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The Loneliness Epidemic - Why We Feel Disconnected and How to Reconnect
59 Plays8 days ago
In a world that’s supposed to keep us constantly connected, why are so many of us feeling so incredibly alone? In this deeply personal episode, we’re digging into the hidden epidemic of loneliness—what it really feels like, where it’s coming from, and why no amount of scrolling or small talk is filling the void.
We’ll explore how our modern lives have made connection harder than ever, why it’s so damn hard to admit we’re lonely, and the simple (but powerful) ways we can start rebuilding real relationships. If you’ve ever felt invisible, left out, or like you’re screaming into the void—this one’s for you.
You’re not broken. You’re human. And connection is still possible.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- What loneliness really feels like (and why it’s more common than we think)
- How social media creates connection on the surface but isolation underneath
- Why we’ve stopped showing up for face-to-face connection—and how to change that
Three Big Takeaways:
1. You’re not weak for feeling lonely—you're wired for connection.
2. The world has changed, but your need for community hasn’t.
3. You don’t need a huge social circle—you need people who see you. Start there.
Take This With You:
- Send a message to someone you haven’t talked to in a while—just a simple “thinking of you.”
- Be the first to be real. Vulnerability opens doors to deeper connection.
- Give yourself permission to crave community. That doesn’t make you needy. It makes you human.
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Transcript
Introduction to Loneliness
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to Exhausted Sparrows Unite. And I am your host, Krista Jones, with my co-host, Chantel Schaefer, speaking today about a really big topic.
00:00:18
Speaker
I mean, let's be honest, loneliness is big topic. is one of those things that we don't talk about until it's crushing us. It sneaks in quietly, the moments between texts that never come and long stretches of silence after a conversation ends in a feeling in that room when it's crowded, but we think no one's even seeing us.
Manifestations and Misconceptions
00:00:39
Speaker
Maybe you felt it sitting at home or staring at your phone or wondering who you would call, but stopping yourself because you don't want to be a burden. Or maybe it's just this dull ache, this feeling that something's missing and you just can't put your finger on it.
00:00:53
Speaker
The hardest part about loneliness isn't the emptiness. Sometimes I think it's just believing that you're the only one feeling it, which is why this podcast today is so important because you're not.
00:01:05
Speaker
This feeling, it's everywhere. And the truth is, in a world that is supposed to be more connected than ever, we are feeling lonelier than ever before. So Chantel Schaefer, I just wanted to dive right in because as I'm speaking these words, I'm watching you shake your head. And I just know that this podcast, I mean, I feel all of our podcasts are um very, very um on the mark for what people need to hear. But, you know, we try so hard to come up with these podcasts that speak to everyone.
00:01:37
Speaker
And, you know, even just watching you and, you know, even just saying these words for me, it chokes me up because loneliness is everywhere. And we so often feel we are the only ones feeling it.
00:01:49
Speaker
Absolutely.
Social Media's Role
00:01:50
Speaker
It's an epidemic. It is an epidemic, which is why this is called the loneliness epidemic. This whole podcast, finding connection in a disconnected world. This is what this episode of the podcast is called, because that's really what we need to dive into. Like,
00:02:05
Speaker
it Just the whole fact that we are now more socially connected than ever, but we are lonelier than we have ever been. it is this whole illusion that social media brings us closer together.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, we're spending so much time with our heads down and our faces and our phones and we're not looking up and making eye contact with the person that we're sitting in the room with or the person across the room who might need a smile today who might be feeling lonely in themselves.
00:02:36
Speaker
And I think, you know, ah social media creates this like illusion, right? That like, we're all in it together, but we're really like an arm's length away. We're not in anything together. We are watching the highlight reels of people's lives, which is not a deep connection.
00:02:57
Speaker
We're not getting to know them any more than that minute we see or two minutes we read on their social media posts. And we have this false... sense that that is friendship.
