"I am lonely. Will you be my friend? PLEASE DON'T EVER LEAVE ME."

[Mainly Mattias]

Fact: people really do avoid the lonely guy. The lonely person can find themselves in a vicious circle whereby some behaviours aimed at achieving human contact actually have the opposite effect and scare other people away. People do not respond well to the following approaches: "I am lonely, will you be my friend?", "I'm so alone right now, please don't ever leave me."

Lonely men commonly make (or have already made) a classic mistake whereby they hope that a partner will provide for them a meaning, a social life, fun and all the things that make a "life". This is an unfair expectation on any partner and often sets things up for a problematic, and all-too-often brief, relationship. Lonely guys need to develop a friendship group with other men before embarking on any romantic relationship.

Being lonely for a partner (more common in lonely women) is not the same as being lonely in life (most common in lonely men).

As loneliness becomes chronic, the person will engage in compensatory (often solitary) behaviours - such as keeping reptiles, visiting prostitutes, becoming the drunk bar-fly, spending evenings in chat rooms on the internet, watching endless amounts of television etc. For some, work may become the main focus of their life.

Paradoxically, lonely people can feel intimidated by social invitations and may shun them. This fulfils a feedback loop whereby, as time passes, the social invites stop coming in.

A lonely person may have a pet that becomes the focus of their emotional life. For example, one colleague whose husband had left her 2 years previously had suddenly found herself alone. For example, all her friends were actually friends of her husband and all her social activities also revolved around the husband. When he left her, so did all her social outlets. Her loneliness was profound and she came across to everyone as clingy, insecure and desperate, which of course meant that people stayed away from her. She bought a pet, which then became what appeared to be the sole focus of her life and soon her colleagues were being driven mad by the daily updates in the dramas of this pet's life

[JimLahey]

What they call lonely, I call living.

[Lillooet_Hillbilly]

im 4/8 but im not lonely im anti social

[allkill326]

im 4/8 but im not lonely im anti social

[ManUtd]

I'm also 4/8. This criteria seems to lump lonely people and introverts together. I prefer being alone and always have.

[Guest Gumballthechewy]

If you go on public transit to do that can you recored it and post it here? I would love to see that.

[Grapefruits]

2 of 8 but only because I'm to cheap to visit hookers. I tend to get drunk at the bar as to not need hookers

[Master 112]

im 4/8 but im not lonely im anti social

[BananaMash]

ok.. so chronically lonely people:

1. Keep reptiles

2. Have a pet

[Lillooet_Hillbilly]

Yo man, have you tried contacting Kids Help Phone?

[BananaMash]

im 32 years old............

[Peaches]

If CDC counts as "chatz on interwebz" I'm 2/8

[Aladeen]

If CDC counts as "chatz on interwebz" I'm 2/8

[Lillooet_Hillbilly]

btw im 5,6,7,8

[Phil_314]

ok.. so chronically lonely people

1. Visit prostitutes

2. Become drunk at the bar

3. Go into the interwebz for chatz

4. Watch hours of tv

5. Work a lot

6. Shun social invites

7. Have a pet

...but with all that aside, all I'm thinking about is how people would react to: "I'm lonely. Will you be my friend?" and "I'm so alone right now, please don't ever leave me."

[Mainly Mattias]

If you go on public transit to do that can you recored it and post it here? I would love to see that.

[SkeeterHansen]

I always get drunk at the bars. But I'm far from lonely. It might actually be another problem...

[-AJ-]

They may be mixing up lonely with introverted.

[KFBR392]

I'm 1 out of 8.

A life without prostitutes isn't a life worth living.

[Kass9]

0 for me