At the university of casa sociologist yarnall shaw been conducts lectures and research on social isolation and friendship. Now and then he enjoys being on his own and having time to think but being alone by choice is not the same as being a lonely. After all the most of taking time out and focusing on yourself are ways in which you also test the boundaries of being human and since many signs are hostages that in a way being alone is a very particular and in the modern day also highly prized life experience. And its a specifically human one would you want encounter any other way. And this withdrawal is actually a unique opportunity to learn something about yourself so you can view it positively to the phone lines or come on a supportive set. Still few people can stand being alone for too long. After a certain time the desire for contact interaction becomes overpowering. Experts call this impulse to seek the company of others the real affiliation motive. Here mentions its a tally of easy place to look at us social creatures which ultimately means that we as a group need it others to survive think about the stone age alone as didnt get phone lines and according to this theory the feeling of loneliness evolved as a warning signal so that when we are 11 and missing our group when we no longer feel part of it we suffer. And that makes us try to rejoin our try and stalk them thats a few of us who physical and decor provide out of. The biology of loneliness is also being probed in southern germany. Here near xylem and Lake Constance 200 barbary apes live on 20 hectares of woodland in groups of up to 40 animals. Behavioral ecologist like Nadine Miller kline hope their research on these primates will provide insights into Human Evolution and that we cant really look at whether animals are lonely because thats subjective what we can look at is social isolation and integration and how do they influence the health. Barbary apes have very differentiated social relationships the males tend to forge a close alliance of similar human friendships those who dont make enough ties remain on the groups fringes. And. Always choose one animal to be your focal subject and then collect data for certain amount of time once youve gathered the data you can see how many partners you animal interacted with how many it groomed and how many partners it came into contact. From that you can draw conclusions about the animals relationship structure as. Well connected males are more successful in the fight to climb the social ladder they also meet. Their needs in the palm side when lots of aggression occur as like now during mating season and animals have a lot of aggressive interaction that can be stressful but the animals who have strong connections experience less stress the animals who have few strong connections and are bit isolated are far more affected by the stressful situation that i thought is a stress exhibits one few female. She tests for the presence of the stress hormone cortisol in the animal species. Apes release cortisol when they feel threatened as to humans this response triggers our emergency fight or flight response. That boosts our Blood Pressure blood sugar level and circulatory system. Our immune systems and digestion are dialed down. Chronically Lonely People become chronically stressed which can seriously impact their health. The risk of having a heart attack rises by 29 percent a stroke by 32 percent and the likelihood of dying prematurely by 30 percent. So chronic loneliness reduces Life Expectancy as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Having high Blood Pressure. Or being obese. In the u. K. The British Red Cross says loneliness has reached epidemic levels here over 9000000 people are almost one 5th of the population have said they are always often lonely. In 28000 the government appointed a loneliness minister. Tracey crouch pursues a strategy called social prescribing. We find out how it works and from the southwest of england. From in the mendip district in somerset has just 28000 residents but it boasts an Extraordinary HealthServices Network run by doctors and dedicated locals. Are here. Today a few of them are paying a visit to the mens shed. Its a workshop designed to combat social isolation. Men often find it harder to admit theyre lonely than women. Patrick abraham started the project 2 years ago. If you put 12 men over 65 in a room and said talk to each other about your life your relationships your health and your aspirations 6 will leave the room immediately and the other 6 will sit around the walls and say nothing if you throw a broken normile or in there and say hey guys fix that within 2 hours i dont know whos what i does the skills i have who they are and then maintain Everything Else. The longer people are socially isolated the tougher it is for them to reintegrate thats how it was for even williams after a long stint living in australia he returned to frome 2 years ago. Although his sister lives here hes had trouble meeting people my phone so im a bit on the out so he you know like a group of people when youre on the outside youve got to make the effort to step in and well show you 1st a really scene sister found out about the men shed on the internet through the Health Connections network and urged him to go there. One came down and open the door. For the body looks just like the