00:03:09
Speaker
That is knowing somebody's true heart. I mean, that is somebody hiding behind a screen and it's dangerous on so many levels. It's dangerous in, you know, pedophilia. It's, it's just dangerous on so many levels because you're trusting the words of somebody that's hiding behind a screen that you truly probably do not even know, maybe have never even met before.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:37
Speaker
I am truly living my exhausted Sparrow life today. That's okay that you're living your exhausted Sparrow's life. You're just, you're shaking your head. And I know that I'm hitting, you know, something inside of you, which means that we are rattling something inside of everybody else because we all get on social media and it's all about how many likes do we get and how many comments do we get? And oh my gosh.
00:03:57
Speaker
That post only got three comments. That must not be good enough. I must not be smart enough. I must not be funny enough. What I'm doing isn't interesting enough. Okay, let me shake it up. Let me put a different post out there. In this post, I'm going to say that I'm a skydiver.
00:04:11
Speaker
And yet you're afraid of heights. And like, then you start making things up because you're trying to figure out how can you like me more? And this has nothing to do with like. But that's the society we live in, that you're popular when you get comments and when you get likes and when you get reactions.
00:04:26
Speaker
And gosh, that is so wrong. It is. It's so disappointing and it's broken. It's a broken system because those of us You a little bit, but me way more than you. I was fortunate enough.
00:04:40
Speaker
And I say this and I mean this. And if you are like a 45, 50 plus year old, you'll know what I'm saying. I went my entire childhood without having to see a single thing on social media.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I praise God every day for it. I do not know how in the world i would have survived my adolescent years if that
The Value of Real Interaction
00:05:03
Speaker
was consuming every single thought, which it does. It takes over your whole life.
00:05:07
Speaker
And that's what we're all looking at. And how lonely is that? It is because you you feel like you're connected. You feel like you're making friends and you're making these connections, but are they really connections?
00:05:20
Speaker
Well, they're not connections at all. Think about it. You are so, weird we're a society right now that is so socially awkward because we don't know how to carry on a conversation with each other. We're able to write our words and then erase our words because it's not a phone conversation.
00:05:35
Speaker
I had somebody, I called her like two months ago and she's like, wow, you really like to use the phone? And I'm like, yeah. I actually want to call you to have a conversation with with something that was, it was an in-depth conversation.
00:05:48
Speaker
it was about something she was going through. And I'm like, yeah, pick up the phone. i don't want to text you. I want you to hear the affliction of my voice. I want you to feel the hurt in my voice. And I want you to know that I am sad for whatever you're going through.
00:06:01
Speaker
Like, this is not a connection at all. Like, let's completely debunk that. You are not making a connection on social media. It's not a connection. You in no way have this like physical, like, um you know, you can't touch the person. You can't feel the person.
00:06:17
Speaker
There was a study from the University of Pennsylvania, I think it was back in 2021. And think that through, that's the middle of COVID, right? And it says they found 80% eighty percent of those that use social media say that they are more depressed and lonely than ever before.
00:06:39
Speaker
So 80% of people that are using social media say that they are overwhelmed, they're depressed, they feel lonely, they have no connection. Like then what is that telling you?
00:06:51
Speaker
It's not working. Absolutely. It works for your business. It works for us here at Sparrows
Pandemic's Impact on Social Skills
00:06:57
Speaker
Nest. We are a charity in the Hudson Valley in New York that we feed families that are facing a cancer diagnosis.
00:07:03
Speaker
If we want you to make a donation, I'm showing you you, know, interviews of our families. If we want you to come to our superhero challenge in 5K, which if you're listening to this in real time, it is in the end of May of 2025.
00:07:18
Speaker
If you listen to this in 2027, that's pretty cool, but you've missed it. But we use, you know, social media for all of that because you keep people aware of what's going on that is event worthy, news worthy, that type of stuff.
