Amman — A happy family in a warm home, with one of its members perhaps having many friends and acquaintances. Yet, amid all this “healthy” noise, that person may still find themselves feeling lonely. When asked, “What do you mean by loneliness?” they may struggle to provide an explanation that makes sense to those around them. At the same time, however, they cannot deny the feeling that has taken hold of them.
اضافة اعلان
Such people may find little support for the idea that they are lonely. When a young man says, “I feel lonely,” his mother may quickly respond, “What are you missing? You have a family, friends, a job, and a whole virtual world,” followed by the question, “Why do you feel lonely?”
Yet loneliness is not necessarily linked to the absence of others. A person can experience it while surrounded by family and friends when they lose the sense of closeness and belonging, or the ability to share what is inside them with someone they feel safe with. In some cases, the feeling may be linked to psychological or social factors, or to past experiences that have affected the individual’s relationship with those around them. Addressing it therefore requires genuine understanding rather than minimizing or denying it.
16% of the World’s Population Feel Lonely
According to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), around 16% of the world’s population experiences loneliness roughly one in six people. The highest rates are reported among adolescents and young adults, reaching about 20.9% among adolescents aged 13 to 17 and 17.4% among young people aged 18 to 29, compared with 15.1% among those aged 30 to 59 and 11.8% among people over 60.
The rate rises to around 24.3% in low-income countries, compared with 11% in high-income countries. The WHO emphasizes that loneliness and social isolation are linked to mental and physical health and quality of life, making social relationships a public health issue rather than merely an emotional need.
Siham Saleh says: “A person may be surrounded by many people and still feel deeply lonely. They see those around them laughing, talking and interacting, while remaining isolated within themselves, immersed in their thoughts and questions, and feeling disconnected from their surroundings despite everyone being there.”
Yasmine Abdullah describes loneliness as “the hardest feeling a person can experience.” She says: “To feel alone among people by faces and voices, yet internally feeling disconnected from everything around you.”
She adds: “Sometimes this feeling reaches the point of tears, not because the people around me are absent, but because there is something inside me that no one has been able to replace. I try to be okay and continue my life normally, but there are days when this feeling becomes heavier than any words.”
Isolation and Withdrawal
Saad Al-Sayed says loneliness may be linked to what he calls an “emotional deficit,” explaining that a person can experience it even while laughing and talking with those around them. He adds: “What matters is not the number of people around us, but how close we feel to them and their ability to give us a sense of safety and belonging.”
Meanwhile, Sanad Ali believes technology has surrounded people from every direction and gradually affected many aspects of their lives and relationships. In his view, it has contributed to a decline in some forms of direct social interaction. He says this shift has made isolation and withdrawal more prevalent in the lives of some individuals.
The importance of these figures goes beyond the emotional aspect. The World Health Organization’s global report issued in June 2025 places loneliness and social isolation among issues that can affect both mental and physical health.
From a psychological perspective, senior consultant psychiatrist Dr. Walid Sarhan explains that a person may feel lonely despite having family and friends because loneliness is not measured by the number of people around them, but by how understood and accepted they feel, and whether there is someone they can speak to honestly and rely on when needed.
The Need for Acceptance and Belonging
Sarhan explains that these feelings may be more common among adolescents and young adults, particularly as they go through a stage in which their identities are developing and the need for acceptance and belonging among friends becomes more important. At this stage, simply having relationships may not be enough if those relationships do not provide a genuine sense of closeness and understanding.
While technology offers broad opportunities for communication, Sarhan stresses that it does not necessarily guarantee psychological closeness. A young person may have hundreds of followers and virtual connections without finding a single person with whom they feel able to speak freely or receive support. Therefore, the quality of friendship and the trust, understanding and mutual support it provides remain more important than the number of friends.
Psychologist and therapist Khuloud Al-Rfaiyeh points out that having family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues is generally expected to provide a person with a degree of psychological and social support. However, this does not prevent feelings of loneliness from emerging, even when someone is part of a group. She explains that loneliness is not a single, uniform experience.
