Helping Astronauts and the Rest of Us
Feeling lonely? You’re not alone. Over the last several years, it’s a wide spread and growing feeling across America. Data from recent studies show that 20-24% of Americans report loneliness, or about 1 in 4 or 5 of us, and they say the feeling is strong enough that it affects their lives. Whether lonely is a feeling only or is an actual state of being isolated, or is both, it is a growing public health concern. Whether only experiencing the feelings of isolation or actually living in it, loneliness threatens our welfare and a growing public health issue deserving our attention. No one is immune from feelings of isolation. It is also an issue for astronauts on long-duration space flights. It may be the next big health issue of our century on, or off, the planet.
What is at risk is more than our health and happiness. Isolation affects our interactions with others, how well we go through the day, and how well we do on our tasks. Research has shown that as feelings of isolation rise, depression, stress, cognition impairment, problems in immune systems, blood pressure, and restlessness while sleeping, all rise too. Loneliness, felt by all levels of income, is not an affliction of the poor or something you can buy your way out of, or there’d be only happy celebrities. Social media assigns us ‘friends’ but not true intimacy that someone really cares and is in our corner. Studies find that both nature (our genes) and nurture (the environment) contribute to how we feel, but because we’re human, we’re all different on how both contribute. Even though loneliness is a sensation built in to help us survive, as natural as feeling hungry or thirsty, it still summons a “you’re doing something wrong problem” stigma that interferes with addressing it.
The other day I came across a report card and there, where time has faded the blue ink, is a testament to my tender youth: “Mary Jo cries a lot,” wrote my first-grade teacher, Miss Leaf, in the box next to social skills, “in the school yard.” You would think she would have added something positive about it like: ‘Nice to see someone so sensitive.’ But, no. It was more like: ‘We’ve got ourselves a wimpy kid here.’ After all it was 1962, the Space Age, when I brought that report card home. Our first American, John Glenn, had recently orbited the Earth. Astronaut Glenn had the Right Stuff and the Right Stuff was strong, smart, and stable. The Right Stuff most certainly was not prone to tears—at least not when in space. My predisposition was a red flag signaling that I was on a path to becoming a Space Age failure. Miss Leaf was just doing her job and wanted to warn my parents that I was not NASA material.
The schoolyard for me was a hostile place where bullies from the third grade lurked to pick on kids like me too small for our age and where the games required more strength than I had. In all, recess was an imposed, scary, and out-of-control time. Surrounded by kids but feeling forbiddingly lonely, the dark force of isolation reduced me to tears. All the teacher did was to take note of my withered condition after the dreadfully long minutes of recess were over for the day. No one, most of all me, would have placed any bets that one day this schoolyard crier would one day become a commercial pilot or train to be a civilian astronaut.
Today, there are ways to help. Building social skills, meaningful contacts, added support, and better self-talk all contribute to having a positive impact on loneliness. Astronauts today have the New Right Stuff, are more collaborative and communicative than ever, and will be provided with many resources for long-duration flights to space—of many consecutive months, a year, or several years. Our astronauts of today and tomorrow will be fantastic. They will also be human, like the rest of us. They will be alone in space longer than ever, away from all things familiar as residents of planet Earth. They will need several countermeasures to prevent the likelihood of feeling isolated and help them thrive on their difficult missions. NASA is aware and is concerned as well. As our population ages, and trends of loneliness continue, we will need options to counter the same feelings here on Earth too.
I have some new ideas that may make a big difference. In the months ahead, I will share what I learn about isolation and new applications to address it. In August 2016, I will go to work on a research project and become a graduate student once again, with a commitment to help astronauts thrive on long-duration space flights. In doing that, I hope others on Earth will benefit too. Please follow me on this new journey that may take me to several new worlds. (It brings me to tears, though, to think of taking final exams again.)