Posted on 08/12/2019 3:19:24 PM PDT by rickmichaels
The volunteers at the University of Chicago’s Brain Dynamics Laboratory, all otherwise young and healthy, were tied together by really only one thing: nearly off-the-chart scores on the most widely used scale measuring loneliness.
Asked how often they felt they had no one they could turn to, how often they felt their relationships seemed superficial and forced, how often they felt alone, left out, isolated or no longer closer to anyone, the answer, almost always, was “always.”
The volunteers agreed to be randomly dosed over eight weeks with either pregnenolone, a hormone naturally produced by the body’s adrenal gland, or a placebo. Two hours after swallowing the assigned tablet, the university’s researchers captured and recorded their brain activity while the participants looked at pictures of emotional faces or neutral scenes.
Studies in animals suggest that a single injection of pregnenolone can reduce or “normalize” an exaggerated threat response in socially isolated lab mice, similar to the kind of hyper vigilance lonely people feel that makes them poor at reading other people’s intentions and feelings.
The researchers have every hope the drug will work in lonely human brains, too, although they insist the goal is not an attempt to cure loneliness with a pill.
Lead researcher and neuroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo has likened using a drug to rubbing frost from a windshield. Loneliness increases both a desire to connect with others, and a gut instinct for self-preservation (“if I let you get close to me, you’ll only hurt me, too”). People become more wary, cautious and self-centred. The idea is to help people see things as they are, “rather than being afraid of everyone,” Cacioppo said in an interview with Smithsonian.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Best solution ever....get a pet.
Anyone try pregnenolone yet? Results?
I read my bible when I feel alone. works every time.
+1.
Well said.
Jim Beam doesn’t work anymore?
You know it is no wonder such people have romantic relationship problems. If you don't know how to be a friend how the heck can you expect to be a spouse?
Looked up pregnenolone on WebMD. It’s been in use for quite a long time and people report good results with libido, energy level, other things unrelated to loneliness. Particularly effective for seniors.
I’m the poster girl for a healthy lifestyle: have a pet, go to the gym 5x per week, pray daily, live in a friendly ‘hood, eat right, no junk, and take many nutritional supplements, no prescription drugs. But have a down day now and then. Don’t want a down day, so I may try this supplement after further research.
“Best solution ever....get a pet.”
I agree completely.
A pill - how ridiculous.
Yet, what kind of society or institution would fund crap like this.
Sure, I’d try to cure loneliness in the lab too, if I was getting paid 6-figures and university bennies.
I’m so woonweee. So woonweee.
- Kim Jong-il
Okay, thanks. But what about me?
I learned a long tine ago there’s a difference between being lonely and being Alone (All one)....You can be alone and enjoy your own company just fine. And when the ‘lonely bug’ bites now and then have a plan B to shake it off. And yes reading the bible always is good.
I learned a long tine ago there’s a difference between being lonely and being Alone (All one)....You can be alone and enjoy your own company just fine. And when the ‘lonely bug’ bites now and then have a plan B to shake it off. And yes reading the bible always is good.
...”the difference between being lonely and being alone”
EST?
Another mind altering drug is just what America needs.
SOMA for everybody!
/Sarcasm
...a difference between being lonely and being Alone ...
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As we’ve aged, we’ve noticed what we call the Great Disengagement. Not just us, either.
Viagra will help some and Valium the rest....all these psychotropic “remedies” cause at least as many “problems” as they solve...they mess with the brain and nobody actually understands exactly what they actually do - just that they sometimes have an effect that they deem ‘helpful” and all the known bad effects are “worth it for the potential of some sort of change in mental activity that might or might not help and might or might not kill you”.
I think it’s your life ‘narrows’ to what you like and don’t like, which you’ve been discovering for years... you spend less time on that which isn’t significant for you and more time on what is.
I think it’s your life ‘narrows’ to what you like and don’t like, which you’ve been discovering for years... you spend less time on that which isn’t significant for you and more time on what is.
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