January 12, 2018
loneliness and solitude aren’t interchangeable concepts. “Just because you are spending time alone does not mean you are lonely,” says Robert Coplan, a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and the co-editor of The Handbook on Solitude. “Loneliness is really more of a dissatisfaction with your social relationships, and feeling like your needs for relationship depth and desire to be with others are not being met. You can be the most extroverted person on the planet and still feel lonely, or you can be an introvert with a few close friends and feel fulfilled.” In other words, it’s all about choices: Feeling stuck in your own solitude may set you up for unhappiness, but spending time alone simply because you want to won’t have the same effect.