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by beaner 3447 days ago
I don't have a medical explanation for you, but I can tell you what it feels like. I've experienced many pangs of deep loneliness at times when I feel like I'm by myself and should be out being social. It feels like a tug on your chest. Like there's a void and some gravity is sucking things down into it. Or, I know it sounds corny, but something heavy sitting on your heart while you simultaneously experience anxiety.

When I am deeply lonely like this, in the moment, not just as a general idea, I definitely do feel it as a physical thing. I don't know if it's the same as what they're talking about here, but it seems reasonable that loneliness could be a type of depression, and I strongly believe that regularly experiencing the type of physical feeling described above could do damage to you.

2 comments

Thanks for describing this and I really hope this improves for you over time. I had years of feeling like this too . I can't say I've really found my place but at 50, memories of that depression are from another life. I can't really rightly remember what it felt like, but it was terrible.
I have had this feeling in my chest for over a decade now.
Do you continue to have the feeling despite attempts to go out and be social?
Yes, this feeling is relatively constant in my life. There are times where it is more noticeable though. Usually getting lost in the moment is the best way, but that is hard to do on purpose
I don't know if I can relate. When it really bothers me, I try to do something about it, go out, have fun. Surround myself with people whose company I enjoy.

Sometimes the feeling persists. Its usually when I try the above and fail though. When its not satisfying, when the people I'm with are just kinda whatever. -shrugs-