in west africa that's all we have time for i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being here don't forget to follow us as well on social . video. any time any.

feeling lonely around a lot of people isn't a contradiction in terms. of his been living in hamburg for 6 months he's a biologist who moved here for work now all he needs is a new circle of friends. to come and i come from a small town with 20000 residents a big city has lots of people but you can feel lost. or you see other people since you don't know them you still feel lonely. maybe even lonelier because there are so many people. fascinated i've never been the kind of guy to go into a bar and chat to people. maybe as a student in a student pub but otherwise i've never done that it's just not my thing. this family lives far away in southern germany christiane lived 200 before taking the job and homework leaving his university friends behind. openly admitting you're lonely is still a social taboo yet one in every 10 people are thought to be affected by it with

grave consequences. studies show that chronic loneliness can make people ill physically as well as mentally. yet doctors and scientists are only beginning to understand why that is. is loneliness a personal problem or a serious social issue. like christiane many people feel lonely and isolated after a move. germany's federal statistical office says each year 6 percent of the population moves home christiane works on his own out the field with no colleagues for companionship. one for getting it at 1st i spent many nights sitting at home on the sofa but because i didn't know where to go to meet people mistake often

couldn't summon the energy to find out how to finish the noida. christiane adi says apartment is located in southern humble work in the enix of a single family home. originally he planned to move in with his long term girlfriend but then they broke up. i think i'm someone who doesn't much like being alone in this but i'm trying to enjoy the single life and learning to deal with it . even though it's quite an adjustment and not so easy in this office. i just feel so lonely and socially isolated as i live off the beaten path. sam a bit depressed because i just miss people human contact with act. but how can you find new friends it's not easy to meet other singles in this neighborhood which is mainly home to families. but single person households are increasingly common in europe. in germany 41

percent of people live alone. in sweden it's a huge 51 percent while in portugal in slovakia it's just 22 percent. christiane decided to take action after finding out about a friendship app called 25 friends registered users can meet up at gatherings or activities with a limited number of participants christiane quickly created a profile providing his name date of birth and a photo now he was ready to meet other users the bigger the city the more invitations there are to join in group activities they didn't use days on line dating is commonplace so i thought why not i mean it's worth a try for me it'll probably be perfect i'm on the go a lot so i can get to know people in the city on the way of all magicians and. at the whole university in the western german city of. researchers investigate the

effects of loneliness on the human psyche. mike alumina as a psychologist and her research she differentiates between being alone social isolation and loneliness. against misty she says i love heights important to realize that loneliness isn't the same as being alone we understand loneliness to be the subjective feeling that the social contacts the relationships you have aren't enough that you have fewer than you'd like all maybe the relationships on just good as you'd like people suffer from that it hurts as much as physical pain itself has. some people need a lot of social contacts others feel well connected with just 2 friends but being a lonely for a long time changes a person and possibly others to get studio in the league there are studies which suggest that loneliness is contagious one of the effects of loneliness is that you

withdraw from others all simply become a somewhat more unpleasant person. the size that means relationships suffer when a person is lonely and in the long run your partner can start to feel lonely too and some of. the causes of loneliness are as diverse as the people themselves however there identifiable risk factors primarily health problems or major life changes like a separation a move or unemployment or mental health issues like depression. but what about being poor. sociologist sebastian link is the co-author of a study which examines how poverty influences social relationships. then. when we talk about poverty we need to be conscious that poverty is a phenomenon that's accompanied by social withdrawal and

a sense of shame and charmed a feeling i'm here and of course that also makes the poor less visible change i didn't see it. in germany anyone who earns less than 60 percent of the average net income so less than $1100.00 euros per month is said to be poor. link study shows that poverty makes it hard to build and maintain social relationships. poor people don't fully participate in society. today the mustang link is visiting a neighborhood project in berlin's quotes back district he greets the organizers. social workers carla miranda in tim organized neighborhood meetings along with 3 cooking courses art classes and yoga sessions. they lend a sympathetic ear to the locals problems they just might catch up on the forget if i know i don't have much money where can i meet new people if i can't get to

