孤独这种流行病吞噬着我们的生命
How Social Isolation Is Killing Us
My patient and I both knew he was dying.
我和我的病人当时都知道他将不久于人世。
Not the long kind of dying that stretches on for months or years. He would die today. Maybe tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the next day. Was there someone I should call? Someone he wanted to see?
不是那种会拖上几个月甚至几年的濒死状态。他可能会在当天死去。也可能是明天。如果不是明天,那就是后天。我应该电话通知某个人,某个他想见到的人吗?
Not a one, he told me. No immediate family. No close friends. He had a niece down South, maybe, but they hadn’t spoken in years.
这样一个人不存在,他告诉我。没有直系亲属。也没有亲密的朋友。他或许在南部有一个侄女,但他们好多年都没交谈过了。
For me, the sadness of his death was surpassed only by the sadness of his solitude.
在我看来,唯有他的孤独所带来的伤感,能压过他的死亡所带来的伤感。
Every day I see variations at both the beginning and end of life: a young man abandoned by friends as he struggles with opioid addiction; an older woman getting by on tea and toast, no longer able to clean her cluttered apartment. In these moments, it seems the only thing worse than suffering a serious illness is suffering it alone.
每一天,我都会在生命的起点和终点看到这类情况的种种版本:一个年轻的男人在竭力对抗毒瘾之际遭到友人的抛弃;一个上了年纪的女人靠茶和烤面包片度日,再也不能清理她那杂乱的公寓。在这些时刻,唯一一件比承受严重病痛更糟糕的事情,似乎就是独自承受严重的病痛。
Social isolation is a growing epidemic — one that’s increasingly recognized as having dire physical, mental and emotional consequences. Since the 1980s, the percentage of American adults who say they’re lonely has doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent.
情感造成可怕的影响。自从上世纪80年代以来,说自己感到孤独的美国成人的比例已经从20%上升到40%,整整多了一倍。
社交孤立是一种不断升级的流行病——人们日益认为它会对身体、精神和About one-third of Americans older than 65 live alone; half of those over 85 do. People in poor health — especially those with mood disorders like anxiety and depression — are likelier to feel lonely. Those without a college education are the least likely to have someone they can talk to about important personal matters.
65岁以上的美国老人约有三分之一独自居住,85岁以上者则有一半是如此。健康状况差的人——尤其是有焦虑、抑郁等情绪病的人——更有可能感到孤独。想要谈论重要的个人事务时,没接受过大学教育的人最不可能找到倾吐对象。
A wave of new research suggests social separation is bad for us. People with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. One recent study found that isolation increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent and stroke by 32 percent.
睡眠模式会紊乱,免疫系统会发生变化,更容易出现炎症反应,体内压力荷尔蒙的水平也更高。最近的一项研究发现,孤独会让罹患心脏病和发生中风的风险分别增加29%和32%。
一系列新研究表明,社会隔离对我们有害无益。社会交往较少的人Another analysis that pooled data from 70 studies and 3.4 million people found that socially isolated individuals had a 30 percent higher risk of dying in the next seven years, an effect largest in middle age.
对来自70项研究和340万人的数据进行了汇总的一项分析发现,处于社交孤立状态的个人在接下来的7年内死亡的风险比普通人高30%,这种效应在中年人身上最为突出。
Loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, and isolated individuals are twice as likely to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions. These effects start early: Socially isolated children have significantly poorer health 20 years later, even after controlling for other factors. All told, loneliness is as important a risk factor for early death as obesity and smoking.
孤独可能会让老年人认知能力下降的速度有所加快,孤立的人过早死亡的风险比交际广泛者多出一倍。这些影响的种子可以在很早的时候种下:即使调整了其他因素,处于社交孤立状态的孩子在20年后的健康状况也非常差。所有这些都表明,与肥胖、吸烟一样,孤独是导致早亡的重要风险因素。
The evidence on social isolation is clear. What to do about it is less so.
关于社交孤立的事实证据颇为清晰。但人们对于该如何应对社交孤立还不甚了然。
Loneliness is especially tricky because accepting and declaring our loneliness carries profound stigma. Admitting we’re lonely can feel as if we’re admitting we’ve failed in life’s most fundamental domains: belonging, love, attachment. It attacks our basic instincts to save face, and makes it hard to ask for help.
依恋。它会触及我们想要保全脸面的本能,从而让求助变得更加困难。
孤独是一个尤为棘手的问题,因为承认并宣示我们的孤独会让我们深深地感到羞耻。承认我们是孤独的,就好像是承认我们在生活的某些最基本的方面遭遇了失败:归属感,爱,I see this most acutely during the holidays when I care for hospitalized patients, some connected to IV poles in rooms devoid of family or friends — their aloneness amplified by cheerful Christmas movies playing on wall-mounted televisions. And hospitalized or not, many people report feeling lonelier, more depressed and less satisfied with life during the holiday season.
电影,尤为突显了他们的孤独。此外,不论住院与否,很多人都表示,他们在假期会感到更孤独、更沮丧、更不满。
在假期照顾住院治疗的患者时,我对这一点看得尤为清楚。有些患者待在一个亲友也没有的房间里打着点滴——壁挂式电视上放映的欢快的圣诞