#socialisolation — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #socialisolation, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: September 5, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists map the brain pathway that links social isolation to increased alcohol consumption
A recent study in mice suggests that social isolation drives increased alcohol consumption by strengthening a specific neural pathway in the brain, though this effect appears to operate differently in males and females. The findings provide a biological mechanism for how negative social environments can heighten the risk of alcohol misuse. The research was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The basolateral amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that processes emotions and stress. The medial prefrontal cortex is a region at the front of the brain responsible for decision-making, executive control, and evaluating rewards. Researchers know that social isolation is a major risk factor for heavy drinking, and past work laid the foundation for understanding how the brain handles these specific stressors.
For example, a 2017 study showed that signals flowing from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex guide decisions when animals face competing reward and threat cues. Building on this, a 2020 study found that stress physically strengthens the pathway connecting the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex, increasing anxiety-like behaviors. This progression led researchers to explore whether this specific communication highway, the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex, drives isolation-induced alcohol misuse and whether the effects differ by sex.
The new research was led by Reesha R. Patel, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Kay M. Tye, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The scientists aimed to map exactly how social isolation alters this brain circuit to influence drinking habits.
“Social isolation is increasingly recognized as an important risk factor for problematic alcohol use, but we know surprisingly little about how social experience actually changes the brain in ways that can influence drinking,” Patel told PsyPost. “We wanted to move beyond the association between isolation and alcohol use and identify the specific neural circuit changes that could contribute to this vulnerability.”
The researchers began by observing 14 male and 11 female mice in a choice setup, where the animals had access to both water and a 15% alcohol solution. They tracked the animals’ drinking while group-housed and then over 11 days of social isolation.
The isolation produced opposite behavioral effects depending on the sex of the mouse. Isolated males progressively increased their alcohol intake, while isolated females drank less alcohol. The researchers also noted that an animal’s social rank influenced its habits, as subordinate mice of both sexes tended to drink more alcohol than dominant mice even before being isolated.
“One other interesting finding was that social rank also predicted how much the mice drank even before isolation,” Patel said. “That suggests that alcohol drinking is shaped not just by whether an animal is socially isolated, but also by its social experience more broadly. We’re interested in understanding how different aspects of the social environment influence the brain and drinking behavior.”
Next, the team examined the brain cells connecting the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex. They used a technique called patch-clamp electrophysiology, which uses tiny glass electrodes to measure the electrical activity of individual neurons. The electrical excitability of these specific neurons closely mirrored the drinking behaviors.
In males, social isolation increased the excitability of these connecting neurons, making them more likely to fire. In females, isolation decreased this excitability. Because only males reliably escalated their drinking during isolation, the researchers focused the rest of their experiments on male mice to isolate the biological mechanisms driving increased alcohol use.
To see how this circuit behaves in real time, the team used cellular-resolution calcium imaging. They implanted miniature microscopes to track the activity of specific neurons while the male mice participated in a cued drinking task, where a light signaled the availability of alcohol or water. The neurons strongly encoded and predicted alcohol drinking.
Higher electrical activity in this specific brain pathway was linked to a higher frequency of alcohol drinking bouts. The pathway did not show the same predictive relationship for water consumption. The scientists then tested whether activating this pathway could directly influence behavior.
They used optogenetics, a technique where neurons are genetically modified to respond to light. By shining a laser through an implanted fiber, they could manually turn on the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex whenever a mouse licked the drinking spout. Activating the circuit specifically increased alcohol intake, prompting the mice to engage in longer drinking bouts and take more licks per bout.
This light stimulation did not affect how much water or sugar water the mice drank. To understand how this signal changes the brain’s broader evaluation of rewards, the team tracked the activity of downstream neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. During social isolation, the prefrontal cortex became much more responsive to alcohol but less responsive to natural rewards like sugar water.
“One of many actually surprising findings was that isolation changed how the prefrontal cortex represented different rewards,” Patel noted. “That raises the possibility that social experience can alter the relative value the brain assigns to different rewards.”
When the researchers artificially stimulated the pathway in group-housed mice, the prefrontal cortex reacted exactly as it did in isolated mice, showing heightened responses to alcohol and dampened responses to sugar. Finally, the researchers used optogenetics to inhibit, or silence, the pathway in socially isolated male mice. Turning off this circuit reduced the number of alcohol drinking bouts the isolated mice initiated, without affecting their water consumption.
This indicates that this specific neural pathway actively drives the escalation in alcohol use following social isolation. “Social isolation does not simply make animals drink more — it changes how one specific amygdala-to-prefrontal pathway represents alcohol relative to natural rewards,” said Jun Wang, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A& M University Health Science Center, who was not involved in the research.
“That coupling is the striking part,” Wang told PsyPost. “It offers a circuit-level account of how a social risk factor gets converted into a change in what the brain treats as worth pursuing, rather than just a change in how much an animal consumes.”
“I think the biggest takeaway is that our social experiences can have very real effects on the brain,” Patel said. “Social isolation didn’t just change how much the mice drank, it changed the activity of a specific brain circuit that helped drive that increase in alcohol use. To me, that really emphasizes that our social environment is an important part of understanding vulnerability to things like excessive drinking.”
“The broader significance is that social isolation may not simply be a circumstance that accompanies increased alcohol use—it can produce biological changes in the brain that actively contribute to drinking behavior,” she explained. “Understanding those mechanisms could ultimately help explain why social isolation increases vulnerability to problematic alcohol use in some individuals and may point toward new ways of identifying or reducing that vulnerability.”
Wang noted that the study’s strength lies in pinning the behavioral change directly to this specific brain projection and demonstrating that it is both necessary and sufficient. “The sex difference is the most interesting extension,” he added. “Two opposite behavioral outcomes, one consistent circuit signature.”
