By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD
My last article about loneliness and what it is doing to our present-day society has unsurprisingly drawn a spate of responses from my readers, both young and old, over the last two weeks. I use the word ‘unsurprisingly’ because we all know how widespread is ‘the strange lonely feeling’ which haunts a great many people these days. Yes, gone are the days when some occasional individuals in our neighbourhood or among our friends or relatives used to complain of being left lonely and all alone, with no one to spend some time with them, let alone look after them and their day-to-day needs. It is estimated that on an average, about thirty five percent of people across the world, complain of feeling lonely, not just now and then, but on a regular basis. And, this is not just a problem of the aged, because an increasing number of those who are young too are being engulfed by this malady.