A Lack of Meaning and Purpose
Al-Rfaiyeh explains that social loneliness is associated with having few supportive people or lacking a sense of belonging with them. Emotional loneliness, meanwhile, can occur when a person is surrounded by many relationships, but their connections lack depth and meaning. When they need support, they may discover that no one is able to meet their psychological needs. She stresses that “the breadth of relationships does not mean their depth.”
Existential loneliness, according to Al-Rfaiyeh, comes from within. A person may feel worthless or believe that their life lacks meaning and purpose. It is therefore not necessarily connected to the presence or absence of relationships.
She notes that the quality of relationships and the nature of interactions within them may be more important than the number of people around us. Relationships characterized by constant criticism, quick judgment, frustration and marginalization can increase anxiety, affect self-confidence and make a person feel as though they are living “under a microscope,” even when those people are among their closest relationships.
By contrast, healthy relationships, according to Al-Rfaiyeh, give people space to feel understood, valued and supported, allowing them to find someone who can genuinely and meaningfully share moments of joy and sadness with them.
Loneliness Within Draining Relationships
In such cases, the problem may not be the absence of relationships but their nature. Al-Rfaiyeh points out that some people experience a form of loneliness within draining relationships when giving is one-sided. A person may constantly listen to others, support them and be available to them, but find that they are not there when they themselves need someone to listen or offer support. This can create a feeling of loneliness despite having many relationships.
Sarhan, meanwhile, notes that experiences of loss, neglect or painful relationships during childhood can later affect a person’s ability to trust others and feel safe with them. However, they do not necessarily mean that the feeling will persist throughout life. Supportive relationships at different stages of life can help rebuild trust and a sense of belonging.
In this context, Al-Rfaiyeh explains that early loss or emotional instability in parental relationships may affect how a person later views love, trust and belonging. It may also be associated with anxious or avoidant attachment patterns. Some people may therefore constantly need reassurance that others will not leave them, while others may withdraw from relationships even when they have an opportunity to build a healthy one.
Do Not Minimize Another Person’s Loneliness
She stresses, however, that these experiences do not determine a person’s fate. Psychotherapy can gradually help rebuild this internal model and give individuals an opportunity to experience trust and belonging in a safer and healthier way.
Sarhan stresses the importance of taking persistent feelings of loneliness seriously and not minimizing them or responding with phrases such as, “What are you missing?” Such responses may encourage people to hide their feelings rather than talk about them. He emphasizes that providing a safe space for someone to talk about what they are experiencing, without blame or preconceived judgments, is an important step toward understanding the causes of loneliness and addressing them.
In another reading of changes in the concept of loneliness and relationships, marriage and relationship specialist and consultant Ahmad Abdullah says the concept of loneliness itself changes as society and its ideas change. He explains that loneliness is no longer linked only to the idea of “being alone” or to having few people around, but increasingly to the feeling that there is no one who shares a person’s interests and way of thinking.
Broader Relationships, but Less Depth
Abdullah says relationships today have certainly become “broader,” but they are not necessarily “deeper.” He notes that concepts such as having a “support system” were previously formed within a clear social and human context and passed down through families and social traditions. Today, however, they are shaped by multiple sources, including society, social media, the media, peers, artificial intelligence and personal experiences.
He adds that the multiplicity of these sources has made it more complicated to agree on basic concepts, such as the meaning of support, a support system and a healthy relationship. As a result, “the pain of loneliness today is greater than in the past, and solving the problem of loneliness has also become more complicated.”
Regarding the role of the family, Abdullah says that “the family should not be burdened with more than it can bear,” explaining that the volume of influences and sources affecting individuals today has become large and continues to grow. This makes it extremely difficult for families alone to fill every gap or maintain the cohesion of values and concepts.
He notes that teaching people how to build healthy relationships does not mean eliminating loneliness, but rather helping individuals deal with it effectively when it arises. Today’s individuals have greater awareness of concepts and relationships, he says, meaning that they also have a personal responsibility to work on themselves rather than remain caught between two possibilities: either blaming their families for what they were never taught or simply complaining about the existing situation.
Abdullah concludes with a direct message to individuals: “When will you stop complaining and get up?” He suggests that dealing with loneliness is not only about the presence of others, but also about a person’s ability to understand their emotional and social needs and build healthier, more conscious relationships.
Resource: Al-Ghad, Reporting: Taghreed Al-Saaida