He also pointed out that the social-rank findings are a “genuinely new addition, and a reminder that the relevant social variable is not only isolation.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which found that social isolation increased alcohol intake and altered reward processing in the brain. However, that previous study examined the long-term effects of adolescent isolation in rats, whereas the new research focused on concurrent adult isolation in mice.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. Wang expressed reasonably high confidence in the findings for male mice due to the convergence of multiple methods, noting that “together they are difficult to explain away.” However, he pointed out that group sizes were typical for the field but relatively small, and that the experimental drinking model represents escalated voluntary intake, not addiction.
“Nothing here tests compulsive drinking, drinking despite negative consequences, or withdrawal, so ‘isolation causes alcohol use disorder’ is a step beyond the data,” Wang explained. Patel echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the study relies on animal models, and human social dynamics involve far more complex psychological factors.
“I would be cautious about interpreting the study as showing that loneliness inevitably causes people to drink more,” Patel cautioned. “We experimentally manipulated social isolation in mice, which is not the same thing as the subjective experience of loneliness in humans, and we actually observed very different responses in males and females. What the study provides is evidence that social experience can directly alter neural circuits controlling alcohol-related behavior.”
The researchers and Wang both highlight the unresolved questions regarding female mice, as the exact biological reasons why female mice reduced their drinking during isolation remain unconfirmed. Wang noted that the female mice drank more at baseline, adding that “‘Males escalate, females do not’ is a statement about one mouse strain over about two weeks of isolation.” Because the mechanistic experiments were done only in males, the circuit’s exact role in females remains unknown.
The researchers note that females showed higher baseline excitability in this brain pathway compared to males, suggesting that sex-specific hormonal or physiological mechanisms dictate how these neurons adapt to stress. “One major question is why the same social experience produces such different adaptations across individuals and between males and females,” Patel said.
Wang agreed, emphasizing the need to causally test the pathway in females to see if its downstream consequences differ. He also suggested investigating which prefrontal output pathways actually carry the effect on drinking, and whether the behavioral and brain changes are reversible.
“Does returning animals to group housing normalize both the excitability change and the drinking, and is there a duration of isolation past which it does not?” Wang asked. “That question matters most for the human parallel.”
“We also want to understand the molecular mechanisms that make these circuits sensitive to social experience and whether the resulting neural changes can be reversed,” Patel added. “Ultimately, the broader goal is to understand why adverse social environments increase vulnerability to psychiatric and substance-use disorders in some individuals but not others.”
The study, “Social isolation recruits amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex projections to escalate alcohol drinking in male mice,” was authored by Reesha R. Patel, Kelly N. Kim, Makenzie Patarino, Rachelle Pamintuan, Felix H. Taschbach, Hao Li, Bitna Joo, Anna Pallé, Xianru Yu, Christopher R. Lee, Aniek van Hoek, Jesse White, Rogelio Castro, Christian Cazares, Raymundo L. Miranda, Caroline Jia, Jeremy Delahanty, Kanha Batra, Laurel R. Keyes, Avraham Libster, Romy Wichmann, Talmo D. Pereira, Marcus K. Benna, and Kay M. Tye.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #AlcoholUse #AmygdalaToPrefrontalCircuit #Neuroscience #SexDifferences #MiceStudy #NeuralPathways #NatureNeuroscience #RewardProcessing #Optogenetics
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DATE: September 5, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists map the brain pathway that links social isolation to increased alcohol consumption
A recent study in mice suggests that social isolation drives increased alcohol consumption by strengthening a specific neural pathway in the brain, though this effect appears to operate differently in males and females. The findings provide a biological mechanism for how negative social environments can heighten the risk of alcohol misuse. The research was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The basolateral amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that processes emotions and stress. The medial prefrontal cortex is a region at the front of the brain responsible for decision-making, executive control, and evaluating rewards. Researchers know that social isolation is a major risk factor for heavy drinking, and past work laid the foundation for understanding how the brain handles these specific stressors.
For example, a 2017 study showed that signals flowing from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex guide decisions when animals face competing reward and threat cues. Building on this, a 2020 study found that stress physically strengthens the pathway connecting the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex, increasing anxiety-like behaviors. This progression led researchers to explore whether this specific communication highway, the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex, drives isolation-induced alcohol misuse and whether the effects differ by sex.
The new research was led by Reesha R. Patel, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Kay M. Tye, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The scientists aimed to map exactly how social isolation alters this brain circuit to influence drinking habits.
“Social isolation is increasingly recognized as an important risk factor for problematic alcohol use, but we know surprisingly little about how social experience actually changes the brain in ways that can influence drinking,” Patel told PsyPost. “We wanted to move beyond the association between isolation and alcohol use and identify the specific neural circuit changes that could contribute to this vulnerability.”
The researchers began by observing 14 male and 11 female mice in a choice setup, where the animals had access to both water and a 15% alcohol solution. They tracked the animals’ drinking while group-housed and then over 11 days of social isolation.
The isolation produced opposite behavioral effects depending on the sex of the mouse. Isolated males progressively increased their alcohol intake, while isolated females drank less alcohol. The researchers also noted that an animal’s social rank influenced its habits, as subordinate mice of both sexes tended to drink more alcohol than dominant mice even before being isolated.
“One other interesting finding was that social rank also predicted how much the mice drank even before isolation,” Patel said. “That suggests that alcohol drinking is shaped not just by whether an animal is socially isolated, but also by its social experience more broadly. We’re interested in understanding how different aspects of the social environment influence the brain and drinking behavior.”
Next, the team examined the brain cells connecting the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex. They used a technique called patch-clamp electrophysiology, which uses tiny glass electrodes to measure the electrical activity of individual neurons. The electrical excitability of these specific neurons closely mirrored the drinking behaviors.
