Loneliness Is Pervasive During COVID-19: Phone Therapy and Video Chat Therapy Can Be A Way To Connect
Feelings of loneliness are running rampant right now, and in our NYC phone and video chat therapy on Zoom and Google Meet, we’re seeing these feelings show up in different ways. You don’t have to be quarantining in a studio apartment to feel isolated. Folks still experience pervasive and intense feelings of loneliness with a roommate that they don’t love, and even within stable and loving families and partnerships that just aren’t meeting certain needs.
Online therapy in New York can be a way to stay connected, while also addressing the emotional experience of loneliness. Here are four things we’ve frequently heard in our remote therapy sessions during COVID-19 related to loneliness and isolation:
I’m feeling lonely in quarantine. Should I just do more Zoom calls?
Maybe, but maybe not. If you’re the type of person that tends to caretake for your loved ones, it might make it hard for you to get your needs met through group happy-hours, Zoom birthday parties or even, one-on-one connections. You might actually be expending valuable energy monitoring the wellbeing of other people in the group or trying to say the right thing to your friend who recently got laid off.
In teletherapy and video therapy, we tailor the remote therapy session to meet your emotional and relational needs in a way that a loving but overwhelmed friend just doesn’t have the bandwidth to do. Establishing a relationship with an online therapist who is reliable and supportive can be a vital resource during this time to help you feel less alone.
I like being alone, even prior to COVID-19. This is kind of my dream scenario (I feel guilty saying that), but sometimes my emotions feel really intense and overwhelming.
You are allowed to like–and even love–the newly forced social isolation. It can relieve some intense social pressure that most folks feel these days. But people who love to be separate might actually be prone to feeling loneliness more intensely than others because they have a hard time seeking out interpersonal comfort. Mood swings, increased irritability or the pressure of “overwhelming emotions” might be signals that you’re taking on too much stress by yourself, and need some help to both manage it and relieve yourself of the weight of it all. A phone and video chat therapist can help meet some of your needs without feeling as burdensome as it normally might.
I hate being alone. I miss dating. I miss my friends. I miss my family.
We understand. NYC online therapy can help you develop the tools to tolerate being deprived of social networks, physical touch, and being far away from folks who are important. This won’t last forever. However, you may need some help in the interim to manage the intensity of such a sudden disruption to your extroverted lifestyle.
I’m lonely, but I’m not actually alone.
There are plenty of relationships–friendships, romantic relationships and familial relationships alike–that appear safe, loving and supportive. Sometimes people point to absence of conflict as evidence of how well a relationship is functioning. However, folks can still feel lonely in these relationships just like someone who is physically alone; in fact, people more often repress their feelings of loneliness in this case because they feel like the loneliness is not warranted or deserved.
Feeling lonely while surrounded by people can indicate that your relational needs are not being met in some way. This may be related to a shortcoming in the people around you, or a way that you are blocking intimacy, caretaking or connection. Teletherapy or video therapy can help identify the root of this loneliness, after which you can ask for, take or supplement what you need from the existing relationships in your life.