00:07:34
Speaker
But I think the fact that we're using it to make and develop friendships, like we have it all wrong. I'm sorry. I'm so passionate about the subject. I mean, social media is a healthy tool.
00:07:47
Speaker
It's a good way, you know, to to share, to learn. But I feel like we're using it as a crutch iny in society, a crutch to carry on quote unquote relationships in this society.
00:08:03
Speaker
fast paced society we're living in where everything has to be immediate and everything has to be now and we're running, running, running and we don't have time to go and sit down and have coffee. So, you know, we shoot a message or send a meme or a reel and that's the connection we're making instead of sitting down and giving time.
00:08:23
Speaker
I think you have some valuable points in there that, yeah, and there's joy and stuff and sending memes and doing things like that. But yes, we're missing that one-on-one connection, but that still kind of keeps us connected to a certain degree.
00:08:37
Speaker
But you know, since COVID too, Like a lot of us are working from home, right? So now you've lost all of that connection. So you don't have that work connection anymore.
00:08:48
Speaker
During COVID, our children were all working from our houses on their computers and they didn't have all that socialization. And you're in the schools. You have been in the schools.
00:08:59
Speaker
I mean, you must see just a ah whole delayed sense just in the social realm of children and how they were growing up. The social development of children is so so stunted because of technology and social media.
00:09:14
Speaker
um I saw delays. So I was a speech therapist. I worked in preschool right before joining the team here at Sparrows Nest. and I cannot describe to you the changes in the eight years that I worked in that setting.
00:09:30
Speaker
From where I started, I worked in self-contained and integrated classrooms. from From where I started to when I left, the drastic drop in social and emotional skills in those children. And these are three and four-year-old little babies who that's the the the most crucial point of their development.
00:09:52
Speaker
And they've lost all that ability to connect on a social level because they're spending so much time watching a screen. ah poll says that before COVID, a Gallup poll said about 6% of Americans worked from home.
00:10:10
Speaker
By 2023, that number surged to 45%. that number searched to forty five percent That is a big jump. That's a huge jump, right?
00:10:22
Speaker
And in this whole process, leaders, CEOs have realized, ooh, I can save the money on the overhead of that.
00:10:36
Speaker
I can let them work from home. And then we also created with all of that, this anxiety to come back into the workplace.
00:10:47
Speaker
We saw that happen. Even at Sparrows Nest, we did not shut down because we feed cancer patients, right? So their immune systems are, you know, absolutely compromised.
00:10:58
Speaker
And during COVID, they could not get out of the house. Anybody they loved could not be out of the house. So, you know, we kind of worked through it. But we still did a lot from home. I came in with the kitchen managers and we made the food and the drivers got it out.
00:11:13
Speaker
But it still wasn't like a 40-hour work week. And I remember even coming back to a 40-hour work week, how anxious that was. and and we were only doing that for six or eight months, you know, because you've lost all of that human connection that you're used to.
Hidden Nature and Mental Health
00:11:32
Speaker
And it's it's not as easy as riding a bike, right? It's not. And for for people like myself, i'm a I'm a born introvert, and that's hard for some people to understand. um So I can fall into that cycle of, i don't ever have to go anywhere.
00:11:50
Speaker
i can work from home. i can be home. I don't have to see people. And for me, that becomes comfortable because social interactions can be difficult for me. um But even for me, that started to become depressing and lonely. And I love my family.
00:12:09
Speaker
But I missed people. Right. Right. I don't know if I could do full time from home if I didn't intentionally build in time to go out and see people.
00:12:25
Speaker
Right. Part of the reason we're doing this podcast too is when I was tossing around the ideas of, of, of trying to hit on some heavy topics for people and let people know, you know, like, hi, we're real people. We mess up every day.
00:12:39
Speaker
haven't showered in two days and I'm at work. know what mean? Like, like in, in, in all of that, I remember saying, um, to Chantel, you know, in a crowded place, sometimes when that is when I feel the loneliness, the loneliest.