In males, social isolation increased the excitability of these connecting neurons, making them more likely to fire. In females, isolation decreased this excitability. Because only males reliably escalated their drinking during isolation, the researchers focused the rest of their experiments on male mice to isolate the biological mechanisms driving increased alcohol use.
To see how this circuit behaves in real time, the team used cellular-resolution calcium imaging. They implanted miniature microscopes to track the activity of specific neurons while the male mice participated in a cued drinking task, where a light signaled the availability of alcohol or water. The neurons strongly encoded and predicted alcohol drinking.
Higher electrical activity in this specific brain pathway was linked to a higher frequency of alcohol drinking bouts. The pathway did not show the same predictive relationship for water consumption. The scientists then tested whether activating this pathway could directly influence behavior.
They used optogenetics, a technique where neurons are genetically modified to respond to light. By shining a laser through an implanted fiber, they could manually turn on the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex whenever a mouse licked the drinking spout. Activating the circuit specifically increased alcohol intake, prompting the mice to engage in longer drinking bouts and take more licks per bout.
This light stimulation did not affect how much water or sugar water the mice drank. To understand how this signal changes the brain’s broader evaluation of rewards, the team tracked the activity of downstream neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. During social isolation, the prefrontal cortex became much more responsive to alcohol but less responsive to natural rewards like sugar water.
“One of many actually surprising findings was that isolation changed how the prefrontal cortex represented different rewards,” Patel noted. “That raises the possibility that social experience can alter the relative value the brain assigns to different rewards.”
When the researchers artificially stimulated the pathway in group-housed mice, the prefrontal cortex reacted exactly as it did in isolated mice, showing heightened responses to alcohol and dampened responses to sugar. Finally, the researchers used optogenetics to inhibit, or silence, the pathway in socially isolated male mice. Turning off this circuit reduced the number of alcohol drinking bouts the isolated mice initiated, without affecting their water consumption.
This indicates that this specific neural pathway actively drives the escalation in alcohol use following social isolation. “Social isolation does not simply make animals drink more — it changes how one specific amygdala-to-prefrontal pathway represents alcohol relative to natural rewards,” said Jun Wang, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A& M University Health Science Center, who was not involved in the research.
“That coupling is the striking part,” Wang told PsyPost. “It offers a circuit-level account of how a social risk factor gets converted into a change in what the brain treats as worth pursuing, rather than just a change in how much an animal consumes.”
“I think the biggest takeaway is that our social experiences can have very real effects on the brain,” Patel said. “Social isolation didn’t just change how much the mice drank, it changed the activity of a specific brain circuit that helped drive that increase in alcohol use. To me, that really emphasizes that our social environment is an important part of understanding vulnerability to things like excessive drinking.”
“The broader significance is that social isolation may not simply be a circumstance that accompanies increased alcohol use—it can produce biological changes in the brain that actively contribute to drinking behavior,” she explained. “Understanding those mechanisms could ultimately help explain why social isolation increases vulnerability to problematic alcohol use in some individuals and may point toward new ways of identifying or reducing that vulnerability.”
Wang noted that the study’s strength lies in pinning the behavioral change directly to this specific brain projection and demonstrating that it is both necessary and sufficient. “The sex difference is the most interesting extension,” he added. “Two opposite behavioral outcomes, one consistent circuit signature.”
He also pointed out that the social-rank findings are a “genuinely new addition, and a reminder that the relevant social variable is not only isolation.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which found that social isolation increased alcohol intake and altered reward processing in the brain. However, that previous study examined the long-term effects of adolescent isolation in rats, whereas the new research focused on concurrent adult isolation in mice.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. Wang expressed reasonably high confidence in the findings for male mice due to the convergence of multiple methods, noting that “together they are difficult to explain away.” However, he pointed out that group sizes were typical for the field but relatively small, and that the experimental drinking model represents escalated voluntary intake, not addiction.
“Nothing here tests compulsive drinking, drinking despite negative consequences, or withdrawal, so ‘isolation causes alcohol use disorder’ is a step beyond the data,” Wang explained. Patel echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the study relies on animal models, and human social dynamics involve far more complex psychological factors.
“I would be cautious about interpreting the study as showing that loneliness inevitably causes people to drink more,” Patel cautioned. “We experimentally manipulated social isolation in mice, which is not the same thing as the subjective experience of loneliness in humans, and we actually observed very different responses in males and females. What the study provides is evidence that social experience can directly alter neural circuits controlling alcohol-related behavior.”
The researchers and Wang both highlight the unresolved questions regarding female mice, as the exact biological reasons why female mice reduced their drinking during isolation remain unconfirmed. Wang noted that the female mice drank more at baseline, adding that “‘Males escalate, females do not’ is a statement about one mouse strain over about two weeks of isolation.” Because the mechanistic experiments were done only in males, the circuit’s exact role in females remains unknown.
The researchers note that females showed higher baseline excitability in this brain pathway compared to males, suggesting that sex-specific hormonal or physiological mechanisms dictate how these neurons adapt to stress. “One major question is why the same social experience produces such different adaptations across individuals and between males and females,” Patel said.
Wang agreed, emphasizing the need to causally test the pathway in females to see if its downstream consequences differ. He also suggested investigating which prefrontal output pathways actually carry the effect on drinking, and whether the behavioral and brain changes are reversible.
“Does returning animals to group housing normalize both the excitability change and the drinking, and is there a duration of isolation past which it does not?” Wang asked. “That question matters most for the human parallel.”
“We also want to understand the molecular mechanisms that make these circuits sensitive to social experience and whether the resulting neural changes can be reversed,” Patel added. “Ultimately, the broader goal is to understand why adverse social environments increase vulnerability to psychiatric and substance-use disorders in some individuals but not others.”