restaurants will the cinema that's hard to see if this here is very low threshold that i just come in and there's something for me there are people who greet me and want me to stay. and most of what's on offer here is free. cost and also. the boston link study shows that after 2 years of living in poverty people are less likely to meet with friends and so mean that almost all the longer people live in poverty the more their social fabric changes. for instance we can see that when people have been poor for a longer period of time there are fewer contacts who are rich in resources in their close social network. and that's that. cooking with friends is a free weekly event today over 30 local residents are taking part. in. student and single mom jennifer hope no feels she's in good company

here. i think it's really a question of money i don't get any student grants or any other financial aid from the state i have to and the money myself and with 2 children it's not that easy to meet people to date or anything like that. and here i can come into contact with all kinds of people and bring much of the long haul that's a huge help to her and then take us and i think the impact of. creating meeting places and letting everyone participate fully in society are important for combating social isolation and loneliness. the swiss town of talk isn't one of the world's richest countries but even prosperity can't always keep loneliness at bay.

my own woman tyler is 77 years old and lives alone. esteemed that you are sad and it makes you tired. thing you think what do i do now. and withdraw a little bit of anger and clutter she says that it's just awful to feel so lonely and so and someone just. minus a partner died 2 years ago they lived together for 21 years and she nursed him right to the end. after his death my as own health began to decline as more side of a fight but you just have to go on. and there are days that go really well where you're happy. and so you can't understand when suddenly the sadness hits you. when you're so alone and there's no one around to talk to and

it's not easy but if. the mists and i sign for heart. marvelling at least sometimes you don't want to go out anymore you're just blocked somehow they have their country. and some part of my loneliness in old age is particularly challenging i think because especially among the very elderly loneliness has very specific causes that are almost impossible to combat for example impaired health that simply age related or the loss of a close relative. those can't be easily replaced you can just tell someone and find a new spouse and all will be well again. maya used to be well connected in her neighborhood she also met her former partner here. but the older people went away and younger ones came for 4 and people used to have time for

a chat but that happens less these days is that i mean. the ones provincial town of talk is now a booming business location that attracts ex-pats from all around the world. 'd was on a fast bent who was born and spells out the consequences. thank you get out of here and soon it's evident how many single households we have how many ex-pats who are here for a few months or years and then disappear. people have less and less contact with one another so the family unit is in decline and fall off if we keep building family homes which are then occupied by singles. it's problematic when we see neighborhoods going to pieces and the resulting lack of solidarity. those on a fast bend is co-founder of the kiss foundation short for keep it small and simple

. since 2016 its team has been establishing new neighborhood networks and soup to prevent social isolation only our idea is to strengthen social cohesion too quickly i say quickly in quotation marks to quickly get people connected so that they can support one another and this is the basically they take responsibility on their own to strengthen solidarity that's what's most important to the city he said. this helps neighbors help one another with car rides shopping or going out on walks no money changes hands instead networks 200 members document the time spent it's then credited to their time account. so they can seek help in return or save up credit for later. the biggest demand is for conversation 1960 hours were booked last year alone. help with everyday activities was next at

1917 hours. coos has changed my as life. through it she meant you did fisher who's been paying my regular visits for a year now. there you go ok. that's good maybe you. would think. i'm going to think you did is a lawyer who lives nearby today she's helping my attend her garden something she can't do on her own. regular interaction has been shown to increase people's life satisfaction coos member unit fisher profits to. oh yes mostly my your mom that i 1st time someone from kiss is always on hand they introduce the people and see if they're a good match. i hope that we would get along. but when i saw her i knew right away that she was right for me. and so we found one another.

she's a wonderful woman who always helps me. even . knowing that their help or is being compensated with a time credit makes it easier for some to accept assistance if. they don't feel like they're accepting charity. so this you can see here is if it gives both of us a sense of security i can go away on holiday knowing someone's looking after my garden someone who knows about gardening as you can see. and in turn she knows that if something's up she can call me on the roof and say that is so reassuring isn't it today you did has added another hour to our time account it could be an investment that will pay off in the future when she herself might be in need of companionship or practical help.

at the university of casa sociologist yarnall show been conducts lectures and research on social isolation and friendship. now and then he enjoys being on his own and having time to think but being alone by choice is not the same as being lonely. as a wall in the sense of taking time out and focusing on yourself are ways in which you also test the boundaries of being human and science hostis that in a way being alone is a very particular and in the modern day also highly prized the life experience that i was and it's a specifically human one would you want encounter any other way. and this withdrawal is actually a unique opportunity to learn something about yourself so you can view it positively to. qualities that.