00:12:55
Speaker
And Chantel was like, wow, that's really powerful. And she's like, is that true? And I was like, yeah, that's true. And so, you know, we talk about how with COVID and stuff, it did force us to, you know, alienate ourselves and and kind of be alone.
00:13:10
Speaker
And, you know, though, I have always suffered with even being in a group of people. feeling alone. Like people are, you know, talking over me or talking around me and nobody's really talking to me and, you know, getting in your head about I'm not good enough and trying to rehearse what my next line is going to be on this subject. And then they go to another subject and now I don't know what to add to that.
00:13:35
Speaker
And I think that people think that loneliness means that you're alone And that is not at all. Like the the that's such a myth. Like you can be loneliest when you're in a room of other people, right? And comparison sneaks in and all these other things sneak in and the self-doubt and I'm not good enough.
00:13:57
Speaker
And a lot of times that is where I struggle. And I don't know that people would feel that. Um, if you looked at me, like when we do team runs and we're out there and where, um, or i have to be whatever in a setting and there's hundreds of people around us, but that often is where it is the hardest for me. And i I feel the most lonely. So if you are someone that, you know, says, well, I'm, you know, every day I'm surrounded by people and I feel sad and I feel depressed and I feel lonely. Welcome
00:14:30
Speaker
to the world of so many of us that are struggling with that as well hearing that from you it it really puts into perspective how well you can mask that which is dangerous as well incredibly dangerous it's very dangerous i suffer all the time from loneliness and do people really like me and yeah i'm surrounded by hundreds of people but what do you what do you using me for?
00:14:56
Speaker
What do you need me for? Are you trying to say that you do all these good works and I know Krista and, and, and like, that's enough. And I'm not in any way tooting my own horn, but you know, are you, it's, it's just weird. i I'm very lonely in so many things that I do.
00:15:14
Speaker
And I don't know that people know that. So I think it's important to, you know, if you do know me and you're listening, like maybe that's important for you to hear too. I fake it a lot. And I know that that is not good. So I also try to put myself into situations where I'm speaking more and saying more and I'm having a hard time with it.
00:15:39
Speaker
You know, i'm in I'm in small groups at my church and I feel awkward and I'm doing, you know, different things with groups here at Sparrow's Nest and I feel awkward, but...
00:15:52
Speaker
I'm admitting it and I'm trying to change it. um And it's it's it's a process. But I think the most important thing this whole podcast is for you to hear whether you're Chantel and you're more introverted Or you're Krista Jones and, you know, everybody thinks like, I need to be the life of the party or I enjoy being the life of the party.
00:16:18
Speaker
The furthest thing, you know, that's the furthest thing from the truth. We we both suffer from bouts of loneliness and two separate entities of our personalities. Yeah, that's big.
00:16:32
Speaker
That was big. That was some deep sharing. Thank you. I'm trying really hard to be as um open and honest ah to all of this as I can because we shouldn't fear judgment because none of us should be judging this. As I said, when we opened, every single one of us suffers from loneliness.
00:16:51
Speaker
And the thing is with loneliness, um some people think the reason loneliness hurts so much is because you you just feel alone, right? Which of course, duh, right? Loneliness, alone, feel alone.
00:17:06
Speaker
But being lonely also in your brain triggers this stress response, right? So chronic loneliness activates the body's fight or flight response. We've talked about this in quite a few podcasts, which increases these cortisol levels.
00:17:27
Speaker
And this leads to long-term stress, So you're not only feeling a little bit lonely and in love now, you're also feeling stressed in the middle of it.
Real Friends vs. Social Media Connections
00:17:38
Speaker
And that's not a great combination.
00:17:41
Speaker
I was reading in um Perspectives on Psychology that they say chronic loneliness actually is as harmful, if not more harmful, than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for your health.
00:18:03
Speaker
Think about that. I would never smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I'm not a drinker. I don't do any of that. I like to pride myself on, you know, being as physically fit as I can be.