The study, “Social isolation recruits amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex projections to escalate alcohol drinking in male mice,” was authored by Reesha R. Patel, Kelly N. Kim, Makenzie Patarino, Rachelle Pamintuan, Felix H. Taschbach, Hao Li, Bitna Joo, Anna Pallé, Xianru Yu, Christopher R. Lee, Aniek van Hoek, Jesse White, Rogelio Castro, Christian Cazares, Raymundo L. Miranda, Caroline Jia, Jeremy Delahanty, Kanha Batra, Laurel R. Keyes, Avraham Libster, Romy Wichmann, Talmo D. Pereira, Marcus K. Benna, and Kay M. Tye.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #AlcoholUse #AmygdalaToPrefrontalCircuit #Neuroscience #SexDifferences #MiceStudy #NeuralPathways #NatureNeuroscience #RewardProcessing #Optogenetics
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DATE: September 5, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists map the brain pathway that links social isolation to increased alcohol consumption
A recent study in mice suggests that social isolation drives increased alcohol consumption by strengthening a specific neural pathway in the brain, though this effect appears to operate differently in males and females. The findings provide a biological mechanism for how negative social environments can heighten the risk of alcohol misuse. The research was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The basolateral amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that processes emotions and stress. The medial prefrontal cortex is a region at the front of the brain responsible for decision-making, executive control, and evaluating rewards. Researchers know that social isolation is a major risk factor for heavy drinking, and past work laid the foundation for understanding how the brain handles these specific stressors.
For example, a 2017 study showed that signals flowing from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex guide decisions when animals face competing reward and threat cues. Building on this, a 2020 study found that stress physically strengthens the pathway connecting the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex, increasing anxiety-like behaviors. This progression led researchers to explore whether this specific communication highway, the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex, drives isolation-induced alcohol misuse and whether the effects differ by sex.
The new research was led by Reesha R. Patel, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Kay M. Tye, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The scientists aimed to map exactly how social isolation alters this brain circuit to influence drinking habits.
“Social isolation is increasingly recognized as an important risk factor for problematic alcohol use, but we know surprisingly little about how social experience actually changes the brain in ways that can influence drinking,” Patel told PsyPost. “We wanted to move beyond the association between isolation and alcohol use and identify the specific neural circuit changes that could contribute to this vulnerability.”
The researchers began by observing 14 male and 11 female mice in a choice setup, where the animals had access to both water and a 15% alcohol solution. They tracked the animals’ drinking while group-housed and then over 11 days of social isolation.
The isolation produced opposite behavioral effects depending on the sex of the mouse. Isolated males progressively increased their alcohol intake, while isolated females drank less alcohol. The researchers also noted that an animal’s social rank influenced its habits, as subordinate mice of both sexes tended to drink more alcohol than dominant mice even before being isolated.
“One other interesting finding was that social rank also predicted how much the mice drank even before isolation,” Patel said. “That suggests that alcohol drinking is shaped not just by whether an animal is socially isolated, but also by its social experience more broadly. We’re interested in understanding how different aspects of the social environment influence the brain and drinking behavior.”
Next, the team examined the brain cells connecting the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex. They used a technique called patch-clamp electrophysiology, which uses tiny glass electrodes to measure the electrical activity of individual neurons. The electrical excitability of these specific neurons closely mirrored the drinking behaviors.
In males, social isolation increased the excitability of these connecting neurons, making them more likely to fire. In females, isolation decreased this excitability. Because only males reliably escalated their drinking during isolation, the researchers focused the rest of their experiments on male mice to isolate the biological mechanisms driving increased alcohol use.
To see how this circuit behaves in real time, the team used cellular-resolution calcium imaging. They implanted miniature microscopes to track the activity of specific neurons while the male mice participated in a cued drinking task, where a light signaled the availability of alcohol or water. The neurons strongly encoded and predicted alcohol drinking.
Higher electrical activity in this specific brain pathway was linked to a higher frequency of alcohol drinking bouts. The pathway did not show the same predictive relationship for water consumption. The scientists then tested whether activating this pathway could directly influence behavior.
They used optogenetics, a technique where neurons are genetically modified to respond to light. By shining a laser through an implanted fiber, they could manually turn on the pathway from the basolateral amygdala to the medial prefrontal cortex whenever a mouse licked the drinking spout. Activating the circuit specifically increased alcohol intake, prompting the mice to engage in longer drinking bouts and take more licks per bout.
This light stimulation did not affect how much water or sugar water the mice drank. To understand how this signal changes the brain’s broader evaluation of rewards, the team tracked the activity of downstream neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. During social isolation, the prefrontal cortex became much more responsive to alcohol but less responsive to natural rewards like sugar water.
“One of many actually surprising findings was that isolation changed how the prefrontal cortex represented different rewards,” Patel noted. “That raises the possibility that social experience can alter the relative value the brain assigns to different rewards.”
When the researchers artificially stimulated the pathway in group-housed mice, the prefrontal cortex reacted exactly as it did in isolated mice, showing heightened responses to alcohol and dampened responses to sugar. Finally, the researchers used optogenetics to inhibit, or silence, the pathway in socially isolated male mice. Turning off this circuit reduced the number of alcohol drinking bouts the isolated mice initiated, without affecting their water consumption.
This indicates that this specific neural pathway actively drives the escalation in alcohol use following social isolation. “Social isolation does not simply make animals drink more — it changes how one specific amygdala-to-prefrontal pathway represents alcohol relative to natural rewards,” said Jun Wang, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A& M University Health Science Center, who was not involved in the research.
“That coupling is the striking part,” Wang told PsyPost. “It offers a circuit-level account of how a social risk factor gets converted into a change in what the brain treats as worth pursuing, rather than just a change in how much an animal consumes.”
