Fighting Loneliness: One Powerful Key

March 14, 2014 - PRLog -- None other than the big "O" (Oprah Winfrey) is behind a campaign to fight loneliness. And it's simple, you start by "just saying hello" as she put it. It's a powerful word … for a powerful problem. Just how rampant is loneliness?

Loneliness in America: Some Statistics

According to estimates by University of Chicago psychology professor John T. Cacioppo, PhD, coauthor of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, at any given time at least one in five people, or roughly 60 million Americans, suffers from loneliness.

By this I mean both the acute bouts of melancholy we all feel from time to time, as well as a chronic lack of intimacy—a yearning for someone to truly know you, get you, see you—that can leave people feeling seriously unmoored. [Source: Oprah.com, Just Say Hello: The Powerful New Way to Combat Loneliness (http://www.oprah.com/health/Just-Say-Hello-Fight-Loneliness#ixzz2vwuvFuRt)]

Yuwanda Black, a romance writer says she thinks one of the keys to fighting loneliness is to recognize that there are different types. She explains, stating:

While you may be fulfilled at work or in your social circle, for example, you could be really lonely in your personal life because you don’t have a mate. There are millions of men and women in their prime – 30s, 40s, 50s – who have a wide circle of friends and professional connections, but who sleep alone every night.

When you crawl into bed every night by yourself, it's a powerful reminder of just how empty life is without someone who really "gets you" as the professor noted in the article on Oprah.com cited just above.

Romance Novels Help Keep Loneliness at Bay?

Ms. Black says she believes this is why romance remains the best-selling genre in books. Proof? According to the Romance Writers of America's research on the romance fiction industry:

**Romance fiction generated $1.438 billion in sales in 2012

**Religion/inspirational generated $717.9 million

**Mystery generated $728.2 million

**Science fiction/fantasy generated $590.2 million

**Classic literary fiction generated $470.5 million

**Romance was the top-performing category on the best-seller lists in 2012 (across the NYT, USA Today, and PW best-seller lists).

**Romance fiction sales are estimated at $1.350 billionfor 2013.

**74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.

Ms. Black concludes, noting, "Everybody wants to be loved; to have that intimate connection with another human being. Even if you aren't lonely in other parts of your life, if you don't have romance, loneliness can be very "palpable" as the Carrie character from Sex & the City put it in one episode."

Reading romance novels help ease this void for many.
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About the Author: Yuwanda Black is a writer across many genres, eg, small business, internet marketing, self-publishing and romance. Her latest title is a contemporary multi-cultural romance, Trapped by Desire (http://www.amazon.com/Trapped-Desire-Yuwanda-Black-ebook/...), which can be found on Amazon.