00:18:14
Speaker
But your emotions can lead to changes in your physical being. Like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day because when you're lonely...
00:18:26
Speaker
You get stressed. And when you're stressed, it often leads to this activating this long-term stress. And it is a cycle. And a lot of times we need to just get help.
00:18:39
Speaker
We need therapists to help us, somebody that we know and trust. We need friends to help us. And picking the right friends is really, really important, especially, you know, as we navigate all that life has to throw at us.
00:18:53
Speaker
There's, we need help. Other people in our life, we don't need a lot, but it is the quality over the quantity of people that is important.
00:19:05
Speaker
So you can look around your life. And I do that all the time. And I think I have thousands of social media friends and I get thousands of likes when I post something.
00:19:16
Speaker
And I still feel really, really lonely because it has nothing to do with how many people like what I'm saying. It has to do with who are the people that will show up for a midnight phone call. Or one of my girlfriends just called me before I did the podcast today.
00:19:31
Speaker
She's like, hey, I want to check on you. And I said, oh, I'm okay. And she goes, uh, I don't know. I felt a little something the other day. Wow. How much you appreciate those friendships. And there was a little something the other day. And I was like, well, that's, you know, yeah, I'm going through this and I've got a little bit of this going on.
00:19:48
Speaker
But not only having those friends, but being that friend is really, really important.
Combating Loneliness through Community
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, friendship is a reciprocal thing. And it's important to find friends who can see something like that, despite the armor you might be putting on, that can see through it.
00:20:04
Speaker
Right. And acknowledge it and are not afraid to say, hey, what's going on? Yeah. And finding people, like you said, like that, that's so important. People that aren't afraid to tell you that because that really is a true friend.
00:20:16
Speaker
True friends are not the ones that are going to tell you what you want to hear when you want to hear it. True friends are going to lovingly also tell you what is going on in your life or when they're worried about you or what you may need to know even when you don't want to hear it. And we have to be able to receive that, you know, and sometimes...
00:20:33
Speaker
We just need to look for like-minded people and make some small steps. You know, maybe that's out of your comfort zone, but you know, this is really a great time to talk about the charity. Getting yourself involved sometimes in helping other people.
00:20:49
Speaker
can help yourself through loneliness. We have a few opportunities here that you can get involved in. You can do things like um chopping up food on Sundays and Mondays.
00:21:00
Speaker
When the weather gets nicer, we're in New York. If you're like somewhere beautiful in Australia, I feel very jealous right now. But maybe Australia is called Right now. I don't really know. But I'm digressing. You know, outside we have volunteers for you to, you know, help us plant flowers and all this great stuff.
00:21:18
Speaker
But the thing is, we are looking for people all the time to do that. And we're also trying to then create a stress-free environment for you.
00:21:28
Speaker
where I am also saying, oh my gosh, great job. And you have no idea what this recipient and their family are going to feel when they get this cupcake. They're having such a hard time. You're bringing joy. You're bringing life. Like that, that is so important. So it might be that if you're feeling a little lonely,
00:21:49
Speaker
You might want to get yourself into a a charity that, you know, speaks to you. That's somewhere in your local community. Because think about that. That's a lot of selfless people in a room right there that can really help you to feel less lonely and better about yourself.
00:22:08
Speaker
and Team Sparrow was life-changing for me when I joined the team. So can you tell people what Team Sparrow is who may not know? So Team Sparrow is a group of selfless individuals.
00:22:19
Speaker
it's like It's like a commercial. It is. Who fundraise for Sparrow's Nest to help us feed families and individuals through their cancer treatment. And then we all train together and embark on a destination run.
00:22:31
Speaker
um I joined in 2020, woo-hoo, COVID year. Yes. But having that connection and meeting people, I was, I don't want to say i was in a dark place, but I was a mother of two young children. My kids were four and six, you know, and that's an isolating time if you're an introvert and don't have mom friends.