“I think the biggest takeaway is that our social experiences can have very real effects on the brain,” Patel said. “Social isolation didn’t just change how much the mice drank, it changed the activity of a specific brain circuit that helped drive that increase in alcohol use. To me, that really emphasizes that our social environment is an important part of understanding vulnerability to things like excessive drinking.”
“The broader significance is that social isolation may not simply be a circumstance that accompanies increased alcohol use—it can produce biological changes in the brain that actively contribute to drinking behavior,” she explained. “Understanding those mechanisms could ultimately help explain why social isolation increases vulnerability to problematic alcohol use in some individuals and may point toward new ways of identifying or reducing that vulnerability.”
Wang noted that the study’s strength lies in pinning the behavioral change directly to this specific brain projection and demonstrating that it is both necessary and sufficient. “The sex difference is the most interesting extension,” he added. “Two opposite behavioral outcomes, one consistent circuit signature.”
He also pointed out that the social-rank findings are a “genuinely new addition, and a reminder that the relevant social variable is not only isolation.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which found that social isolation increased alcohol intake and altered reward processing in the brain. However, that previous study examined the long-term effects of adolescent isolation in rats, whereas the new research focused on concurrent adult isolation in mice.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. Wang expressed reasonably high confidence in the findings for male mice due to the convergence of multiple methods, noting that “together they are difficult to explain away.” However, he pointed out that group sizes were typical for the field but relatively small, and that the experimental drinking model represents escalated voluntary intake, not addiction.
“Nothing here tests compulsive drinking, drinking despite negative consequences, or withdrawal, so ‘isolation causes alcohol use disorder’ is a step beyond the data,” Wang explained. Patel echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the study relies on animal models, and human social dynamics involve far more complex psychological factors.
“I would be cautious about interpreting the study as showing that loneliness inevitably causes people to drink more,” Patel cautioned. “We experimentally manipulated social isolation in mice, which is not the same thing as the subjective experience of loneliness in humans, and we actually observed very different responses in males and females. What the study provides is evidence that social experience can directly alter neural circuits controlling alcohol-related behavior.”
The researchers and Wang both highlight the unresolved questions regarding female mice, as the exact biological reasons why female mice reduced their drinking during isolation remain unconfirmed. Wang noted that the female mice drank more at baseline, adding that “‘Males escalate, females do not’ is a statement about one mouse strain over about two weeks of isolation.” Because the mechanistic experiments were done only in males, the circuit’s exact role in females remains unknown.
The researchers note that females showed higher baseline excitability in this brain pathway compared to males, suggesting that sex-specific hormonal or physiological mechanisms dictate how these neurons adapt to stress. “One major question is why the same social experience produces such different adaptations across individuals and between males and females,” Patel said.
Wang agreed, emphasizing the need to causally test the pathway in females to see if its downstream consequences differ. He also suggested investigating which prefrontal output pathways actually carry the effect on drinking, and whether the behavioral and brain changes are reversible.
“Does returning animals to group housing normalize both the excitability change and the drinking, and is there a duration of isolation past which it does not?” Wang asked. “That question matters most for the human parallel.”
“We also want to understand the molecular mechanisms that make these circuits sensitive to social experience and whether the resulting neural changes can be reversed,” Patel added. “Ultimately, the broader goal is to understand why adverse social environments increase vulnerability to psychiatric and substance-use disorders in some individuals but not others.”
The study, “Social isolation recruits amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex projections to escalate alcohol drinking in male mice,” was authored by Reesha R. Patel, Kelly N. Kim, Makenzie Patarino, Rachelle Pamintuan, Felix H. Taschbach, Hao Li, Bitna Joo, Anna Pallé, Xianru Yu, Christopher R. Lee, Aniek van Hoek, Jesse White, Rogelio Castro, Christian Cazares, Raymundo L. Miranda, Caroline Jia, Jeremy Delahanty, Kanha Batra, Laurel R. Keyes, Avraham Libster, Romy Wichmann, Talmo D. Pereira, Marcus K. Benna, and Kay M. Tye.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #AlcoholUse #AmygdalaToPrefrontalCircuit #Neuroscience #SexDifferences #MiceStudy #NeuralPathways #NatureNeuroscience #RewardProcessing #Optogenetics
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DATE: September 2, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Heavy ChatGPT use linked to intellectual laziness and social isolation
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-relying-on-chatgpt-affects-human-memory-and-critical-thinking/
Artificial intelligence has woven its way into everyday life, prompting questions about how reliance on generative tools affects the human mind. A recent small study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests that leaning heavily on ChatGPT can reduce critical thinking, diminish memory, and lead to social isolation. However, users who engage with the software intentionally can also harness it to boost their creativity and reasoning skills.
Over the last few years, tools that generate human-like text have become wildly popular. ChatGPT reached one million users within a week of its launch and currently boasts over 180 million active users. People use the program for everything from writing emails to solving programming problems.
As these programs become a regular part of daily workflows, researchers are trying to understand the psychological and cognitive costs. Zeineb Farhat, a researcher at ISC Paris, initiated the research to investigate what happens when habitual use turns into dependence. Much of the early research on generative software has focused on its benefits in education and the workplace.
Farhat wanted to document the potential downsides of outsourcing mental effort and emotional needs to a machine. The research draws on established ideas in psychology regarding how people manage mental effort and motivation. One concept is cognitive offloading, which happens when individuals use external tools, like calculators or search engines, to reduce the amount of information they need to process or remember.
Another core idea involves the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and social connection. When people feel capable and in control of their actions, they are generally more motivated. Farhat set out to see how constant access to an intelligent digital assistant might alter these processes.
The researcher wanted to know if offloading cognitive tasks to an algorithm would compromise a user’s ability to think independently. To explore these dynamics, Farhat conducted a small study involving 45 young adults in France. The participants, aged 18 to 25, were all regular users who interacted with ChatGPT daily.
