Among the many factors, which adversely affect people's minds, loneliness would be the worst. If one worked from the comfort of his home as a writer, designer, or photographer, he would have thought that he could accomplish more without constant interference from his family members, his spouse, children, or even from his dog. Then his wife goes away to take care of her old and sick mother in her hometown for a month. She is taking the entire family except her husband. He may think that he could then work more efficiently. It would actually be the opposite.

He would wake up in the morning and find there is nobody who cares about what he did. He would think that one more hour of sleeping would not hurt. He would end up sleeping the entire morning. In the afternoon, he might remember that he forgot to watch the movies he rented last week and would start watching them. He would then promise himself that he would not be this lazy the next day. The fact of the matter is that things would stay this way, until his wife comes home.

The above may be an extreme example. You may handle your loneliness better than the person I described in the paragraph above. However, the point is that one's productivity, when he is completely lonely, would go down lower than when he is with his family or colleagues. Disturbances are negative impacts on one's productivity. Even after subtracting this negative factor from the overall performance, the productivity of a human being is higher when he or she is not lonely.

Loneliness is not just a negative factor in one's productivity. It affects the stability of one's mind. Homesickness is one of the adverse effects of loneliness. If one kept lonely for a long time without interacting with others, he could start suffering from mental disorders which could include visual or audible hallucinations. It is thought that the loneliness is one of the main causes of addictions such as drugs or alcohol. As a matter of fact, many of these addictive diseases can be cured by social interaction such as group therapy.

Is there any advice that could help avoid any mental problems resulting from loneliness? There seems to be only 2 pieces of advice:

1) Find the cause of your loneliness. Talk about it with people who do not have conflicting interests.

2) Avoid being isolated. Continue to seek social interaction.

One can get professional help, such as a psychiatrist or mental therapist. One can go to church. He can volunteer to do community service. He can meet with his friends. Next time when our work is disrupted by our wives, we should be thankful for not allowing us to become lonely.

Shaw Funami is an owner of "zhen international, inc.", known as a mentor for cross cultural relationship called "Fill the Missing Link". You can learn about his profile in Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/shaw.funami. Please feel free to contact him at "hisashi.funami@zhenintl.ws" or visit his business website. http://webtraffictoolbox.com/.