What is the difference between isolation and loneliness?

Loneliness can be described as just being alone, while isolation is deeper and means being affected emotionally by loneliness (feeling sad, anxious, etc.)

Loneliness is part of the essential human condition. Ultimately there is nobody who can live your life for you, and nobody who can make the decision for you to live your life as authentically as you can, given the limits imposed on you by your society or your community. We can give our power over to others, and allow them to decide for us what is right or wrong... but even then, this is a choice we have made; we are ultimately responsible for our lives and the way things turn out for us. Within that, we can reach out and connect with other people; this is the only way to avoid madness! To isolate is to cut off from other people; due to fear, presumptions of superiority, experience of being hurt before... there are many reasons we might choose to do this... but it is a dangerous way to live, because it means that we forfeit the opportunity to be of service to others. Some people choose to isolate as part of a religious practice, such as deciding to be a hermit or going into retreat; this is a different type of choice with different implications as to the way in which the person sees the outside world and relates to others.

It is quite simple. Isolation is when somebody is avoiding you and tells your friends to do the same. It is like other people want to see you all alone because perhaps you did something wrong or who knows. Loneliness is when you feel you are all alone though you have a family, friends or maybe boyfriend / girlfriend. OR you have no one. There is no one for you whom you can talk, share your experiences, stories, ask for advices and so on. Loneliness is much terrible than isolation. Because you can change and fix things when you're isolated, but loneliness....sometimes there's no way out.

Isolation put simply is where someone takes themselves away from a situation or a group of people or is taken away, this could be in a friendship group, in class or even isolating yourself from a family event. Isolating yourself means you have identified that you need space and are aware of this, therefore you remove yourself from the situation and distract yourself. Loneliness is when you are in a group of people amongst friends or family and still feel like you have no one to talk to. You may physically be alone and upset or you could emotionally feel alone and feel like you have no one to turn to.

Isolation and loneliness are all most the same but there is a small "border" that divides them, and that border is free will. People who are "isolated" in most cases chose to be in that state because they found the comfort in it, if its because their daily routine is stressful and they have a lot of things to and manage with people or to take responsibility on some matters and they chose to isolate themselves from society just to take a breather and to reset the body and mind for the next day. On the other hand loneliness is not something that you chose to live by, it can just happen out of the bloom that you might feel that no one that you knew is connected with you, if its emotional or something out of interest that you had with him/her before. We feel lonely because we think people wont understand us as how we feel and act, some cases people just don't find us interested enough to try do anything socially and that's OK. We can't really go around and expect people to either like us and love us, if you will look back to your own childhood you also had kids that you didn't like and did not want to play with them. In conclusion: Isolation and loneliness are the same thing yet one of them is in our control while the other is just natural.

Loneliness is not a self option whereas many people choose to isolate themselves. Loneliness creeps in at times we least expect it and consumes our whole being. There are many times I'm in a room fully of people but can still feel lonely, it's more than just an action. It's an emotion that consumes everyone once in a while. Being in isolation is the action of being along but still being perfectly happy on you're own. You have you're own space to do whatever you want to do.

From my perspective isolation refers to when you are actually physically alone, with no one around you - something that can be the result of social or personal isolation. Whereas loneliness can be felt when you're actually alone or surrounded by people, it can happen regardless of whether people are including you and talking to you or ignoring you - it's more of an internal feeling, often matched with the feeling of not feeling like you belong. For feelings of being isolated, I'd recommend the difficult but do-able action of trying new activities being them social or just in public spaces, this will lessen feelings of isolation. With loneliness, it can be a symptom of depression and rumination - thinking you don't belong or that your friends don't want you there when they actually do and therefore the work needs to be done on the inside out.

I view isolation as purposefully withdrawing from people and not really wanting to interact, whereas when people are lonely, they do crave human interaction but can’t really seem to find it. In short, isolation is intentional but loneliness isn’t. Also, loneliness tends to be an emotion, while isolation is more of a state of being, or action. Isolation is a common symptom of depression, while loneliness can contribute to being depressed. I personally tend to isolate and wish to be alone, but I don’t necessarily feel lonely. I think both have similarities, but when you get down to it, are also very different.

the difference between isolation and loneliness is quite similar, but different as well. isolation is when one is all alone without having much of a choice. it can also mean that the person wants to be alone in order to feel at peace. loneliness is a feeling someone may have. it can be when one has trouble feeling like they are there, present in the moment. one may feel like they are misunderstood or out of place. it is when they feel as if no one is there for them. loneliness is when someone may have support from others, but they still feel like they are alone in the situation, not taken seriously or they are simply misunderstood.

Isolation is physically being apart from someone or something. Loneliness is a mental/emotional feeling of being apart from someone or something. At times our loneliness can be so severe that we do physically feel isolated from someone or something. The mind is very powerful. But you are never alone! We can get through our tough times with a great support system. Just know that you are not the only one, we are human with you. Isolation and loneliness are feelings to be shared, there are no right or wrong ways of expressing them either. We are all entitled to our emotions.