The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with each participant, either face-to-face or via video call. These interviews lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. The conversations covered how the participants used the software, how it affected their study or work habits, and how it made them feel.
Farhat then analyzed the interview transcripts to identify recurring themes in the users’ experiences. The analysis revealed that heavy reliance on the software often discouraged independent thought. Participants reported that having instant answers at their fingertips made them less likely to analyze problems deeply or evaluate sources.
Some described experiencing intellectual laziness, noting that their attention spans felt shorter. Users also reported trouble retaining information. They were externalizing their memory by relying on the chatbot to retrieve facts rather than practicing active recall.
“I used to take notes and actively review materials, but now I just ask ChatGPT whenever I need something,” one student noted in the study. “The problem is, I don’t retain much. I feel like my memory has become weaker because I rely on ChatGPT instead of trying to recall things on my own.”
Psychologically, the interviews indicated that heavy use eroded the participants’ sense of autonomy and self-trust. Many users started second-guessing their own judgment. They began seeking the software’s validation for simple decisions, like choosing the right words for a basic email.
The ease of getting quick answers also lowered their intrinsic motivation to learn new things. Without the struggle normally required to master a topic, the learning process felt less rewarding. Some participants even reported anxiety and a sense of paralysis when the software was offline for maintenance.
One participant recalled a time when the system went down, bringing their workflow to a complete halt. “I needed it for a work project, and I felt completely paralyzed without it,” the user shared. “It’s like my safety net is gone.”
The study also uncovered shifts in social behavior. Participants frequently chose to interact with the software instead of discussing ideas with peers or teachers. This preference sometimes led to feelings of social isolation, as users lost the habit of engaging in deep conversations with other people.
A few participants began to treat the text generator as a companion, projecting human traits onto it. “ChatGPT has become my friend; it knows everything about me,” one participant stated. “It’s always there, always ready to listen, and it feels like it understands me better than most people do.”
While this offered temporary comfort, it substituted genuine human connection with a machine response. Relying on an algorithm for emotional support risks blurring the line between technological mediation and true social interaction. Over time, this dynamic can weaken interpersonal skills and empathy.
Despite these negative reports, the study identified a pattern of constructive use. Some users treated the software as a collaborative tool rather than a replacement for their own brains. By allowing the program to handle tedious tasks like structuring data or summarizing dense text, these individuals freed up mental energy for complex reasoning.
They used the tool to brainstorm or overcome writer’s block. Instead of copying what the program generated, they used the output as a starting point to think differently. When used reflectively, the software actually increased users’ confidence and reduced their anxiety about challenging tasks.
Because the research relies on qualitative interviews with a small group of young adults in France, the findings reflect a specific demographic and cannot be broadly generalized. People from older generations or different cultural backgrounds might interact with the software differently. The study also captures user experiences at a single point in time.
It remains unknown whether these cognitive and social habits change over years of use. Future research will need to track larger and more diverse groups over longer periods to see if these patterns persist. Additional studies could also explore how to best train people to use these tools adaptively rather than dependently.
The study, “When AI Thinks for Us: Unveiling the Cognitive and Social Toll of ChatGPT Over-Reliance,” was authored by Zeineb Farhat.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-relying-on-chatgpt-affects-human-memory-and-critical-thinking/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChatGPTOverreliance #CognitiveOffloading #DigitalLaziness #MentalAutonomy #SocialIsolation #AIImpactOnLearning #IntrinsicMotivation #MemoryRetention #HumanVsMachine #CreativeThinkingWithCaution
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DATE: August 22, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Depression may speed up cognitive decline by increasing social isolation
URL: https://www.psypost.org/depression-may-speed-up-cognitive-decline-by-increasing-social-isolation/
A large study of older adults in China suggests that experiencing depressive symptoms can lead to a decline in mental sharpness partly by causing people to withdraw from their social circles. The findings suggest that public health programs designed to treat depression could also help preserve memory and thinking skills by keeping people socially engaged. The research was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Dementia and cognitive decline are major health concerns for aging populations worldwide. Research has frequently shown that older adults who experience a decline in memory and thinking abilities often experience depression at the same time. The exact relationship between the two conditions has been difficult to pin down. Some studies suggest depression speeds up mental decline, while others propose the reverse is true.
Researchers suspect that a third factor, a lack of social contact, might bridge the gap between mental health and mental sharpness. Jia Fang and Meifen Zhang, nursing researchers at Sun Yat-Sen University in China, wanted to understand the sequence of these events over time. They theorized that depression acts as an internal stressor that drains a person’s energy and motivation to socialize.
When people withdraw from friends and family, they lose out on the mental stimulation that social interactions provide. This lack of engagement can erode what researchers call cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to improvise and find alternative ways of getting a job done, which helps protect against memory loss. The researchers hypothesized that treating depression might prevent this loss of social contact and subsequently protect the aging brain.
To test their hypothesis, Fang, Zhang, and their colleagues analyzed data from a large study of 9,220 adults aged 45 and older. The participants were part of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationwide project tracking the health of older adults. The average age of the participants was about 58 years old, and a majority lived in rural areas. The researchers looked at information collected during three different periods: 2013, 2015, and 2018.
The team assessed depressive symptoms using a standard ten-question survey. This test asked participants how often they felt fearful, lonely, or unable to get going during the previous week. To measure social isolation, the researchers looked at four objective factors. They counted whether participants were unmarried, lived alone, had contact with their children less than once a week, or participated in no social activities.
Finally, the researchers measured cognitive function through memory and mental math tests. Participants were asked to recall a list of ten words immediately and after a short delay. They also completed tasks like subtracting seven from one hundred multiple times in a row, stating the current date and season, and copying a drawing of intersecting shapes.
The researchers used a statistical technique to see how these three variables influenced each other across the five-year span. They adjusted their mathematical models to account for factors like age, educational background, marital status, urban or rural residence, and physical mobility.
