During my 1st year of Medicine, I was lonely always. There were times when i went to the anatomy lab with my partner to review for lab practicals and we would stay in the lab for hours on end, till the dead of night. It was really hard being so far away from home and the stresses of academic life, and dealing with the smell of formalyn. My lab partner would tap my shoulder whenever it would be 2 am to remind me that we needed to go home to sleep, lol, since class was at 8am every morning.
Luuya pood mi, the thing that i realized tho was how i was really homesick the first month of 1st year medicine. Maka mingaw pood ta sa sound of our parents' voices and the laughter of my siblings.
Strength through difficulties. That is what I Learned.
BBC
Just under half of us have felt depressed because we have felt alone, says a report. But not everyone who is alone is sad about it, so what is the difference between being lonely and being a loner?
Young or old, male or female, rich or poor, it doesn't matter - loneliness is indiscriminate.
Loneliness is not about being physically alone, it's about a person's individual experience of isolation and how they evaluate it, says the MHF. A loner gets pleasure and satisfaction from solitude, a lonely person doesn't.
While human beings are sociable animals by nature, personalities vary and at the opposite ends of the spectrum are extroverts and introverts.
"For an extrovert it is all about seeking stimulation from other people but an introvert's replenishment comes from solitude," says psychologist Ros Taylor.
"A loner can be perfectly content with their own company, while being alone will make another person utterly miserable."
Professor Jenny de Jong-Gierveld defines loneliness as an "unpleasant or inadmissible" lack of certain relationships in your life. Essentially, you can be surrounded by friends but still feel lonely because you aren't emotionally intimate with any of them.
Most of us experience loneliness at some time, but what makes it harmful is when "it settles in long enough to create a persistent, self-reinforcing loop of negative thoughts, sensations and behaviours", says American psychologist John Cacioppo.
"You can't go through life not interacting with anyone, you have to talk and deal with a certain amount of people to function in everyday life. You need to know how to do this appropriately and successfully."
So while it is just as natural to enjoy solitude as it is to feel lonely, like many other things in life it's is all about moderation.