00:22:48
Speaker
um All of my close friends didn't have children yet. And it was tough. It's tough to meet on an even level when the people around you aren't in the same place in life. um So I came to a meeting and,
00:23:00
Speaker
um Christy was insistent that I joined the team that day and I did. And I have met some of the most incredible people who check on me, who you know, cheer me on when I'm having a tough time and when I'm having a great time.
00:23:18
Speaker
um So yeah, so joining a group or finding people, and I'm not a runner by any means. I certainly was not a runner when I joined, but it's about so much more than that. It's about the people that I've met and then the people that we're helping in the in the meantime.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I think getting into into groups where you don't feel they're clicky. We try really hard here, you know, with Team Sparrow, you mentioned that. Like I'm always like, you know, just drilling it in because, you know, we are a group of women and men, but women sometimes can be tough. And I feel that I can say that as a woman and as a woman that has been tough in the past, you know, so I am always trying to drill it in. Like, you know, we want you to run with anybody and everybody and not just your group of friends. And we want you to meet new people who want you to do new things and finding yourself a group that is very,
00:24:11
Speaker
exclusive, exclusive instead of in-clusive, think is also really important for the mental psych, right? The psyche. I feel that um we all deal with issues from our childhood that develop into our life And, you know, we're all going to have battles we're going have to face.
Practical Steps and Encouragement
00:24:34
Speaker
And so I think getting you into accepting groups is a really great way for you to work on, you know, feeling less lonely.
00:24:50
Speaker
That's important. It's a big topic. It is. And it's a big step. It is a big step. So let's talk about that because small steps are usually the way that we get to the top of the staircase, right? Sometimes looking at the mountain or the staircase, if you tried to just get up at your very first time after not working out for seven years, you're not going to do it. You would go, I'm going to go to this pebble and then this tree and then this rock or whatever that looks like to you.
00:25:22
Speaker
And taking really, really small steps are important. Something like Making eye contact. A lot of times when we feel sad and we feel lonely, um we don't make eye contact, right?
00:25:34
Speaker
Making eye contact is an instant human connection that immediately goes to your heart. It immediately goes to your soul. Sometimes you make eye contact with grumpy people. Unmake the eye contact with them and find a new person or a smile.
00:25:49
Speaker
And that's what I was going to say next. Make eye contact and then smile. Right? Because even if they are a grumpy person, you you've disarmed to them. They don't know what to do with that. My dad lives in a neighborhood and if he's outside, he waves at every single car that goes by. I love your dad. He just waves.
00:26:09
Speaker
And I was like, why do you do that? He goes, I want them to know that I know they're here. Yeah. And he's looking at it, you know, from two different standpoints. we We're a household of all girls. So he wanted to know who's in the neighborhood, but he's He also wanted that person to know, like, I see you, hi.
00:26:22
Speaker
Hi. And now my kids wave at all the cars that go by when they go to Pop Pop's house. Because not? It's just a friendly gesture. is. And you waving and being the one that makes that first contact...
00:26:35
Speaker
You know, you've just, you've created the connection. Sometimes in our loneliness, we can't wait on people to come to us. Sometimes we have to step outside our comfort zone and we've got to start making these small little connections.
00:26:53
Speaker
Engaging in, you know, some casual conversations might be a little bit harder for us, but... It does activate brain regions on this like deep friendship level, which helps to reduce these feelings of isolation.
00:27:07
Speaker
And it could be that you engage in a little conversation with your barista. It might make you all very um shocked to know that I don't drink coffee, so it wouldn't be a barista in in and in my case.
