# Does lonliness cause insanity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-lonliness-cause-insanity/156078>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 19, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-lonliness-cause-insanity/156078 "2003-02-19T05:14:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-lonliness-cause-insanity/156078/21 "2003-02-20T07:37:37Z")

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“Do you ever feel alone?”  
“Just around people.”  
-Scene from “Thin Red Line”  
I think that lonliness can lead to mind numbing bordom which could lead to insanity. Case in point. I live alone. This would normally not be a problem when I was working because between work and going out with my friends or girlfriend, my appartment would be a nice refuge of peace and quiet.

Unfortuneately, since I lost my job, I now spend my entire day couped up in my appartment. Now fortunately I have a good friend who lives next door (also out of work), some other friends nearby and my lady friend, and I live in a city of 10 million people so that helps mitigate some of the “sad feelings”.

I could not imagine if I was stuck moving back with my parents (in my early thirties) in the freakin suburbs where I would not know anyone or have access to a New York social life. I think that might drive me to insanity.

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**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-lonliness-cause-insanity/156078/22 "2003-02-20T08:19:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FranticMad \*  
> \*\*I think the OP has asked whether loneliness _can_ cause problems (“break down mentally”). I say the answer is yes.  
> I don’t think anyone here has said that problems are necessarily caused by loneliness, or that there is anything wrong with preferring to be alone. \*\*

You’re correct, no one has said that. I didn’t say anyone did. My first point was that one should be careful to not mistake the symptoms of a disorder as its cause. My second point was that you can’t make generalizations about human psychology. I did not say any judgments were made.

Also, I believe [this](http://www.a2zpsychology.com/great%20psychologists/harlow.htm) is the monkey study you’re referring to. This study didn’t really demonstrate the effect of loneliness and isolation on a baby monkey, but rather the effect of a lack of mother figure and peers during its early years and how it affected its social skills later in life. Those without a real mother figure turned out a little socially inept, but were able to recover. Those who lacked a mother AND peer interaction, on the other hand, were markedly more socially handicapped, to the point where they had difficulty mating when they became sexually mature. Sine I assume we’re discussing adults here, the study is not really a good example of the effects of loneliness and not really applicable to the OP’s question.

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**Author:** ![superfreakicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@superfreakicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superfreakicus)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-lonliness-cause-insanity/156078/23 "2003-02-20T12:46:45Z")

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I don’t know about insanity, but it produces a lot of manifestos.

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