still few people can stand being alone for too long after a certain time the desire for contact interaction becomes overpowering. experts call this impulse to seek the company of others the re affiliation motive. dimensions of sorts out of easy places who are social creatures which ultimately means that we as a group needed others to survive think about the stone age alone as didn't get 5 according to this theory the feeling of loneliness evolved as a warning signal so that when we were 11 and missing our group when we no longer feel part of it we suffer. and that makes us try to rejoin now to try and stop them that's a few of those who has written decode. the biology of loneliness is also being probed in southern germany. here near xylem in play constance 200 barbary apes live

on 20 hectares of woodland in groups of up to 40 animals. behavioral ecologist like nadine miller kline hope their research on these primates will provide insights into human evolution and that we can't really look at whether animals are lonely because that's subjective what we can look at is social isolation and integration and asks how do they influence their health isn't it. barbary apes have very differentiated social relationships the males tend to forge close alliance of similar human friendships those who don't make enough ties remain on the groups fringes. you always choose one animal to be your focal subject and then collect data for certain amount of time once you've gathered the data you can see how many partners you animal interacted with how many it groomed and how many partners it came into contact. from that you can draw conclusions

about the animals relationship structure it's. well connected males are more successful in the fight to climb the social ladder they also meet. their needs in the palm side when lots of aggression occur as like now during mating season and animals have a lot of aggressive interaction that can be stressful but the animals who have strong connections experience less stress the animals who have few strong connections and are a bit isolated are far more affected by the stressful situation that i thought is a stress exhibits one few. tests for the presence of a stress hormone cortisone the animal species. apes release cortisol when they feel threatened as a human. this response triggers our emergency fight or flight response. that boosts our blood pressure blood sugar level and circulatory system. our immune

systems and digestion are dialed down. chronically lonely people become chronically stressed which can seriously impact their health. the risk of having a heart attack rises by 29 percent a stroke by 32 percent and the likelihood of dying prematurely by 30 percent. so chronic loneliness reduces life expectancy as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. having high blood pressure. or being obese. in the u.k. the british red cross says loneliness has reached epidemic levels here over 9000000 people for almost one 5th of the population have said they are always often lonely . and $28000.00 the government appointed

a loneliness minister. tracey crouch pursues a strategy called social prescribing. we find out how it works and from the southwest of england. from home in the mendip district in somerset has just 28000 residents but it boasts an extraordinary health services network run by doctors and dedicated locals. today a few of them are paying a visit to the men's shed. it's a workshop designed to combat social isolation. men often find it harder to admit they're lonely than women. patrick abraham started the project 2 years ago. if you put 12 men over 65 in

a room and said talk to each other about your life your relationships your health and your aspirations 6 will leave the room immediately and the other 6 will sit around the walls and say nothing if you throw a broken little mother in there and say hey guys fix that within 2 hours i'll know who's what i was a skilled staff who they are and then names and everything else. the longer people are socially isolated the tougher it is for them to reintegrate that's how it was for me in williams after a long stint living in australia he returned to frome 2 years ago. although his sister lives here he's had trouble meeting people my phone so i'm a bit on the out so he you know like a group of people when you're on the out so if you've got i make the effort to step in and we'll show you 1st really seen sister found out about the men shed on the internet through the health connections network and urged him to go there. point came down and open the door. for the body looks just like the usual pub you know

you walk open don't book a nobody looks at you if you didn't know what we're on even if they were said come in come in you know we have a laugh and a joke of it and we talk about it talk about things in general you know we can fix breakfast in 3 minutes for you and a lot all the stuff you know once a week gives your something. so aim for the common you know you have got to calm you come because you want to and because you want to meet people. today julie carey downs is also visiting the mention she works for health connections mendham and has an overview of all the networks initiatives it's her job to maintain and expand the network. the news you get to say. she asks at the shed could open in the evenings too so younger men could come i think or feel people who are working what d.v.d.