The analysis revealed a specific chain of events. High levels of depressive symptoms in 2013 predicted an increase in social isolation by 2015. In turn, that increased social isolation in 2015 predicted lower scores on the memory and thinking tests in 2018.
The statistical models confirmed that social isolation acted as a bridge between depression and cognitive decline. Depression appeared to cause people to pull away from their social networks. The researchers noted that people with depression might harbor negative thoughts about their self-worth, leading them to actively or passively avoid friends and family. The resulting isolation then contributed to a worsening of their mental acuity.
The researchers also tested the reverse scenario to see if a decline in memory caused people to become depressed by making them socially isolated. The results were not statistically significant in that direction. While a drop in cognitive scores did predict more social isolation later on, that isolation did not predict future depressive symptoms.
The researchers pointed to psychological theories on aging to explain this lack of connection. As people age, they tend to selectively choose who stays in their social networks, prioritizing close emotional bonds and letting go of casual acquaintances. Even if older adults become more isolated due to memory issues, they might not necessarily become depressed if they are content with a smaller, more intimate circle of support.
While the study tracked people over five years, the research relies on observational data. This means the researchers cannot definitively prove that depression causes social isolation or that isolation directly causes cognitive decline. Other unmeasured aspects of a person’s life or health could influence these outcomes.
The specific bridging effect of social isolation was relatively small. The statistical models indicated that social isolation accounted for about three percent of the total effect that depression had on cognitive function. This suggests that depression likely influences brain health through multiple different pathways, such as biological changes or inflammation, rather than just through a reduction in socializing.
The measurement of social isolation also had limitations. The researchers only counted objective facts about a person’s social life, like how often they saw their children. The data did not capture the subjective feeling of loneliness or the emotional quality of the participants’ relationships. A person might see family often but still feel lonely, or they might live alone but feel perfectly content.
Despite the small individual effect, the researchers noted that interventions targeting social engagement could have massive benefits when applied to large aging populations. Public health strategies that help depressed older adults reconnect with their communities could be an important piece of the puzzle for maintaining brain health. Future studies could explore whether specific programs, like community groups or technology classes, offer the best protection against memory loss.
The study, “Social isolation mediates association between depressive symptoms and cognitive function: Evidence from China health and retirement longitudinal study,” was authored by Jia Fang, Wencan Cheng, Huiyuan Li, Chen Yang, Ni Zhang, Baoyi Zhang, Ye Zhang, and Meifen Zhang.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/depression-may-speed-up-cognitive-decline-by-increasing-social-isolation/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DepressionAndCognition #SocialIsolation #CognitiveDecline #MentalHealthAging #MemoryProtection #BrainHealth #PublicHealth #ChinaHealthStudy #AgingPopulation #SocialEngagement
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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DATE: August 10, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Social isolation harms the aging brain independently of loneliness
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
Reducing social isolation can directly protect older adults from cognitive decline, regardless of whether those individuals actually feel lonely. These findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, suggest that keeping people socially integrated is an independent and effective strategy for maintaining brain health.
As the global population ages, preventing pathological cognitive decline has become a major public health priority. Conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are leading causes of death in the United States, and researchers are constantly looking for risk factors that can be modified. Two highly discussed risk factors are social isolation and loneliness.
While often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, social isolation and loneliness are distinct concepts in scientific research. Social isolation is an objective measurement of how disconnected a person is from other human beings. It involves factors like living alone, lacking a partner, or not participating in community groups. Loneliness is a subjective emotional state. It is the painful feeling that occurs when there is a gap between a person’s desired level of social connection and their actual social reality.
Previous research has shown that both isolation and loneliness are tied to poorer health outcomes, including a higher risk of mortality. The relationship between these social factors and cognitive function is difficult to study because they influence each other over a person’s entire life. Factors like childhood wealth, educational attainment, and career trajectory all shape a person’s cognitive health and their likelihood of becoming isolated in old age.
Researchers Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham wanted to separate these overlapping variables. They aimed to determine if social isolation directly causes cognitive decline, or if it only harms the brain by making people feel lonely. They also wanted to know if targeted public health interventions could make a measurable difference.
To answer these questions, the research team analyzed data from a large study of older adults in the United States. The researchers looked at 137,653 observations from 30,421 individuals aged 50 to 94, using data collected between 2004 and 2018 by the Health and Retirement Study.
The researchers tracked cognitive function using a modified telephone interview that tests memory and mental processing. Participants were asked to recall lists of words and count backward by sevens. To measure social isolation, the researchers created an index based on relationship status, time spent with family or friends, religious participation, and volunteering.
Because social dynamics and brain health influence each other in a continuous loop, traditional statistical models struggle to accurately measure cause and effect. To overcome this, the researchers used a statistical technique known as causal inference modeling. This approach allows scientists to simulate alternative realities using real-world data.
First, the model predicted the natural trajectory of cognitive decline for the participants as they aged. Then, the researchers introduced a statistical intervention. They mathematically altered the data to simulate what would happen if all the highly isolated individuals in the study were suddenly shifted into a less isolated category.
Comparing the natural trajectory to the simulated intervention revealed a direct protective effect. The researchers found that reducing social isolation slowed the rate of cognitive decline across the aging trajectory. While the absolute change in cognitive test scores was modest, the protective trend was consistent across the population.
The team then conducted a moderation analysis to see if this protective effect varied among different demographic groups. They broke the data down by gender, race, ethnicity, and educational attainment.
The simulated intervention provided similar cognitive benefits across all these groups. Reducing social isolation helped men and women alike. It was equally protective for white, Black, and Latinx older adults, and it helped individuals regardless of their educational background. Because Black and Latinx individuals in the United States often face a higher baseline risk for cognitive impairment, reducing isolation in these groups could be particularly beneficial for addressing health disparities.
