While I have been in the counseling field for over 25 years, I don’t believe that I have ever seen so many of my clients experiencing feelings of anxiety and isolation. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 20% of Americans felt isolated and lonely. The report equated the resulting health damage to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That report was in 2019.
One can only imagine how much those numbers have grown through 2020 and 2021 with periods of: schools beings closed, employees having to work from home, normal social gatherings being cancelled, churches have to move services to an online format, and various forms of “stay at home” orders. Is it any wonder that so many of people have felt isolated?
Here we are in 2022, and things are beginning to improve, but they are not back to normal, and perhaps never will be. One national credit firm has sold most of their office buildings and have converted nearly their entire work force to working from home. I see many of their employees who cringe at this arrangement, as they now feel permanently isolated.
If you are one who feels isolated, it is important to realize that you are not alone and others want to connect as badly as you do. They, like you, may just be waiting for someone to reach out to them. While there are no simple solutions to these times in which we are living, we recognize that God designed us for relationship, so there is divine reason for our need to be needed. I want to encourage you today to make a connection – whether by phone call or in person – refuse to remain isolated. As an old telephone company used to say, “Reach out and touch someone.”