usual pub you know you walk over and dont move in nobody looks at you through the 0 one word and even i couldnt they were said come in come in you know we have a laugh and a joke and but when we talk about talk about things in general we know that we can fix breakfast in 3 minutes really and a lot of stuff you know once a week gives us something. For aim for the common you know got to calm you come because you want to and because you want to meet people. Today julie carey downs is also visiting the mention she works for Health Connections mendham and has an overview of all the networks initiatives its her job to maintain and expand the network. Put it in and she is just here. She asks if the shed could open in the evenings too so younger men could come i could think of a few people who are working with d. V. D. And still to come in because its like once they finished but they quite isostacy they expect if they could i think yes its just because of sin city so i stopped at my new cases because my aunt juley culture selfhelp connector. Thats because she connects doctors and patients with the many public and private outreach programs for people in from. The community itself and fall off to fields that get all the stuff that theyre not being. Told what to do a wet a fine thing if it actually part of it and they feel like i know that i once people have they tend to. Sort of join in things ive got more. 6 years ago a doctor at this medical practice declared war on loneliness. Local dr helen kingston realized many of her patients were suffering from social isolation. And so was their health. Im part of this community it matters to me what happens here and i know my patients very well ive been here for over 20 years so when you see individuals that youve got to know very well and see them struggling its a human instinct to want to try and turn things around and make a situation response to those needs than just the medical ones. Over the years helen kingston observed that around 70 percent of her appointments werent just about physical complaints but she lacked the resources to help these patients. Then in 2013 she finally got the resources to make a change. She built up a team of people whose 1st task was to gather info on all the services and Assistance Available to the people and from everything from choir rehearsals to debt counseling and selfhelp groups now when doctors are talking to their patients they have the in forth their fingertips and can offer advice. A good deal is known as social prescribing. Patients needing more support to refer to a Health Connector like julie carey downs well it is quite a holistic approach that youre asking people about their health and well being without it off to be not clinical or magical and its supporting them to become more in control of their own health and wellbeing and more resilient. Kingstons team to break the vicious circle of social isolation and illness in many cases they succeed people end up in crisis less often they end up in hospital less often and as a result of that those very expensive emerges had missions that are using up so much for results within the n. H. S. Have reduced. One study found that the number of unplanned hospital admissions and from fell by 14 percent. In the surrounding areas admissions rose by 28. 5 percent during the same period. The project has successfully tackled a serious problem. And some kite had learning this has Serious Health implications and thats why its so important to combat social isolation to learning this is problematic when it becomes chronic when it occurs for long periods in such cases loneliness can lead to illness we know that loneliness is associated with a whole range of physical complaints including cardiovascular problems obesity and possibly dementia there are numerous studies which show that Lonely People even die early at the mentions off wished album. Right and cant cover yet. But you just do it and can make. Evelyn cullen move to from from london to be near her family to live with her daughter and son in law she lost her husband 31 years ago so thinks ago we were at the moment i guess is that Everything Else you know i dont think so i quite. I didnt think id live as long as i have. Im 99 now high if i live till next september i should be a 100. I used to have loads and loads of friends and you know im the only one left the whole circle my role the rest of got. A year ago evelyn suffered a severe blow when her only daughter died from cancer at the age of 73. Evelyn withdrew but she didnt want to burden her son in law and grandchildren with her grief meanwhile her health steadily deteriorated. You dont know what is happening and why its happening you know when. You dont know if you can cope or know but its a case of got. Doctors were concerned so Health Connector contacted her and now visits regularly. Evelyns condition has gradually improved. Somebody that is what you call neutral more or less you know when they can so. You can talk and you can get the tears roll down him and you know do the relay and they make you feel much better yeah it was like a lifeline really and is there anything that you want to ask me at the moment to Society Thing that you need to. Increase on the pension cuts about. Yeah ok yeah. Something nice to actually i dont think if. Julie has one more appointment today a Training Course at a