Irreparable Harm Dr. Juan Harrison
Irreparable Harm
Could be Miss Millie in her wheelchair in a group of similar folks gathered round the circular front desk/nurses’ station at the nursing home. Maybe it’s Cousin Lucy in her trailer house in the isolated East Texas woods. Could be the policeman on the midnight shift as he patrols alone in his cruiser in a dimly lit neighborhood. What about the new recruit in the barracks lying in his bunk in the dark at midnight, or the sorority girl in her lonely room in the stillness after the party has broken up.
As destructive as COVID or the flu but garnering less attention is the epidemic of loneliness for which there is no medical remedy. Its victims might try to medicate with liquids or pharmaceuticals, or they might suffer in silence, lonely in a crowd or a dimly lit jail cell. A truer equally oppressive peace stealing, sleep robber never existed.
It has always been a part of our world, but today its effect on this generation, especially the youth, has evolved into a near catastrophic condition pushing victims of mental health issues over the cliff of no return. Never in recent memory have we seen such debilitating effects from such an elusive, invisible, powerful negative force.
Several factors seem to have converged to cast a heavy pall over the world. The more addicted this generation has become to their phones, the more people communicate electronically, the more impersonal the world becomes without human contact, the more people become steeped in vicariously living through video games, they lose touch with reality and actual contact with other humans. The more people spend time on the web comparing themselves to unrealistic images and false perceptions, the more they slip into unhealthy concepts of themselves and others. Statistics tell us the more time spent on your phone results in higher levels of unhappiness, depression, emptiness, and loneliness in people’s lives.
Seemingly human life has become less valued as all norms and rules break down in society. Too often it doesn’t seem to take much for people to be hurt by others in person or on social media, resulting in hasty decisions with no chance to undo fatal actions. So many people seem to have empty spots in their lives and cannot find positive ways to find peace of mind and self-worth in a shallow secular world. Hopefully, someone or some source of enlightenment can reach them and remove the overwhelming loneliness before a poor decision destroys another valuable soul.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