and starting to come in because it's like once they finished but i suppose actually they expect if they could i think from a say yes it's just nice to have a good 66 sell that stock it might be a case as it becomes a service that my aunt juley culture self-help connector. that's because she connects doctors and patients with the many public and private outreach programs for people in from. by getting the community south of to feel that it belongs to them they're not being. told what to do or where to find things that actually part of it and they feel like i know that i once people how fast they tend to. do it sort of joining things up more. 6 years ago a doctor at this medical practice declared war on the lineas. local dr helen kingston realized many of her patients were suffering from social

isolation. and so was their health. and to this community it matters to me what happens here and i know my patients very well i've been here for over 20 years thorough when you see individuals that you've got to know very well and see them struggling it's a human instinct to want to try and turn things around and make a situation that responds to those needs than just the medical ones. over the years helen kingston observed that around 70 percent of her appointments weren't just about physical complaints but she lacked the resources to help these patients. then in 2013 she finally got the resources to make a change she built up a team of people whose 1st task was to gather info on all the services and assistance available to the people and from everything from choir rehearsals to

debt counseling and self-help groups. now when doctors are talking to their patients they have the info with their fingertips and can offer advice. the idea is known as social prescribing for patients needing more support to refer to a health connector like julie carey downs what i like about this is it's quite a holistic approach that you're asking people about their health and well being without it off to be not clinical or magical and it's supporting them to become more in control of their own health and wellbeing and more resilient. kingston's team aims to break the vicious circle of social isolation and illness in many cases they succeed people end up in crisis less often they end up in hospital less often and as a result of that those very expensive emergency admissions that are using up so much results within the n.h.s.

have reduced. one study found that the number of unplanned hospital admissions and from fell by 14 percent. in the surrounding areas admissions rose by 28.5 percent during the same period. the project has successfully tackled a serious problem. and some tight hats learning is has serious health implications and that's why it's so important to combat social isolation to learning this is problematic when it becomes chronic when it occurs for long periods in such cases learning this can lead to illness we know that loneliness is associated with a whole range of physical complaints including cardiovascular problems obesity and possibly dementia there are numerous studies which show that lonely people even die early at the mentions off wished album.

right thank you but yes. it can make. evelyn cullen moved to from from london to be near her family to live with her daughter and son in law she lost her husband 31 years ago so things ago when well at the moment yes is there anything else you know i don't think so i quite. i don't think i do business i have but you know i 99 i would hide if i live till next september i should be a 100. i used to have loads and loads of friends and you know i'm the only one left the whole. role the rest have got. a year ago evelyn suffered a severe blow when her only daughter died from cancer at the age of 73. evelyn

with true as she didn't want to burden her son in law and grandchildren with her grief meanwhile her health steadily deteriorated. you don't know what is happening and why it is happening you know when. you don't know if you can cope or know but it's a case of got to admit. doctors were concerned so health connector contacted her and now visits regularly. evelyn's condition has gradually improved. somebody that is what you call neutral more or less you know when they can sort of help if you can talk and you can get the tears rolled down him and you know do the relay and they make you feel you're much better yeah it was like

a lifeline really and is there anything that you want to ask me at the moment to say anything that you need to know but increasingly pension talked about. you know ok yeah. ok nice to take it. julie has one more appointment today a training course at a high school in front. she wants to know if loneliness is an issue for the pupils. i'm cheveley i'm from have connections made 1st of all i've got a brief power point i'm going to get you to do some work while. these young people are in their final year of high school. absolutely julie hopes to convince

them to become volunteer community connectors. the idea is how do we get everybody out to the community to know about our website know that we have based in the medical practices to support people and also get them to let us know where the gaps are and loss where community connectors come in and what you're going to be doing is signposted and you're not going to take in anybody's information you're not going to become slaves should not taken anything like that you're just going to tell people about where they can go to find out about groups and services. during. this but 1st they need to understand what influences health and wellbeing. the next week on these social media social media sites but i think impact on everyone is it's always you've always got to figure out you for with scott people who are spaced way better than

