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inclinations (i.e., suicide ideation and attempts; Bryan & Rudd, 2012; Teo et al., 2018). It is for these reasons that it is vital to address Veterans’ loneliness with utmost seriousness and concern.
That said, the guiding notion of this chapter is that loneliness is anything but a homogeneous experience. I will elaborate on this in a moment, but at this point it is important to realize that this implies that if we wish to adequately address and alleviate a person’s loneliness, it is paramount that we first and foremost understand its nature within the specific context wherein it transpires (Stein & Tuval-Mashiach, 2015b). Therefore, in the present chapter, I primarily explicate the nature of the experience of loneliness as it stems from being a combat Veteran and elaborate upon the manner in which Post- Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) adds additional strata to this loneliness, exacerbating it and making it considerably more difficult for Veterans to breach their subjective solitary confinements and overcome their loneliness. I will conclude with intervention strategies that may be and are employed by clinicians, Veterans and their support networks. As a preliminary step, however, it is necessary to attend to the constituting elements of loneliness and its multifariousness.
Loneliness: Definition and Heterogeneity
It is common to think that loneliness is tantamount to isolation and thus that increasing social interactions is the remedy for loneliness. However, one merely needs to observe the instances wherein loneliness transpires and instances where it fails to do so, to realize that this is not exactly the case. After all, as many may reflect, being alone is not always such a bad thing. Indeed, we often thrive in seclusion; we create and give birth to our most esteemed work when away from the hassles and distractions of the world and the nuisance of dealing with other people. It is in isolation that we may often experience our most profound breakthroughs in life, and in detachment we often find safety and reassurance. This kind of oh-so-blessed isolation is not loneliness. Rather, this is what may better be termed solitude (Storr, 1988), the positive side of being alone (Gotesky, 1965). To make things slightly more complicated, loneliness, as the term is used in the
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