The Terrible Price We Pay For the Fear of Being Alone

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In this short fiction story, we follow a young woman's life-long struggle with a fear of being alone and the horrible consequences that this fear repeatedly causes for her.

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[ootenyafoo]

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

[indissolubilisociavit]

Well moved alone to germany

0 friends
0 connection
Foreign culture

Learned a lot about myself
Despite being the most horrible 2 years in my life, last month realized they were actually the best 2 years I will ever have in my life...
Solitude taught me unbelievable ammount of knowledge I didn't belive was possible

[ericmendoza]

I honestly love how the end is left for interpretation, makes it feel as if this is more of a human decision that isn’t based out of fear anymore

[ITIsFunnyDamnIT]

Being alone doesn't make you lonely. It's being surrounded by people who make you feel alone.

[xploration]

I had to explain to my sister in law, just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m lonely. I’m used to it by now. I go just about everywhere by myself.

[marytizy]

I have been that girl sitting in the bench all alone. Teachers used to come to me and push me to socialise with the others kids. I never did it, unless I really wanted to. I cannot say if that made all the difference, but I can say that now, at 34, I live a life which is true to myself, surrounded by few but authentic connections.

Never fear solitude. It will always be a part of our life. Get acquainted to it, embrace it, make it your friend. And then you will discover the fullness of life ❤

[TheGabrielPT]

I'm 24 and I've never had a companionship and most of the times I feel depressed because of it, it would be nice to have someone, but then I think about all the toxic relationships that some people are stuck in, and I feel much better.

[michelleparsons]

I am 57 years old. My marriage ended and my children are grown. This is the first time in my life that I’ve been alone. I have grown so much as a human from the silence. I wish I had this wisdom when I was younger.

[ShangaelThunda]

She was perfectly fine until the teacher told her that she was alone. Never let an outside source manipulate your emotional state.

Edit: If you're going to respond to this comment, please read the rest of the comments under it first. We had an entire conversation on this topic. Whatever you're going to say, may have already been discussed below. If you can add to the conversation, please do, but if not, let's not say the same thing that 7 people said before you lol. Please and Thank You. 😊

[DeviIInADress]

Younger me hated feeling lonely and being by myself, always had to be in a relationship. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized I actually love being alone, I find my own company most comforting 😊

[Παθεια_Γνωστικα]

I think it's not about the fear of being alone, but more about inability to be content with oneself. Happiness? It's your happiness and it's up to you to fill this cup, otherwise you'll become dependable on others. No need. Even if you feel sad — feel it, no need to run away. You have to enjoy even sadness, because sadness has something joyful, if you take a look at it. For instance, when you're sad you may feel that the world around is like glass, that can be easily broken. And that feeling you can only get when you're sad. Everything can be in handy, you just haven't found its beauty.

[faithm]

This is simply a remarkable, realistic, wrenching, and beautiful story… one which anyone struggling with loneliness can watch and see a bit of themselves. And most wonderful of all, is that somehow, it allowed me to feel a bit of compassion for myself. It’s been years since I can remember this feeling of forgiveness and grace with such truth.

[LaPequegnaYui]

We have all the qualities we are looking for to be our own best friends, being compassionate and forgiving with oneself first is the beggining of inner peace.

[LetUsDrownIn]

For the longest time, I thought I was crazy for always choosing to be alone if it came down to it. I knew deep down that there were benefits of learning to occupy and be happy on ones' self. Thank you for this.

[Bernardo]

I still remember my first time feeling left out and alone. What did I do? I went where the fun was... I was set for the next year's to come. As an adult now, I kinda get the same feeling as I did when I was a kid. But this time I don't have the same innocence. Life hits different now. If you're feeling without purpose know you're not alone. And life is still beautiful enjoy it while you can...

[guus]

People are really acting up. I have been almost always alone for almost 4 years now. Very often I only see my family. But being alone is the most peaceful thing there is. When you learn to love yourself and accept yourself as a best friend, life is super nice and quiet all alone.

[magnawaves]

Sometimes I sit back and wonder where I'd be if I'd conceded more and married one of my exes. At one point I was so afraid of being alone I stayed with someone I couldn't be myself around, and it was my longest relationship to date. I was truly terrified I'd be alone forever after her. Later on I dated another girl for about half a year, that one felt beyond boring because of her lack of a personality. Being nice was her personality. I felt completely isolated despite it being the relationship where I was most spontaneous and outgoing in.

I think it's been about 8 years now since her and I haven't been seriously involved with anyone. The isolation and loneliness has been crippling at times, and right now I'm simultaneously in the best position I've ever been in life, and the worst. Too often I catch myself thinking "what-if". I'm a loner, always have been, and probably always will be, but sometimes it does hurt not to have the one confidant I wish I had. I'm tired of talking to just myself, but it's been so long now that even though I know exactly where to start in order to get to a place to where I would be happy seeing someone again, I just can't seem to muster the drive to do so.

I've been through my worst struggles and come out the other end battered to where I don't really see a point in bringing someone else into it. Really, my one point of relief in saying it was best that I never married up til now is that I never had a child that would have potentially grown up with divorced parents. At 32, I know there is time. But again, why?

Thanks for listening to my sad rant haha

[Dondlo]

It's mostly about perspective, if you think about how lonely your are and how nobody is with you, then you'll most likely go insane. I was always happy when alone because of the different perspective, it was a moment of peace.

[Jnymuz_Joao_Vitor]

I always had a interesting relationship with loneliness, ever since being a kid I always was lonely, in school I wouldn't play with the other kids, I always had very few friends, in my free time I would always stay alone by myself, read, play games, draw stuff, ride on my bike, always alone, and I enjoyed because I did what I wanted, I always had a lot liberty to do what I wanted which had bad consequences but also good ones(most of the freedom was because my mom kinda abandoned me, she would pay very little attention to me and she would give me attention when I did something wrong) but something happened that changed my life was that my mom died from cancer, and I felt like I was truly completely alone I was a teen at the time, after that my grandma also died one year later(she was like a second mom) which made me feel even more lonely and isolated from the world, then I had to go live with my grandpa and he is a man of independence so he let me do whatever I want he always said to "you're free to do whatever you want" so once again I got even lonelier because of my habit of staying in my room, i never socialized a lot, after all of this the covid pandemic came and until this point I handled my loneliness but after the pandemic things started to feel like it was too much, i just couldn't handle being so alone anymore, so I feel into the cicle that eva did doing stuff just to not feel alone, things that I didn't enjoy, meeting people that weren't good for me. After some time I realised how critical my situation was and started to go to therapy a few weeks back, came back writing, and I am even planning that start going to the gym(even though I never was a exercise person) this video helped me notice how I was a few months and years back. Although I have a lot to still go through I'm hopeful that things will get better in the future. Thank you for the video pursuit of wonder your videos are amazing ❤

[earthangel]

My biggest fear is not being alone often enough! I prefer being alone 90% of the time or more. I live in a forest filled with wild creatures so I'm never really alone. I only feel fear around humans. But in general couldn't care less.