Next, the researchers performed a mediation analysis to isolate the specific role of loneliness. In this simulation, they reduced social isolation but held each person’s reported feelings of loneliness at their original levels. This allowed the team to calculate exactly how much of the cognitive benefit was driven by a reduction in loneliness.
The results showed that only six percent of the protective effect operated through loneliness. The vast majority of the cognitive benefit came directly from reducing social isolation itself. This indicates that physical integration into a community protects the brain through mechanisms other than simply making a person feel less lonely.
Finally, the researchers designed a dynamic intervention aimed at a specific, vulnerable subset of the population. Instead of reducing social isolation for everyone in the simulation, they targeted only the individuals who lived alone. Living alone is a fluctuating condition that public health programs can easily identify.
This targeted intervention produced outsized results. Even though people living alone made up only about twenty percent of the observations, intervening in just this group yielded half of the total cognitive benefits seen in the population-wide simulation. This highlights a highly efficient strategy for public health officials trying to allocate limited resources.
The study does have some limitations. The data comes from self-reported surveys, and the most severely isolated older adults might not participate in national research projects. The data also cannot reveal exactly how many years a person experienced isolation before joining the study, which leaves questions about the cumulative toll of isolation over a lifetime.
The binary measure used to track loneliness is another limitation. Participants were simply asked to answer yes or no regarding whether they felt lonely in the past week. A more nuanced scale might capture deeper emotional variations, though the simple question provided a consistent metric over the fourteen-year study period.
Future research is needed to uncover the exact mechanisms linking objective isolation to cognitive decline. People who are socially isolated often exhibit different health behaviors, such as poorer sleep or lower physical activity. Future studies could explore whether these daily habits act as the hidden bridge between a lack of social contact and declining brain health.
The study, “Disentangling social isolation, loneliness, and later-life cognitive function for older adults in the United States: Evidence from causal inference modeling,” was authored by Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #CognitiveHealth #AgingBrain #LonelinessVsIsolation #PublicHealth #BrainHealth #OlderAdults #BrainDeclinePrevention #CommunitySupport #HealthyAging
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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In the latest issue of Changing Populations, we report on a study by CG member Dr Jo Hale from the University of St Andrews, which has found that reducing social isolation protects the brain in later life.
Head to section 8 to find out more: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/WzAYgcw05ELXCdXJ?ref=Link
#ageing #cognition #socialisolation #loneliness #brainhealth #publichealth #gerontology #Alzheimers #demography #mentalhealth #laterlife #StAndrews #healthyageing #neuroscience #wellbeing
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La oxitocina tiene efectos distintos dependiendo de que neuronas la liberen (NPV posterior, NPV anterior, extensión amigdalina, etc) y en que patrón lo hagan (el patrón electrofisiológico de las neuronas es muy distinto!!)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-026-02352-y
#Oxytocin #Anxiety #Socialisolation #SocialAffiliation #Neurophysiology #Hypothalamus #Neuropeptides -
A stark new report highlights the risks of #CannabisUseDisorder, noting it affects ~20% of those who try it. For daily users in their 20s & 30s, the addiction can cause severe social withdrawal, career stagnation & eroded #MentalHealth, flipping from relief to a worsening trap. The call is for targeted awareness & cessation support. #WeedAddiction #PublicHealth #SocialIsolation
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Reducing #socialisolation protects the #brain in #laterlife, finds Connecting Generations member Dr Jo Mhairi Hale from the University of St Andrews in a new study
Read more... 👇
https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/reducing-social-isolation-protects-the-brain-in-later-life/
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alphabetchallenge #bookchallenge F is for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip #lyrical #epicfantasynovels #mythicbeasts #lovestory #SocialIsolation #power #fantasy #magicalbeasts #saga #booksky #booktok #bookstagram #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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Is #PoliticalExtremism Caused by #Loneliness?
#Misogyny is often the connection between overlapping #farright ideologies
a holisitc approach to addressing violent extremism starts with confronting deep-seated societal issues.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7_qmkmP-JM
What #SocialIsolation Does to Your Brain : How to Undo The Damage
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https://soulforzen.com/how-social-isolation-fuels-anxiety-and-depression-insights-and-solutions/ #MentalHealth, #SocialIsolation, #AnxietyRelief, #DepressionSupport, #MindMatters, #EmotionalWellness, #MentalHealthAwareness, #LonelinessCrisis, #SelfCareMatters, #EndTheStigma, #WellnessJourney, #StayConnected
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Social Isolation and Seniors: Build Connection - #VSN
https://verdantsquare.com/social-isolation-and-seniors-build-connection/
#loneliness #seniors #SocialIsolation #MentalHealth #depression #kindness #revolutionarylove #holidays
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One of several stories many of you shared with us earlier
I can't believe how common these are, having no one show up for you
Do you have a story? 🫵
#forgotten #unloved #unwanted #stoodup #nobodycares #feelingalone #socialisolation #disappointed #friends #leftbehind
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Lonely individuals tend to think and talk in an unusual way, study finds https://www.psypost.org/lonely-individuals-tend-to-think-and-talk-in-an-unusual-way-study-finds/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #loneliness #mentalhealth #socialisolation #uniqueperceptions #lonelyindividuals
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#socialisolation, #socialmedia or #partialsocialmedia
In recent months I have cut down on #socialmedia use, I have largely withdrawn from posting how great I am at my job on #linkedin, or indeed using it at all. I have also reduced #twitter to almost nothing, and #facebook is used even less. I have however continued to use #mastodon. The only issue with the latter is that I feel it is often an #echochamber for myself. Hence, I am not really sure if I am actully being social on media any more.
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Haven’t left the house in a week; and only just getting out to do something now.
#Depression, #anxiety and #SocialIsolation is horrible.