Loneliness, Loss and Love: How to Keep Going in 2022

This presentation will review the increased loneliness and grief that patients and clinicians face, and how this impacts health and ability to recover, especially atop a background of the coronavirus pandemic. We will delineate the importance of understanding the difference between grief and loss, as well as, differentiating between solitude, a healthy state of reflection, and loneliness, which is feeling less connected to others than one wants. Strategies for mitigating loneliness, at both an individual and community level will be reviewed, and we will provide practical tactics on how to provide a safe space to process loneliness and grief/loss. Finally, we will briefly explore the shared neurobiology and neuroscience of loneliness, grief/loss, and substance use disorders as a way to better understand the presentation of the individuals we treat. This understanding will offer healthcare professionals a perspective on the behaviors seen when treating individuals with substance use disorders and the increasing levels of loneliness and grief they are experiencing due to the ever increasing “deaths of despair.” This session will call participants to reflect upon their own experiences of loneliness and grief related to the secondary traumas of our work and the general human experience of life within a pandemic. This session aims to improve our ability to remain empathetic in our work and reduce compassion fatigue and empathic distress. Specific coping mechanisms will also be reviewed for the use of both patients and practitioners. Goal will be to support and lift up self-care and wellness at this time that many practitioners are experiencing "burnout".