During the period of COVID-19, instead of getting the physical illness, people can also easily suffer from mental health problems. The lockdown makes people stay at home aimlessly, and people are getting much depressed when they fail to socialize with others. Social distancing can bring frustration to people. If they fail to handle such emotions correctly, people may suffer from all kinds of psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, etc. Therefore, we would like to offer some helpful tips for you to try when you feel lonely during this special period.
1. Understand That Everyone Feels the Same
When you realize that you are feeling alone and negatively, you also need to know that not just you have such feelings. During this period, everyone is likely to feel the same because all people have to stay at home, work, or study from home to obey the social distancing rules.
Another fact you need to understand is that even everyone has his or her own experience and people’s feelings are unique to themselves, moreover, loneliness is a common feeling that everybody would go through during some times. So actually, loneliness is quite common and everyone may have the chance to feel it because we are all individuals.
After knowing these facts, you are able to take it much easier because you can understand that feeling lonely is not a shame or embarrassing thing. This feeling would accompany our whole lives, and it may appear unexpectedly under different occasions. So if you can know it better and view it positively, you would be more optimistic even when you sense it someday.
2. Talk with Friends Over Phone Calls
During social distancing, people experience loneliness because they can not get in touch with other people as they usually do in common daily life. To fix this problem, the simplest thing you can do is to get in touch with other people by finding someone to talk with online.
Thanks to the developed technologies, people are no longer isolated because of all forms of communication tools, from video/audio calls to social media platforms. So when you feel alone, why not pick up your mobile phones and find a friend to talk with using a video call or audio call? As mentioned, everyone may have the same feeling during this period, and maybe your friend is also waiting for someone to get him/her out of this trouble. You can share your true emotions with them and talk about everything you want to say to your friends.
But remember to ask your friend whether he/she needs help as well. Friendship should be a give-and-take and everyone involved should be treated equally. Especially during social distancing, people would be more sensitive and brittle than usual.
3. Expand Your Social Network Online
Fail to find a friend who you can talk to within reality? Never mind! You can socialize online and find people who have the same interests as you. Online networking can be easily expanded because of all kinds of social media platforms as well as forums. People are more likely to share everything online, and it is much easier to find other people with the same hobbies as you.
For example, you can find others who enjoy playing the same video games as you on game streaming platforms like Twitch; On YouTube, people holding different interests will follow different YouTubers for having fun during this period.
So actually, you can escape from reality and try to expand another of your social networks online. No one knows you online and you can be anyone you want to be. But remember never deeply indulging in such a virtual world and try to protect yourself from all kinds of Internet crimes. It is just a tool to get you out of loneliness during this special period.
4. Distract Your Attention
People are more likely to suffer from negative emotions when they stay alone and have nothing to do. So another simple way to get yourself out of loneliness is to find things to do for distracting your attention from negative feelings such as loneliness.
What about finding your favorite movies, TV programs, or funny video clips for watching online? On YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can discover lots of video resources for watching to spend the time when you stay alone. If you get annoyed because of the slow network, downloading them with a high-quality video downloader, VideoHunter, is also a good choice. By saving the videos in high quality such as 1080p, 4K, and even 8K, you can spend your time with the videos you like offline, without feeling lonely anymore.
5. Find A Way to Relax Yourself
When people feel tense and always fill their minds with negative thoughts, it is much easier to exaggerate the lonely feeling and thus become depressed. In this situation, you can try to relax to get rid of stressful and frustrating feelings.
For example, you can do somebody stretching exercises, play the video games you like, or just go to your bedroom and have a deep sleep! When your mind becomes more relaxing, you will put off the pressure and regain energy again.
6. Adopt A Pet
According to some researches, it is said that people are more likely to feel lonely when they are not connected sufficiently to other communities, for example, their colleagues, classmates, or even families.
If you are feeling empty because of the failure of better socializing with others, find a way to fill it. According to studies, adopting a pet can easily help fill your loneliness and you will discover more satisfaction with its accompaniment. Your pet always needs you and this will also bring you a sense of responsibility, and you could also feel that you are needed by others.
When you stay with your pet, you will be more fulfilled in everyday life because you can always find it accompanied no matter what you are doing at home. Pets are always the best friends to mankind.
7. Stop Checking Social Media Platforms Frequently
It seems that the development and widely-used social media platforms have kept people together no matter where they are. However, if people fail to view the real value of such platforms or spend much time on them, they may easily be driven into loneliness and depression.
People try to find satisfaction in the virtual world when they fail or don’t know how to maintain relationships with other people in reality. So when they cannot get satisfied results from social media platforms, the loneliness would even be exaggerated. Many people have to check social media platforms every day, and when they find that there are no notifications at all, the lonely feelings would take them easily.
If you also feel frustrated about such situations, try to close the notifications for social media platforms and check them less frequently. Put much time and effort into yourself as well as the people around you. This can help to find your values and learn to respect the life around you in reality.
All in all, you need to view it correctly – loneliness is a feeling that everyone will have, and you don’t need to worry too much about it when you feel a little bit. When you have a proper understanding of this feeling and know how to manage it in daily life, you will have a happier and more enjoyable mood to live on
Rhydian Choi 
Kim Marks