Thread: being alone/ solitude

I think being alone is when you're surrounded by people but they don't care about you or you can't seem to find any sort of connection with them. Being in solitude is when you have a lot of people you love but have decided to like... go spend a week in the mountains somewhere to get away for a while. That's what the difference is to me, anyway.

"Solitude" has only one meaning - physical isolation. Solitude does not address the mental state.

"Alone" has a much wider array of meanings - it can refer to physical isolation, but also to emotional isolation or even something like 'uniqueness'.

So there's really no difference between solitude and being alone - it's more that solitude is a specific case of being alone; the case in which you are far from other physical bodies.

I think you should restate the question as you really mean it, as a few things can be inferred from the structure of the question as it stands.

Originally Posted by thegnome54

"Solitude" has only one meaning - physical isolation. Solitude does not address the mental state.

"Alone" has a much wider array of meanings - it can refer to physical isolation, but also to emotional isolation or even something like 'uniqueness'.

There you have it.

Originally Posted by thegnome54

"Solitude" has only one meaning - physical isolation. Solitude does not address the mental state.

"Alone" has a much wider array of meanings - it can refer to physical isolation, but also to emotional isolation or even something like 'uniqueness'.

So there's really no difference between solitude and being alone - it's more that solitude is a specific case of being alone; the case in which you are far from other physical bodies.

The most famous people can be alone. The most solitude people can feel not alone.
I have been surrounded by my friends and family and still, I've felt isolated and absent. I have been in solitude, far from everyone, and felt at peace.
There are differences in many cases..

It also depends on what kind of solitude you're talking about. You could be by yourself in front of a computer, but is it still solitude if you're talking to people online.

Originally Posted by M-Cat

It also depends on what kind of solitude you're talking about. You could be by yourself in front of a computer, but is it still solitude if you're talking to people online.

This is an interesting point. Something that is relatively new to our culture.
We acquire friends via these forums, chat etc. It cannot substitute face to face relationships. There is that solitude that you mention.

What effect may this have?

Originally Posted by Howie

What effect may this have?

Men frequently say to me, "I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially." I am tempted to reply to such — This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you put seems to me not to be the most important question. What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another. What do we want most to dwell near to? Not to many men surely, the depot, the post-office, the bar-room, the meeting-house, the school-house, the grocery, Beacon Hill, or the Five Points, where men most congregate, but to the perennial source of our life, whence in all our experience we have found that to issue, as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in that direction. This will vary with different natures, but this is the place where a wise man will dig his cellar

- Thoreau

Originally Posted by Korittke

Death Rates for Suicide, 1950–2003
(deaths per 100,000 resident population)
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003
All ages, age adjusted 13.2 13.2 13.2 13.2 12.5 11.8 10.4 10.7 10.9 10.8
5–14 years 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.8 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6
15–24 years 4.5 5.2 8.8 12.3 13.2 13.0 10.2 9.9 9.9 9.7
15–19 years 2.7 3.6 5.9 8.5 11.1 10.3 8.0 7.9 7.4 7.3
20–24 years 6.2 7.1 12.2 16.1 15.1 15.8 12.5 12.0 12.4 12.1
25–44 years 11.6 12.2 15.4 15.6 15.2 15.1 13.4 13.8 14.0 13.8
25–34 years 9.1 10.0 14.1 16.0 15.2 15.0 12.0 12.8 12.6 12.7
35–44 years 14.3 14.2 16.9 15.4 15.3 15.1 14.5 14.7 15.3 14.9
45–64 years 23.5 22.0 20.6 15.9 15.3 13.9 13.5 14.4 14.9 15.0
45–54 years 20.9 20.7 20.0 15.9 14.8 14.4 14.4 15.2 15.7 15.9
55–64 years 26.8 23.7 21.4 15.9 16.0 13.2 12.1 13.1 13.6 13.8
65 years and over 30.0 24.5 20.8 17.6 20.5 17.9 15.2 15.3 15.6 14.6
65–74 years 29.6 23.0 20.8 16.9 17.9 15.7 12.5 13.3 13.5 12.7
75–84 years 31.1 27.9 21.2 19.1 24.9 20.6 17.6 17.4 17.7 16.4
85 years and over 28.8 26.0 19.0 19.2 22.2 21.3 19.6 17.5 18.0 16.9
Male, all ages 21.2 20.0 19.8 19.9 21.5 20.3 17.7 18.2 18.4 18.0
Female, all ages 5.6 5.6 7.4 5.7 4.8 4.3 4.0 4.0 4.2 4.2
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. From Health, United States, 2005.

I know the formatting is messed up, but the bolded lines are all that really matter. I can't speak for the rest of the world, however in the U.S., at least, suicide rates seem to be decreasing over time.

Your graph also seems questionable, the graphics are mspaint-ish and there are no citations or specified population.

Originally Posted by thegnome54

I know the formatting is messed up, but the bolded lines are all that really matter. I can't speak for the rest of the world, however in the U.S., at least, suicide rates seem to be decreasing over time.

Your graph also seems questionable, the graphics are mspaint-ish and there are no citations or specified population.

I just searched until I found something that fit my point.

That's how we do it in the social sciences.

P.S. You can't make a gradient in MS Paint.

WOW

I was talking more in the lines of a social effect, not death.