00:27:19
Speaker
But, you know, wherever, it could be at CVS, you're picking up your pictures. It could be the grocery store with the woman at the checkout counter. And I say to myself all the time, i have no idea who else can be fighting loneliness because Robin Williams for me pretty much did me in. When when Robin Williams and everything happened with Robin Williams years ago,
00:27:43
Speaker
I was in such profound sadness that that happened to him, right? ah The one that made us all laugh, the happiest, you know, right? That's what we thought. The happiest man on the planet, the one that was an actor, had a lot of money, had it all, had a great family, had all this and that.
00:28:00
Speaker
And it just made me realize that all of us battle and all of us face these demons. And i just started realizing In the middle of my own loneliness, it's important for me to connect with other people too, because if I'm fighting something that nobody sees, who knows if they're fighting something that I'm not seeing.
00:28:23
Speaker
So sometimes I'll say things like, and you may hear me say, Chantal, I'll say, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, your hair. I love your hair. Like I don't even know the person. Sometimes I'll just give compliments in the middle of me being as lonely as I can go and as hard as it is for me to say that.
00:28:38
Speaker
And I'll just make that connection because I feel, oh, I might've brightened somebody's day. And then weirdly that brightens my own. And I feel a little bit less lonely because I feel a little bit less sad.
00:28:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's a tiny little connection. it took three seconds out of your day. And who knows how much you changed this person's life. You know, it's interesting. You were talking about yourself before and and your personal feelings and feeling lonely in a room.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I immediately thought of Robin Williams and how he spent his entire life making everybody else feel good. But who was helping him feel good? Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
Right. You know, and we all need to put ourselves out there to be that for somebody else, even in our darkest times. You know, we need to be the Robin Williams, but we also need to be the people that Robin Williams needed.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, maybe he had those people, too. You know, listen, on a... On a very serious note, there are times, you know, we say all this and you go, yeah, but Krista, you know, I've i've been fighting this, you know, for years and clinically I am depressed. and and and and And there is always medication and therapist. And we 100%, you know, believe in all of that. And there are therapists that will...
00:29:46
Speaker
you know, with your own unique self, lead you in all different ways, you know, in all different things that you should do in order to help you to be the best you that you you can be. So we in no way negate any of that.
00:29:59
Speaker
Sometimes that is needed. I took medication back in my 20s. I've told this story other podcasts. I came here from the St. Louis area with my then fiance.
00:30:10
Speaker
And, you know, we were young. We were like, I feel like I was 20, 21. My mom and dad were against the relationship. They just thought I couldn't handle it. I was too young, but we came up here together and he left me when we got here.
00:30:21
Speaker
So I came up here knowing no one, um having a job at a radio station that had like three people working there. I was depressed. I ended up going on medication because I really wasn't getting out of bed.
00:30:33
Speaker
I knew that I was in like a really, really bad rut. And it absolutely helped me. So whatever it is for you, we just want you to know when you are listening to this podcast that you're not alone in it. You're not alone in any of this. and And, you know, we're telling you whatever you need, get a help if you need help because loneliness whispers lies.
00:30:58
Speaker
It tells you that nobody cares, that reaching out is pointless. You're better off alone. But loneliness is just that. It is a liar. And I need you to say that over and over again when you feel it.
00:31:10
Speaker
Loneliness, you are a liar. Because the truth is, connection is important and it is within reach. And you are deserving of it. Think about the last time that somebody checked in on you.
00:31:22
Speaker
unprompted Maybe they just said, hey, I'm thinking of you or let's grab some coffee. Did it matter? Of course it mattered. It absolutely matters because it made you feel seen. And it's important to me and Chantal that you know that you are seen.
00:31:38
Speaker
I hope that you're hearing this in this podcast. If you're in your car and you're sitting in a parking lot and you're sad, or you're in a crowded room of people and you feel like nobody's hearing you, you are seen and you are important.
00:31:54
Speaker
You don't need to be the life of the party. You just have to have the courage to text. Just, just one person. You are not alone somewhere out there. Somebody is craving connection, just like you are.
00:32:07
Speaker
Just be kind to yourself this week and each other. Exhausted sparrows unite.