Alone and Lonely—Together

When Marriage is lonely
BY: T. Franklin Murphy | February 6, 2019 (Modified January 25, 2023)

Senior man and woman holding hands. A Flourishing Life Society article on loneliness in marriage

Adobe Stock Images

We need to belong. Marriage without closeness fails to create a sense of belonging. We can still be lonely while in a relationship.

Driven and frantic, we couple up, finding partners to share our lives with. We were raised on Disney romance where the arduous search ends with `Happily Ever After.’ I’m a succor for romance and easily distracted from boy meets girl romances. I pretend not to be interested when my mother-in-law turns on the Hallmark channel; but I’m ashamedly sucked into the predictable drama. Life—real life—is more complex. Not every romance ends with joy. Many marriages work, bringing richness to experience and mitigating the sorrows. However, a significant number of other marriages fall flat, failing to provide human companionship. The couple exist together but suffer in loneliness, condemned to a life of shared loneliness.

Marriage is Healthy

Studies overwhelmingly support the benefits of marriage. Marriage partners become increasingly important to fight loneliness as we age (Hsieh, N., & Hawkley, L. 2018). Marriage alone isn’t sufficient. Many couples discover loneliness during the golden years. More than 1 in 5 older married people suffer from loneliness (de Jong Gierveld, J. et al. 2009).

Loneliness, when not flowing from social isolation, is difficult to pin point the origin. Typically, the feelings don’t magically appear, but slowly grow from gradual distancing. Couples grow apart during the business of middle life, raising kids and absorbed in careers. And then, somehow, although sitting together at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the paper, the deep ache of loneliness is realized.

Jordan and Margret Paul describe loneliness in their book, Do I Have to Give Up Me to Be Loved by You as: “Loneliness is a searingly painful feeling that radiates through the center of our being when we cannot connect lovingly with another, either because the other is closed or because there is no one available to us” (2002).

"Couples grow apart during the business of middle life, raising kids and absorbed in careers." ~T. Franklin Murphy

What is Loneliness?

We feel lonely when we perceive a discrepancy between our desired and our actual experience of quantity and quality of social connections (Mund, M., & Neyer, F. 2018; de Jong Gierveld, J. et al. 2009). Loneliness is a subjective and negative experience or in the Paul’s poignant description—a searing painful feeling. Our physical and mental health depends on supporting others to give us the essential belongingness our heart craves. When we subjectively lack sufficient acceptance from others our entire being feels misaligned, self-esteem suffers, and security crumbles.

Abraham Maslow placed belongingness at the second rung of his hierarchy of needs pyramid. He saw the security of intimate connection essential for self-actualization. Loneliness is connected to many severe negative health and cognitive maladies (Evans, I. et al. 2019). A strong sense of self-esteem is derived from a true sense of belongingness, of being loved and accepted. (Schulz & Rodgers, 1980, p. 25).

We need to belong. We need others to flourish. Psychology professor John Cacioppo describes the impacts of loneliness this way, “But more complex cognitive functions, including the complexities of social behavior, demand lifelong self-regulation. It is these social cognitions and behaviors that go haywire when our sense of belonging takes a hit” (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2009. Location 678).

Belonging is our inheritance. In the engaging book, the Evolution of Love, the author writes:

The mammalian mothers were the first in evolution to feel concern about others, and they set the cradle for the evolution of love, the dependence of every individual on proximity, belonging, being cuddled. Throughout evolution, love, first as touch and then as a rich cluster of loving behaviors, has become a need, and even a prerequisite, for physiological and psychological well-being. This is true mainly in babies but extends to humans of all ages. This love was born in the mammalian relationship between mother and infant. (Lampert, 1997, p. 23)

Taking Time to Foster Belonging

Several years ago, I met a man at a local convenience store. The clerk called the police because the man was threatening customers and throwing items. Although California enjoys fairly temperate weather, the winters on the street are not comfortable. This man just suffered through his first cold week on the street.

His life was a shattered puzzle of broken relationships, destroyed opportunities, and saddening addictions. As his story began to unfold, his tough protective exterior began to shake, and tears started to stream. Here stood a man that neglected prime opportunities during his life to belong, destroying connections he needed for later healthy development.

Our lives move fast. As we look back, the years blend and blur. Each moment is precious, to be developed and embraced. The ease of connection when we are younger easily is lost as we move through the stages of life. Opportunities disappear, friends pass on or move away. Our children become intimately involved in their own lives, relationships and careers. We are left to enjoy the richness of connection with our partner or shrink in loneliness. Reach out with loving arms, give the five A’s—attention, affection, acceptance, appreciation, allowance (Richo, 2007). With attentive effort, we can build a heritage of love to be enjoyed in the waning years of our lives.

T. Franklin Murphy

Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.