Dealing with Loneliness
One thing that&#x27;s helped me is learning to enjoy my own company.<p>This is a life-long endeavor which is helped by my natural curiosity.  I love going to unfamiliar sections of the library and learning about subjects I didn&#x27;t already know.<p>From this can come hobbies like painting, making music, and writing that don&#x27;t require anyone but yourself to do or enjoy.<p>Reading itself is a marvelous solitary activity which can let me live entire lives and in different time periods and places from the perspective of different people, and finding writers who are on the same wavelength as me and who &quot;get it&quot; is a real treat.  Then I feel I&#x27;m really communing with thinkers who&#x27;ve trod the road before and have a lot to teach me, even if we never meet in person.<p>The toughest situations are on holidays or weekends when I&#x27;m walking by restaurants, bars, or houses with private parties full of couples or people who are friends with one another and having a great time.  If I&#x27;m not focused on listening to a podcast or music or thinking about something else, and if I&#x27;m in a sad mood, that can sometimes be hard to take.<p>Fortunately, such situations are relatively rare, and most of the time I enjoy reading, watching movies, pursuing my hobbies, and learning new things by myself.