How To Stop Feeling So Lonely—And Get Back On Your Feet [VIDEO]

Let's face it, it doesn't matter who you are or how many people you surround yourself with, sometimes you can still feel incredibly alone.  Even with all the time you spend on your phone, on Facebook, with your co-workers, socializing on weekends and holidays, often, making a genuine connection with a real person can seem impossible.  

Everything seems on the surface; no one shares their deep, imtimate feelings let alone makes the effort to become a truly meaningful friend.  So even with all of the people around you, for many people no matter how hard you try, the loneliness threatens to swallow you whole.

Is it really possible to stop feeling so alone all of the time?

Before we go any further, we have to say that you have absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed about. It goes without saying that everyone has had that one moment where they felt completely disconnected from the world—and from themselves. But the most important part is that you recognize the all-encompassing signs of loneliness and then do something about it.

YourTango's Senior VP Melanie Gorman, author John Gray, LCSW Leslie Rouder, CPC Lora Lucinda Andersen, and LCSW Tamara Green stress different ways to combat those intense feelings of isolation and loss. In fact, we couldn't agree more with the 3:07 benchmark.

What is a healthy way to deal with this terrifying feeling?

According to CNN, there are serious mental and physical affects of feeling lonely. This is due to the fact that "when we feel left out, our bodies may sense a threat to survival, and some of the same pain signals that would engage if we were in real physical danger are flipped on."

CNN even took things a bit further by saying that "in the chronically lonely, levels of the stress hormone cortisol shoot up higher in the morning than in more socially connected people and never fully subside at night." There's no question that having to constantly stress about every move you make can seriously weigh you down. But that doesn't mean that it's impossible to break out of that rut.

Although it may not seem like it at the time, you CAN get back on your own two feet again.

All it takes is being willing to take that first step.