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Loneliness is a feeling that we will all experience at one point or another, whether you’re new to University or you’re a returning student. Even when you’re surrounded by people, it’s possible to feel lonely. It’s common for university students to feel lonely for a number of reasons:

• Moving away from your family and friends
• Needing to make friends for the first time in years
• Feeling disconnected from your surroundings
• Experiencing a different culture
• Needing to balance your social life with your studies
• Not finding common interests with people you meet

There are things you can do to try to combat loneliness:

• Get out and about each day, even for a short walk around your neighbourhood.
• Join a society (SUSU) to meet people with similar interests to you - lots of societies do online events.
• Attend online groups and workshops at the University.
• Get out of your room to study – try the Library or a café when guidelines allow.
• Try not to be critical of yourself and your efforts.
• Have a social media detox – although the name “social” media suggests it might help your feelings of loneliness, when you’re feeling low it can
  make it worse to see people only posting positive, filtered aspects of their lives.
• Do things that you want to do, even if you have to do them on your own.
• Look after your general wellbeing .

Remember that loneliness is temporary, but it also takes time to build friendships. In the meantime, whilst you can’t simply ‘switch off’ the feelings of loneliness, there are ways to deal with the emotions it brings and boost your wellbeing.

We know that there can be added barriers to trying to solve loneliness, such as social anxiety. We have a which goes into detail about ways to overcome social anxiety, or if you’d like some support with this, you can talk to us about how to access counselling or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy .