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  1. #1
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    Are you a lonely man over 50?

    Apparently lonely is a medical problem similar to smoking and obesity when it comes to health costs.
    Number of severely lonely men over 50 set to rise to 1m in 15 years

    Men with low incomes and poor health will be worst affected, says report based on English longitudinal study of ageing



    Research shows that the number of men suffering from severe loneliness will rise to more than ! millionin 15 years. Photograph: Alamy

    The number of men over the age of 50 suffering from severe loneliness in England will increase to more than 1 million in the next 15 years, research based on government statistics has revealed.
    More than 700,000 older men already report feeling a high degree of loneliness and with the population of older men living alone predicted to swell by 65% to 1.5 million by 2030, the impact of isolation will spread, according to advice and support charity, Independent Age.
    Men with poor health, low incomes, few qualifications and living in rented housing are hit hardest by loneliness, which Independent Age defines as the feeling of not liking isolation. Mother Theresa said it is “the worst disease that any human being can ever experience”.
    “This matters because loneliness is actually a health risk,” said Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age. “If you allow people to suffer from loneliness it has the equivalent impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is as big a risk as obesity.”
    According to the report, which calls for government action to prevent the worsening of a largely hidden crisis, the problem is worse for men than women. More older men experience high levels of social isolation and almost a quarter of men over 50 have less than monthly contact with their children compared to just one in seven women. Nearly one in five older men admitted to having less than monthly contact with friends compared to one in eight for women.
    Loneliness affects close to half of all men over 50, the report found, with the highest degree of loneliness reported by 8%. The findings are based on newly released data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a collaboration involving University College London, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, NatCen Social Research and Manchester University. It follows the admission last year by health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that society has “utterly failed” to address the problem. He described “a forgotten million who live among us to our national shame”.
    On Monday Independent Age will call on the government to tackle loneliness among retirees by providing pre-retirement advice on retaining and developing social networks and for local councils to step up efforts to identify lonely people. Morrison said the impact of loneliness is particularly hard on widowers because they have often relied on their wife for their significant relationship and also as a gateway to wider social circles, only going out with their wife and relying on them to manage the social and family diary.
    This was supported by John, a 73-year old sufferer of loneliness who lost his wife in 2009. “The house was always full of kids,” he said. “Women keep the family together and people rally around them. When women die, people drift away from the man left behind. Loneliness is a killer. You can’t cure loneliness. It’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”
    “The most important thing is that we take responsibility for ourselves and prepare for old age,” said Morrison. “It means staying in touch and keeping up links with friends and family. We already think about our housing and finances and we need to think about what we are going to do post-retirement to maintain our social connections.”
    She said widespread low expectations of the quality of life in old age meant that health service providers produce care plans for old people which fail to include an element ensuring social connections are maintained, when that would be a core part of any care plan for a younger disabled person. Society’s wider fear of loneliness is compounded by a “phobia” of old age with the effect of inhibiting attempts to tackle the problem, she added.
    Fred, 85, from Stockton-on-Tees told the Guardian he feels trapped since his wife died seven years ago.
    “I close my curtains at 6.30 and I am shut in the house for 12 hours in the dark,” he said. “I normally watch the TV, that’s my company. I have it on whether I need it or not.”
    He said he would like to play board games in a pub, but finds it impossible.
    “They have taken over the pubs with noise,” he said. “It’s all ‘boom, boom, boom’. For women there is more to do with things like knitting groups, but for gentlemen there is nowhere to go.”
    Some attempts have been made to tackle the problem. Men in Sheds, a series of DIY clubs for over-50s based on an Australian project, was started in 2008 by Age UK in Cheshire and allowed men to come together and share tools to work on their own projects but in the same venue.
    Walking football – five-a-side where running is banned – is being targeted at over-50s men to encourage socialising. “Telephone befriending” projects have been set up, such as one by the Seafarers Link in which ex-seafarers are encouraged to call each other on a weekly basis.
    http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...iness-problems
    Heart of Gold and a Knob of butter.

  2. #2
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    Davis Knowlton's Avatar
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    "If you allow people to suffer from loneliness, it has the equivalent impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day".

    What a fucking idiotic statement.

    That's as far as I read. Fucking morons.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat klong toey's Avatar
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    Yes.
    What services do you offer and how much.

  4. #4
    I am in Jail

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    Makes perfect sense to me that loneliness could be bad for your health. The vast majority of people are hard wired to want to have a partner, it's one of the most basic animal instincts we have. I would guess the effects would be just like being mildly depressed all the time. I feel very sorry for decent people who find themselves alone in life must be really shitty.

  5. #5
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    Dunno why an article about lonely men shows a photo of 2 hands.

  6. #6
    Molecular Mixup
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    I know why it shows a 'white' guy
    'cos its the PC Guardian newspaper and any story with remotely negative connotations get a photo of one,
    in fact it looks the the same pair of hands that's on all the posters for Beware of Pickpockets , no wonder hes got no friends.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton View Post
    "If you allow people to suffer from loneliness, it has the equivalent impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day".

    What a fucking idiotic statement.

    That's as far as I read. Fucking morons.
    Well, not terribly idiotic, Davis.
    The phraseology and comparatives could have explained better for those that take a narrow path.

    Psychological, mental, and spiritual "setbacks" can be incredibly debilitating - affecting the physical body in a comparative manner.

    Absorbing and seeing life around you in an invented conventional model can be extremely unhealthy for an individual [and the collective], as well.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fozzy View Post
    Makes perfect sense to me that loneliness could be bad for your health. The vast majority of people are hard wired to want to have a partner, it's one of the most basic animal instincts we have. I would guess the effects would be just like being mildly depressed all the time. I feel very sorry for decent people who find themselves alone in life must be really shitty.
    We are interacting social beings as well. That same hard wiring drives us to interactive for survival and fitness at a deeper level.

    Yet, there are the odd instances that many will derive a higher understanding, enlightenment, and joy without the need to be social and develop kinship with others of their kind.

  9. #9
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    Davis Knowlton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton View Post
    "If you allow people to suffer from loneliness, it has the equivalent impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day".

    What a fucking idiotic statement.

    That's as far as I read. Fucking morons.
    Well, not terribly idiotic, Davis.
    The phraseology and comparatives could have explained better for those that take a narrow path.

    Psychological, mental, and spiritual "setbacks" can be incredibly debilitating - affecting the physical body in a comparative manner.

    Absorbing and seeing life around you in an invented conventional model can be extremely unhealthy for an individual [and the collective], as well.
    Why not 16 cigarettes, or 18. Idiotic. Get a dog and STFU!

  10. #10
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    This is where Asia does better than the UK as in they generally look after their older family members through the family network and have a sense of responsibility towards them where as in the UK people just expect the state to take care of elderly relatives and would never even dream of getting an elderly parent or grandparent to live with them. Obviously I'm generalising here and there are of course exceptions in both cultures.

  11. #11
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    Are you a lonely man over 50?

    No, I'm a lovely man over 50. The wife says so, at least - and she knows everything (so she tells me)......

    Lonely? Naah, ya born alone and ya die alone.

    Get used to it, cos it sure as shlt ain't gonna change....

    I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme
    The phraseology and comparatives could have explained better for those that take a narrow path. Psychological, mental, and spiritual "setbacks" can be incredibly debilitating - affecting the physical body in a comparative manner. Absorbing and seeing life around you in an invented conventional model can be extremely unhealthy for an individual [and the collective], as well.
    Scrabbledegook as usual. The cost of treating depression due to lonliness is the same as treating diseases caused by smoking and obesity. No need to complicate simple shit with yer nonsense.

  13. #13
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    But why should the state have to pick up the tab for people being lonely, families have a responsibility to their elder members or fukin should do.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by buriramboy View Post
    But why should the state have to pick up the tab for people being lonely, families have a responsibility to their elder members or fukin should do.
    Very PC Nanny State Forced upon.

    Amongst other things that a suppressive existence is quite acceptable and understood.

  15. #15
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    Thank Buddha for Pattaya.!

  16. #16
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  17. #17
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    Designed and manufactured thought processes are definitely an illness.

  18. #18
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    As debilitating as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, or 20, would you say?

  19. #19
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    The right Mama-san entrepreneur could easily solve the problem and make a pretty profit at the same time.

  20. #20
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    Some people love to be lonely and isolated ,, sure would suit these folk to live in deep Issan ,, not for me , stir crazy within days ,, BUT for some its heaven ( apparently )

  21. #21
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    I am an old English man, lonely because I could go to the local diner, order a tea that would last for hours , chat to others, mostly Eh what was that and could smoke my 18 fags and go home on mobility scooter.
    If I was lonely then, even more so now, smoking is banned in public places, and the Diner ( greasy café ) is free of me and my 18 cigs a day.
    Thank God for the smoking ban, got rid of these chimney coffin dodgers, polluting My food along with quietness.
    Good riddance.

  22. #22
    I am in Jail
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    What a bunch of bullshit! ... how can you possibly measure loneliness?

    Too bad we cant just shoot people who write this bullshit. "44 magnum blow your head clean off"


    that's my cure for loneliness; shoot an idiot.
    Last edited by Mr Earl; 14-10-2014 at 02:18 AM.

  23. #23
    I am in Jail
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neo View Post
    Thank Buddha for Pattaya.!
    The center of the universe.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Earl View Post
    What a bunch of bullshit! ... how can you possibly measure loneliness?

    Too bad we cant just shoot people who write this bullshit. "44 magnum blow your head clean off"


    that's my cure for loneliness; shoot an idiot.
    When I am really old, I hope that my friends on here, do that, because that is My wish, to be blown away by TD buddies helping Me along in old Mans loneliness.

  25. #25
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    People are lonely usually thru there own actions, by not ensuring a good relationship with family usually.
    I think of many instances here, my mother for one, she left her supporting family to live in another country, and now she is stuck in a rest home by herself, her family including my self, dearly love her , but there is little we, or I can do. the story here is do not leave your siblings, I know I wont, my girls are much younger than I, (40years) but the poor kids are stuck with me until I go up in smoke.
    There can’t be good living where there is not good drinking

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