How can urbanites overcome feelings of loneliness
Team L&M
Renowned mental health experts Dr. Samir Parikh and Kamna Chhibber launched their new book Alone in the crowd: Overcoming Loneliness of Urban Living (Rupa Publications). It provides significant insights into where the problem of loneliness emerges among urbanites and how it affects their mental health and overall well-being. And, also gives the multifaceted approach needed to tackle the issue. Encouraging readers to concurrently focus on the need to live mindfully, this book also highlights key learnings from the pandemic.
“In today’s time, particularly given the context of the pandemic, we recognize the hugely detrimental impact that loneliness can have upon people by impacting their mental health. It is critical that people, individuals, and communities, take active steps and measures to understand and assess this growing problem and go beyond simply acknowledging it in the direction of inculcating proactive measures to tackle it effectively,” said Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO & MD, Fortis Healthcare, while releasing the book.
Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi (left) and Dr. Samir Parikh at the book launch event
Dr. Parikh has written several books around mental health issues for both, children and adults. We recognize that there is a growing disconnect that many people experience within their families, communities, and workplaces. This has a strong negative impact on their sense of well-being and can be a precursor towards the development of mental health-related problems. As a result, it is critically important that we emphasize the development of approaches to combat this state of loneliness,” he remarked
“We have written this book to help develop a comprehensive understanding of where loneliness can stem from and the ways in which people can engage in caring for themselves while focusing on living more mindfully in the urban spaces they occupy. Research suggests that loneliness, in the long run, can affect the mental health of people. It’s time that people and societies come forward to discuss the much-ignored issue, which has engulfed society be it children, adolescents, adults, or the old generation. A multi-stakeholder approach needs to be adopted to reduce the growing burden of mental health which stems from loneliness and other related issues,” said Chhibber.
