Solitude and Loneliness

[Jolyon Trevelyan]

What do you think the reason is that so many people do not understand the difference between solitude and loneliness ?

[rssllue]

I think it may be that a lot of people tend to want to be around others, so they only think of being alone as a sad thing instead of a pleasurable, conscious choice to remove ones self from others for a time or season. Maybe they just can't see the benefit in solitude because their worth is to varying degrees wrapped up in what others think about them and therefore, when they are alone, they are unsure of who they think they really are based upon that belief.

[Gravy]

Very good answer.

Another reason could be that alone time can bring the focus back to themselves, and they may not be as happy with themselves as they'd like to pretend or believe.

Also, people with emotional problems can sometimes have issues with being alone, not because they need the other person's approval, but as a symptom of a larger problem.
After all, everyone wants someone there for comfort while they're not feeling well.

Another question is why some people can't understand how someone could feel alone surrounded by people?

[rssllue]

Ah, alone in a crowded room. It has been the bane of many.

[Fran]

I have a sister who hates to eat alone, I don't just mean alone in a restaurant or coffee shop but alone at her own kitchen table. She actually hates spending time on her own, except when she's clothes shopping which she will only do alone.
She isn't in any way depressed or sad or anything like that and she is a reader, though she reads substantially less than I do.
I don't know I guess it's just the differences between people ... some like time alone, some like being in company vive la difference.
Personally if I don't get significant amounts of time on my own I'd probably be a case for the funny farm

[aybige]

Do you really think that people do not like to be alone?
When I think about this question, I recall Mark Knopfler's worlds from the song 'Brothers in Arms':

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Spending time with somebody does not mean being in spirit with the person... I do see many people talking to each other but everyone is in their own world. Everyone is interested in their businesses. They are alone actually. But as you said, they can't stand being alone because they look for other's admiration. They need other people just for themselves.
Therefore I prefer being alone to spending time with other people. They do not really care about what I would like to tell them.
I believe that there are some exceptions. But I know that we are all alone.

[rssllue]

We are alone in our skin...absolutely, but in our spirit...never! God is always reaching for us from the inside or the outside.

[the biblophile]

The difference to me is loneliness is enforced, and solitude is voluntary.