Loneliness Awareness Week

   “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” —Mother Teresa

“Sometimes being surrounded by everyone is the loneliest, because you’ll realize you have no one to turn to.” —Soraya 

This week (June 13 to 16) is 'Loneliness Awareness Week'.  Created and hosted by the Marmalade Trust, this annual campaign raises awareness of loneliness across the UK, and beyond, and gets people talking about it. 

"Loneliness is a natural human emotion. We are hard-wired to need social connection. Feeling lonely is a useful prompt for us to look at how we can better meet our social needs."

"By building our understanding of loneliness, we can help ourselves and others to manage the feeling."

Click here to find out about more about 'Loneliness Awareness Week' and the Marmalade Trust.

Writing prompts:

• Write about a time when you have felt lonely even though you were not alone. 
• Are there certain times when you feel lonely, for example Christmas, bank holidays, Sundays? Write about when and why you think this happens.
• The BBC's Loneliness Experiment found that 40% of young people now feel lonely versus 27% of over 75's. Write about why you think more young people now feel lonely.
• Make a list of five things you could do this week to stop you from feeling lonely.