It's an unpopular notion in these times, but it might even be said that this arises from a deep-seated awareness that one is separated from one's true source or even (gasp) "God."
That's how cults get their claws into you.
Don't drive, you'll die on the road.
Re:On Loneliness and Solitude
by bonniemuffin on Sunday August 19, 2018 @02:28PM
(#17795526)
Oh man, there's a word for that? I think I've been overloading the word "nostalgia" by using it to mean saudade because I didn't realize there was a dedicated word for the more complicated emotional and existential side of nostalgia.
Yep, it is Portuguese (and a strong cultural ingredient in Portugal and Brazil)...
at different times we crave different things, young adults may have a lot of social pressure to be surrounded and liked (maybe a pre-sexual builtin to ensure being part of a pack) that can cause sensation of loneliness through a feeling of not being normal.
I, and a few others, felt that urge to fit in, until a point where your brain just matures and says 'fuck it, I know what I need, and "others" may not be that, or rarely so' which makes being alone a lot less of an issue.
When I was in my twenties, loneliness, when it came, felt like the absence of another. Nobody specific, just a gap where somebody should be when you're travelling alone etc.
Now in my thirties, loneliness rarely surfaces. Company is great but there's never a need for it. I guess as you get older you become more replete and that 'gap' disappears.
It also seems that a feeling of saudade replaces loneliness as one ages - a longing for a place or a person that perhaps cannot be satiated. But unlike loneliness which you describe as "a specific type of sadness", saudade is less sad than it is bittersweet. Beautiful even.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade