5 Tips To Help You Combat Lockdown Loneliness

1. Video Chat With Family & Friends

Loneliness can be incredibly difficult to deal with, and being on lockdown can make things worse with all of us now having restricted access to the outside world. However, one way of helping to combat loneliness is to have a video chat with members of your family and friends. 

If you’re living on your own, this is a great way of maintaining a relationship with those closest to you, and thanks to modern-day technology it is now easier than ever. Message your friends to arrange a video chat for sometime in the day and you’ll immediately feel a lot better as you interact with one another and see what each other have been up to. 

If you have an iPhone then FaceTime is a really easy app to use, but you can also use other apps such as Facebook Messenger which allows ten people to be on the same video chat or apps such as Skype. 

2. Call A Friend

If you are unable to use a video chat service then the next best thing is having a phone call with a person close to you. A good idea is to plan some things that you want to talk about which will, in turn, lead into you having a more detailed and open chat than you previously thought.

Don't be afraid to chat about your feelings either. If you’re feeling lonely then let the person at the end of the phone know and you can talk about your problem together. A problem shared is a problem halved and this is one way of helping to take some of the stress of loneliness off your shoulders.

3. Use A Loneliness Chat App

Sometimes chatting to someone you don’t know can make you feel better than chatting to one of your friends or family. Everyone is different but one good way of helping to break the feelings of loneliness is to use one of the readily available loneliness chat apps. 

These apps and websites are completely anonymous and will match you up with a person somewhere in the world where you will be able to chat to them about anything that you want. You can chat about how you’re feeling or simply have a light-hearted chat about what you’ve been up to. 

There are loneliness apps that work through text chat and there are some which will connect you with a person over the phone where you can speak to them in person. Just work out what works best for you and head online to find out about the various applications out there. 

4. Join A Loneliness Support Group

Thanks to social media and other online services, there is now an abundance of really helpful loneliness support groups for you to join. Sometimes chatting to a person who is going through the same emotions as you can help you feel better and you’ll feel better about yourself knowing that you have helped someone as well. 

There are private loneliness groups on social media which you can join using Facebook and will allow you to connect with others, and there are also online support groups and websites such as antiloneliness.com where you’ll find interactive workshops and techniques to help you.

5. Join An Online Exercise Class

Exercise has been proven to not only help the body but also the mind and taking part in an online exercise class will not only connect you with others, but it will also get you active and will help to give you a more positive mindset. 

With the UK lockdown restricting people’s movement, there have been plenty of online fitness groups pop up online so simply search the web and you’ll find a class that is perfect for you in no time. 

If you want to find out more about how to keep fit at home then check out our guide to fitness in isolation here.