high school in front. She wants to know if loneliness is an issue for the pupils. Im cheveley im from have connections mind 1st of all ive got a brief power point but im going to get used to the work. Heres. These young people who are in their final year of high school. So the julie hopes to convince them to become volunteer Community Connectors. The idea is how do we get everybody out to the community to know about our website know that we have based in the medical practices to support people and also get them to let us know where the gaps are im lost where Community Connect is come in and what youre going to be doing is signpost and youre not going to take in anybodys information youre not going to become slow should not taken anything like that youre just going to tell people about where they can go to find out about groups and services. During. But 1st they need to understand what influences health and well being. The next week on these social media social media but i think in part for everyone so its always that youve always got to figure out you for with scott people hers 1st way better than you so you can really damage your self image yourself where in fact a lot of young people feel isolated and lonely and i think that is an area that we are trying to lock up setting groups for the coming new year. But sometimes social media can help young people make friends. Christiane ids is heading for home board city center. She hopes to help make some contacts there to the friendship about 25 friends. Tonight theres a gathering where people will eat burgers and play billiards. With total strangers. And some of these are registering as one thing or going is another you have an account to go but you must set off and dare to try it. But even in the real world social media has a big influence. Some people post their entire lives on instagram you think how awesome theyre doing great every day theyre on vacation or doing core stuff but it depends whether you like to influence your or not if you say ok im jealous or if you view things rationally and say stupid to be true. To date theres little reliable data on how social media is changing our relationships but the us study found that people who use social media for more than 2 hours a day were twice as likely to feel lonely as people who used it for less than 30 minutes per day. In mice not sure the problem with most of the studies on this topic is that we cant tell whats cause and whats effect does social media make people odia already Lonely People tend to use social media because they have fewer contacts offline having a contact offline thats kind of the studies cant answer that question in principle you can say that social media can enrich and expand social relationships but when they start to replace offline relationships when people only chat online and dont have any personal contact in one on one off then it becomes problematic and this initial contact dov its pretty much. The group is arranged to meet in front of the burger restaurant. One. Of the only the 25 years into the episode you. Have everything. From the street thats what it was like. I promise ill take one of the founders of the friendship map organize this event. 20 participants have registered but just 8 have shown up at this time and i really think its reasonable to start off by getting them to read. To the apps target audience is 25 to 35 year olds it attracts people whove just moved here like christiane and those who just want to expand their circle of friends. Dont sneak out of life make use of what is indefensible incidentally i find to get seduced by someone looking. Them up and this isnt just because i got stuck and washed out because its after finding friends to play sports with over an Online Platform rahman i realised there was a real need for a friendship that. Was not terribly sexy to say youre using a friendship opposite but this is a real problem that many people have. We organized Group Gatherings and tried to make them as not true as possible so that removes some of the shame the protection of being in a group is also an important factor its all people like coming to such events because they dont make them feel strange. The group has reserved 2 tables at the Billiards Club next door. Some of the guys tell us why theyre here. Stephanie says just coming which is tough for me. I know a little german. But when you come to a city where you dont know anyone nights like this are quite helpful and its been awful and its your long term relationship ended and through that i lost all my friends and getting to know folks in a big city is tough so the ups being good for that so far. The sun ride thats it i told people about it when they asked what are you doing on the weekend i said playing billiards and in burgers who with total strangers people dont think thats strange these days lots of things are done on line its not the 1st time its like meeting up with 10 or 20 complete strangers and 1st you have to make small talk but once the conversation flows it is better to nice being quite nice. But will real friendships emerge from this 1st meeting. At the university of casa. In his Research Group or working on friendship networks. Specialise the sociologist knows that for around 10 percent of germans friends are more important than family. When i can to a certain degree friends can qualify as a