Connection and Social Healing
Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: U. S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social and Community
Letter from the Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States:
In 2014, I became Surgeon General. That was before I embarked on a cross-country listening tour. I heard stories from fellow Americans that surprised me.
People began to tell me they felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant. The pattern showed a lack of connection across ages and backgrounds. Even when they couldn’t name loneliness, many spoke of burdens carried alone. They would say, “if I disappear tomorrow, no one will even notice”. It was a lightbulb moment for me: social disconnection was far more common than I had realized.
In the scientific literature, I found confirmation of what I was hearing. In recent years, about one in two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, exacerbating loneliness and isolation.
Loneliness is far more than a bad feeling. It harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.
The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. It is greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. A strong connection improves health and well-being across communities.
Given the great consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity and an obligation. We must make the same investments in addressing social connection. We have made these investments in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis.
If we fail to do so, we will pay an ever-growing price in our health and well-being. We will continue to splinter and divide until we cannot stand as a community or a country. Instead of coming together to take on great challenges, we will retreat to our corners—angry, sick, and alone.
We are called to build a movement to mend the social fabric of our nation. It will take all of us— individuals and families, schools and workplaces, health care and public health systems, technology companies, governments, faith organizations, and communities— working together to destigmatize loneliness and change our cultural and policy response to it. It will require reimagining the structures, policies, and programs that shape a community to best support the development of healthy relationships.
Each of us can start now in our own lives by strengthening our connections and relationships.
Additionally, our individual relationships are an untapped resource, a source of healing hiding in plain sight.
They can help us live healthier, more productive, and more fulfilled lives.
Answer that phone call from a friend.
Make time to share a meal.
Listen without the distraction of your phone.
Perform an act of service.
Express yourself authentically.
The keys to human connection are simple, but extraordinarily powerful.
Each of us can start now, in our own lives, by strengthening our connections and relationships.
Loneliness and isolation represent profound threats to our health and well-being. But we have the power to respond. By taking small steps every day to strengthen our relationships, and by supporting community efforts to rebuild social connection, we can rise to meet this moment together. We can build lives and communities that are healthier and happier. And we can ensure our country and the world are better poised than ever to take on the challenges that lay ahead.
Our future depends on what we do today.
Vivek H. Murthy, KD, MRA.
19th and 21st Surgeon General Of the United States
Vice Admiral, United States Public Health Service
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