Everyone feels lonely from time to time but if you have limited social support or a lack of healthy relationships, it can really start to get you down.
You might find yourself feeling isolated, rejected or abandoned.
Loneliness can be a difficult to thing to deal with. Although it's not a mental health problem in itself, loneliness can often cause or be the result of a mental health issue.
There are a number of ways to tackle loneliness. Take a look at our top tips.
Work out what makes you feel lonely
Stop and think about how you're feeling and why you feel that way. Do you feel like others don't understand you? Maybe you find it difficult to be around lots of people at once. Consider whether these beliefs are really true or if negative thoughts are just trying to convince you they are. If you feel like your thoughts are unhelpful, you could try some techniques for managing them.
Talk about how you feel
Although you might be feeling lonely, it doesn't mean that nobody is there for you. Talking to friends or family about how you're feeling can make things much easier to cope with. You might find that they've experienced loneliness too and can share some advice. Plus it often helps just to have someone around who knows how you're feeling.
Meet new people
It's usually a lot easier than you think to meet new people and make friends. Think about your interests, new things that you want to try or activities that you're already involved with. This is a great way to meet like-minded people whose company you'd enjoy. You could try volunteering, joining a sports club or coming along to one of the workshops at our drop-in centre Pause.
If that all sounds a bit too much, it's OK to go at your own pace. You could start off by joining an online community instead or reaching out to one or two people you haven't seen in a while.
Just remember that even if you feel alone, you aren't. Lots of other people are going through what you are and support is available.