substitute family. From what weve seen in studies that applies across the board. So all the forms of practical support you need in life can generally be provided by friends childcare helping build you up again after emotionally tough phases of life. Where i see major difficulties is in the area of caregiving personal hygiene washing calming everything that goes into basic day care and the stats show that friends hardly ever do this. For his Research Young children and allies of lots of statistics but he also conducts many biographical studies. Today hes interviewing a subject. And the student narcissa has volunteered to take part in a detailed biographical analysis. And were doing a study on up the holes in peoples lives and asking how you perceive them specifically how they change your social network in the end zone which if and that one starts this basically there are a few constants in my life. My family. And the 2 or 3 friends ive had since grade school like my gosh with. The last major of people in our systems life occurred a year ago she and her then boyfriend split up. The end of a relationship is one of the biggest risk factors for loneliness. And thats my circle of friends has actually changed that. Apart from my best friend that is shes almost like family is so. Far as im so shes friends with your mom and sister too yeah yeah you could say that yes its a unified whats interesting about this case is that the most stable relationships are those that are also connected to family so the friendships which survive the breakup were those where there were also relationships to family members a friend from her neighborhood a close friend had other contacts in the neighborhood and through them her network was refilled or healed guy. But even Family Structures can break down reducing the number of people that someone can turn to in an emergency. Calls this a shortage of connective resources. There are definitely situations where it becomes clear that theres no longer anyone there or just one or 2 people or what i hear the discussion revolves around how they deal with that how do they bear such a phase of extreme social isolation without anyone to support them and then we go into details again that instead thai. People who suffer from chronic loneliness often require psychological help. I mean the consequence for lines on kite paradoxically one of the consequences of loneliness is that people withdrawals so its incredibly tough to reach Lonely People because by definition theyre not easily reachable. And one of the symptoms of loneliness is not being able to go and seek out other people on the health and thats precisely the problem for many programs all measures designed to tackle loneliness they arent able to get through to the people theyre actually trying to reach. One. Mid january 100. Has had some luck in finding a friend. Thinking theyre going. At an event organized through the friendship that he met terrence they hit it off right away. You know if i had often enough ive always been this way i never had tons of friends just a couple really good ones and id count terrence as one of them. Sold him off point of this is how its all going to come to the friendships i want to feel i can trust someone confide in them and and the sauce. But also that you can rely on one of the other one out of the day or to bring up things that are on your mind. That might make it easier for the other person to do the same on a flight of laced up. Finding a friend over social media for christiane the gamble has paid off. Though hes not likely to forget the pain of loneliness for a long while to come. I think that this means you can find something positive in everything positive. In my case id say its how you only know the value of friendship when you no longer feel so alone as well and if it then you feel nice it is and how bad you felt before what you only noticed that afterwards. Being alone is part of being human to avoid becoming lonely it helps to take action early on and build up a social network. We can all contribute but it takes much more than that fear if we as a society speak out and stress that learning this is something normal something many people feel that would go a long way to helping those affected of course that wouldnt solve the problem but it might encourage us to talk about it a bit move on the sphere. Stackhouse. Hes annoyed region force of nature. Elena baltacha. Dont miss trucker hit the ground running. Can the secret to success be found in his homeland. We took a look around norway to find out. Kick off took some 30 minutes of spawn d. W. On a smartphone lifespan 18 months max. Long materials extremely high recyclability seldom. Side effects environmental pollution child labor harsh working conditions fast to short blocks of ourselves close. To 90 minutes on w. Beethoven it is for me. Is for a new. Beethoven is for help. Beethoven is for. Beethoven is for the. Beethoven is for. Beethoven is for. Beethoven 2020 the 250th anniversary near. There. Leader. This is deja vu news and these are our top stories in battle belarusians president Alexander Lukashenko and his high ranking officials are barred from entering estonia latvia and lithuania the Baltic States blacklisting comes in response a look at this crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators in the wake of disputed elections more than one