Loneliness Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection

Oh my goodness. It's John. CACCI PPO. Cassiapo is that how you say it? Wrote the book called Loneliness.

And I read that book as a scientist and I remember it was like reading a book about the damages of smoking or reading a book about, you know, particular nutrition stuff. Like it was a bellwether moment.

About 11 years ago I was introduced to the work of Dr. John Cacioppo who wrote the book, who really wrote the book on loneliness and he spoke about the science of loneliness and the way that loneliness also attacks the body and that what the Surgeon General has been talking about for the last couple of years now that acute loneliness is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day in terms of its impact on your lungs and on your heart, inflammation, early onset, illness, etc.

And this is again the work of John Cacioppo and others that you know the pain of your hand on the stove sends signals to your brain saying get your hand away from the stove, get safe, get the help you need right now but the physical pain of loneliness and the spiritual pain of loneliness actually cause us to do the opposite of what we need to do in order to make ourselves safe.