Emotional isolation affects everyone, young and old alike. It goes behind loneliness and influences mental health.

Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. An immensely significant number. Suicide crosses age groups from youth to the elderly. We are in need of tools and resources to prevent suicide.

In 2020 there were almost 46,000 deaths by suicide and almost 1.2 million suicide attempts reported. The risk of suicide increases with a diagnosis of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, drug addiction, schizophrenia, and others. Emotional isolation is also a risk factor.

Anxiety and depression often cause emotional isolation, and the breakdown of relationships, and result in suicide attempts. In the US 40 million adults, 19.1% of the population have generalized anxiety disorder. In addition, 8.4%, or 21 million people have depression. Many times anxiety and depression go hand in hand.

Reference for statistics.

How can we improve quality of life and reduce the incidence of emotional isolation? Steve Cunningham has created a solution, WeTree.

The survey that initiated the search for a solution to end emotional isolation

As the founder of Read It For Me, Steve conducted a survey of his users and how they were using the tool to learn and grow. He discovered that every person that took the survey mentioned dealing with fear and anxiety or disclosed that they'd been dealing with depression for a very long time. As the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased throughout the pandemic, Steve decided he needed to do something to help people be comfortable about sharing emotional and mental health struggles.

As Steve did research on mental health, he discovered that everything came back to emotional isolation, also known as loneliness. Interestingly, most people don't consider themselves lonely. However, when you ask them if they have someone to discuss personal and important subjects with, they say no. Most people do not have anyone to talk to when they are dealing with challenges, or when they have something good to share.

Ultimately, emotional isolation is the cause of drug addiction, the lack of people to talk to.

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