A lot of people with a spinal cord injury say that their loneliest time is when they leave hospital after their accident. Sometimes the friends and family that used to visit them in hospital suddenly do not visit as often and it can seem like everyone is getting on with their lives without them. Also the doctors and nurses and other medical staff that used to support them are no longer there. This time of adjustment can be particularly hard as you get used to moving around in your home, setting up a routine and trying to find a sense of normality again. 

If you feel you have lost contact with people and don't have anyone that you feel close to, you may decide it's time to make new friendships. If this sounds like you, check out our information on friendships - old and new. 

There are lots of people around me, why do I feel so lonely?

Loneliness is a funny emotion. Sometimes we can have a lot of people around us and still feel very lonely. Maybe we feel that no one understands us. Sometimes keeping our true thoughts and feelings to ourselves can make us feel even more lonely because no one really knows what is going on inside us. In some ways, keeping our thoughts and feelings to ourselves also creates a distance between us and other people. When we start sharing how we feel, that distance gets shorter and people start coming closer into our lives again. It can be a scary thing to let people know that we are feeling lonely, but in many cases people respond to that kind of honesty by sharing some of their own feelings too. This way the bonds get stronger and we feel less lonely by sharing our lives with others - the good times and the bad times.