Are you able to withstand loneliness?

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I don't like feeling completely alone but I rely on myself to be my best friend if need be. You should try to make one or two friends though so you're not completely alone in life.

Oscar Wilde said:

Other people are quite dreadful.The only possible society is oneself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loneliness
Empty, anxious, isolated.....with me I sometimes got a kind of vision of myself growing old and dying of some illness without anybody even knowing. But if you've never felt it, you won't understand.

I could be dead for weeks and no one would know.I'm in a remote area so no one could smell me if I croaked.If it happens I hope I'm outside so I don't stink up the house and the crows and buzzards would get a good meal.At least my carcass could benefit other beings.

Know the situation & the wish to be a good last meal for something. Kinda sad, but more worried about my animals should that happen. They would be w/out food & water for some time. Do you get mail delivery?

Not my situation now, but I can understand.

I have a PO box because kids around here like to play mailbox baseball and my mailbox was alone and vulnerable and it got attacked a lot(like me in grade school).Once they even stole it.Weird.My mail piles up a lot because I don't check it that often,this then makes the post office lady mad because she has to put it in a bigger bin.Isn't that what there for? I have mostly reptiles and amphibians and they are capable of missing a few meals,my main worry is that who would adopt them.Two of them are rescues.Maybe I should put out extra water for the chickens.I don't always answer the phone(don't feel like talking) but one of my kids(one near here,one on the other side of the country) would most likely notice no contact for a week or so.But the animals do worry me.Thank you for your concern.

When I was young I was always oddly alone. My sisters were always hanging out with each other and their friends, but I preferred to be by myself working on something that struck my fancy: painting, modeling clay, writing poems, making comic books... always some project. In college I had roommates, but always loved that time when my roommate was sleeping or out and I had the whole place to myself. No distractions, no noise. Yet, even that isn't enough for me sometimes. When I get mad or emotional about something I typically flee human dwelling places altogether and go outside somewhere secluded to stay alone until I feel better. A friend of mine once likened me to a cat, occupying myself around the house all day long and disappearing whenever I'm hurt.

Until recently I've mostly been like that. It's funny how a person can change though.

I don't remember what happened exactly, but I was very sick, alone in my apartment where I lived by myself at the time, when I woke up lying on the floor of my bathroom with a bleeding lump on my head and a bruised rib. I gather I must have collided with the sink or some other hard object while losing consciousness on the way to get water. Suddenly, I realized that between my sickness and my injuries, I would not be able to get myself up. I realized that despite how independent I may think I am, how good I am at protecting myself from other people, or how happy I am when I am alone, I am a human being who from time to time needs other human beings... and I cannot survive by myself. At that moment I would have given anything for a significant other, or even just a friend present to pick me up off the cold tile floor and rush me to the hospital saying, "It's going to be alright," just like they do in the movies. As I laid there for who knows how long I thought about how I had no one to blame but myself for this. Even the people I love most are kept at a distance in my world. I think about how every now and again a pet cat will disappear and never come back.

I survived, obviously, but now I can understand how frightening loneliness can be. Maybe the key to life for me is not in either extreme on the sociality scale, but in finding the balance between the two.

I'm always most lonely when I am surrounded by others. Odd, yes, but it makes sense. I can relate perfectly well on the phone, exceptionally well even. That is because the phone is a strictly verbal medium, no non-verbal cues require. But with others, in small groups even, I am the odd man out no matter who is in the group or how hard I try (or don't try).

This is our quandary - we have learned to relay less on body language and more on voices, on words, on logical inference, whereas others rely on non-verbal cues to pick up on emotional states, veracity, etc. They see our lack of expression and infer a lack of emotion, which sets off unconscious alarms and make them feel uncomfortable with us, deciding we are "off" or weird. It's a simple miscommunication between two subsets of the same species, but because we are the few and they are the many, we bear the brunt of the interaction and suffer the results.

It's just important to remember, it's not their fault and it's not our fault either. It just is the way things are. But awareness on both our parts can help bridge the gap and compensate for the miscommunications that occur.

I like being alone, so I don't really know what to say. Even as a child, I avoided social situations as much as possible even keeping acquaintences at arm's length. I prefer doing tasks that only need to be performed by one person and engage in activities one can do alone (listen to music, work on art, translating, 40K models, etc).

Not lately, but hormones are definitely contributing, I hate being female sometimes (a lot of the time).

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Henry David Thoreau

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.
Henry David Thoreau

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
Henry David Thoreau

Some writers can speak more eloquently than I.

I'm amazed at how diverse we all are. I hate being alone more than anything else in my life, yet am completely powerless to do anything about it. I have dreams where I'm surrounded by warm, loving friends who all live in a shared building (very much like Big Bang Theory), and then I wake up to the stark contrast of being in an apartment that I only share with two cats. Cats are great, but I'm a person.

i am extremely lonely. i always have been though i've rarely been alone.

i have siblings, one very close and one still closer than most people are with their siblings. i have friends; i even have some best friends.

what i don't have is a romantic relationship. i'm not #1 to anyone and i'd like to be. even more so, i'd like to have someone to love/adore, etc. i've never dated and it's not because i'm opposed to doing so. i really only seem to be approached by men who are well...unacceptable (either downright sleazy or twice my age, or more often both.)

i could ask someone out but my fear of rejection is too strong. i'd probably just die if i were rejected, lol. (seriously, though, i'd probably slip into depression.) occasionally, i meet men who i find interesting but it seems they don't feel the same way or maybe they're just as afraid of rejection.

i don't consider myself particularly attractive, though i do consider myself an interesting, fun, unique person. most people i know would rate me as attractive though. the highest i'd give myself is cute but i've been called pretty, beautiful, etc.

people often do minor double takes when they see me. as i'm not hideous, i figure it's because i have a somewhat exotic appearance. it's difficult for people to gauge my race, age, etc.

being autistic is an issue too. it's not like everyone who meets me can tell and i feel like i'd have to tell any guy who asked me out right away just to avoid issues later but when do you find the moment anyway?

even if i find a guy who i like, who asked me out, there's no knowing if he'd be really put off by the fact that i'm autistic. one reason, of course, to date someone autistic but alas i don't even know anyone who's autistic in my area, let alone any men i'd want to date.

Introducing: "the man with no name" - Mad Max Thunder dome. The way I felt at one time. Unacknowledged. A foreigner.
An eventual funeral with a few present.

the one thing I've come to learn about loneliness is that the loneliest place of all is being surrounded by the wrong people.

I'm pretty awesome at withstanding it. I focus on things and interests, along with posting on forums so I get my "human contact" urge fulfilled, which keeps me perfectly happy.