires and drums we deliver urgent lifesaving boxes we give our everything to reach those who need us the most every box feeding their futures. Boxes for the fall hope of lifesaving food and theres so much more down roads with no names we feel asleep to live a relentless you know promise to make every delivery special. Not just next day but every day. Thousands of children are still waiting for their delivery sponsor a box today so together we can deliver features. This is the news live from berlin protest returning to Hong Kong Police fired tear gas or prodemocracy activists as they take to the streets against a proposed security law they say threatens the territories autonomy also coming up. A out was. Muslims around the world to break their fast for the last