A brave and revealing examination of an overlooked affliction that affects one in four Canadians.

Despite having a demanding job, good friends, and a supportive family, Emily White spent many of her nights and weekends alone at home, trying to understand why she felt so disconnected from everyone. To keep up the façade of an active social life and hide the painful truth, that she was suffering from severe loneliness, the successful young lawyer often lied to those around her — and to herself.

In this insightful, soul-baring, and illuminating memoir, White chronicles her battle to understand and overcome this debilitating condition, and contends that chronic loneliness deserves the same attention as other mental difficulties, such as depression. "Right now, loneliness is something few people are willing to admit to," she writes. "There's no need for this silence, no need for the shame and self-blame it creates."

By investigating the science of loneliness, challenging its stigma, encouraging other lonely people to talk about their struggles, and defining one person's experience, Lonely redefines how we look at loneliness and helps those afflicted see and understand their mood in an entirely new light, ultimately providing solace and hope. It is a moving, compassionate, and important book about a topic that is affecting more among us each day.

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UCLA Loneliness Scale
 
Preamble THE VISIT
 
 
Part I ARRIVAL 
One PREMONITION Waiting for the state to strike
 
Two TRUTH Struggling with popular notions of what loneliness should be
 
 
Part II IMPACT 
Three THE LONG HAUL Recognizing chronicloneliness as a problem in itself
 
Four HEART AND SOUL How loneliness weaves its way into us
 
Five PARADOX Loneliness and the mystery of the changing self
 
 
Part III CONTEXT
Six HANDLES Thinking about a state that feels so unwieldy
 
Seven THE COHORT EFFECT How our culture is leaving us lonelier
 
Eight TABOO Loneliness as the state you’re not supposed to name
 

Part IV RESOLUTION
Nine PROMISES, PROMISES Public and private ideas about responding to loneliness
 
Ten THE GOOD-BYE LOOK Listing, luck, and a difficult change
 

Epilogue LONELY
 
Acknowledgments
Selected sources and further reading

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EMILY WHITE is a former lawyer who now works as a writer and policy advisor. She lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.

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