you so you can really damage yourself image of yourself worth it in fact a lot of young people feel isolated and lonely and i think that is an area that we are trying to lock up set in groups for come the new year. but sometimes social media can help young people make friends. christiane addie's is heading for home work city center. she hopes to help make some contacts there to the friendship about 25 friends. tonight there's a gathering where people will you birders and play billiards. with total strangers . and some of these are registering is one thing things are going is another you have an accounting to go but you must set off and they're trying. but even in the real world social media has a big influence. some people post their entire lives on instagram you think how

awesome they're doing great every day they're on vacation or doing core stuff but it depends whether you let that influence you or not if you say ok i'm jealous or a few things rationally and say it's too good to be true. to date there's little reliable data on how social media is changing our relationships but the us study found that people who use social media for more than 2 hours a day were twice as likely to feel lonely as people who used it for less than 30 minutes per day. just. in my is not sure the problem with most of the studies on this topic is that we can't tell what's cause and what's effect does social media make people oduya already lonely people tend to use social media because they have fewer contacts offline viewing a contact offline and that's kind of the studies can't answer that question in

principle you can say that social media can enrich and expand social relationships past when they start to replace offline relationships when people only chat online and don't have any personal contact in a moment of then it becomes problematic and as soon as you contact it's probably much. the group is arranged to meet in front of the burger restaurant. or if. i do they'll meet up with it but i just don't go there with us and you. have everything. from the street so it was like i rahman i take one of the founders of the friendship map organize this event. 20 participants have registered but just 8 have shown up. this time when i think it's really good it was just the start but they didn't have

a reason. to. the apps target audience is 25 to 35 year olds it attracts people who've just moved here like christiane and those who just want to expand their circle of friends enough that they have like my taste for it isn't a physical incidentally i find to get seduced by some of the look at. them this is just because i got to talk and i start there and it's after finding friends to play sports with over an online platform raman realized there was a real need for a friendship app. not terribly sexy to say you're using a friendship but this is a real problem that many people have. we organized group gatherings and tried to make them as not true as possible so that removes some of the shame the protection of being in a group is also an important factor it's all people like coming to such events because they don't make them feel strange. the group has reserved 2 tables at the

billiards club next door. with. some of the guys tell us why they're here. stephanie says she's pulling which is tough for me i know a little german. but when you come to a city where you don't know anyone nights like this are quite hopeful and it's almost a language fueled by long term relationship ended and through that i lost all my friends and getting to know folks in a big city is tough so the ups being good for that so far. at the sunlight that's it i have told people about it when they asked what are you doing on the weekend i said playing billiards and in burgers who with total strangers people don't think that's strange these days lots of things are done online but the 1st time it's like meeting up with 10 or 20 complete strangers at 1st you have to make small talk but once the conversation flows it is better to nice being quite nice.

but will real friendships emerge from this 1st meeting. at the university of casa young children in his research group or working on friendship networks. the sociologist knows that for around 10 percent of germans friends are more important than family. when i come to a certain degree friends can qualify as a substitute family. from what we've seen in studies that applies across the board so all the forms of practical support you need in life can generally be provided by friends childcare helping build you up again after emotionally tough phases of life . where i see major difficulties is in the area of caregiving personal hygiene washing calming us everything that goes into basic day care the stats show that

friends hardly ever do this. for his research young children analyze of lots of statistics but he also conducts many biographical studies. today he's interviewing a subject. and then that student narcissa has volunteered to take part in a detailed biographical analysis. and we're doing a study on up the holes in people's lives and asking how you perceive them specifically how they change your social network in the ins and what if and not one such as this basically there are a few constants in my life. my family. and the 2 or 3 friends i've had since grade school like my gosh with. the last major of people in our systems life occurred a year ago she and her then boyfriend split up. the end of a relationship is one of the biggest risk factors for loneliness. and that's how my

circle of friends has actually changed best of apart from my best friend that is she's almost like family is so. far as i'm so she's friends with your mom and sister too yeah yeah you could say that yes it's a unified what's interesting about this case is that the most stable relationships are those that are also connected to family so the friendships which survive the break up were those where there were also relationships to family members a friend from her neighborhood a close friend had other contacts in the neighborhood and through them her network was refilled or healed. guy ed. but even family structures can break down reducing the number of people that someone can turn to in an emergency. and calls this a shortage of connective resources. there are definitely situations where it becomes clear that there's no longer anyone there or just one or 2 people. here the

discussion revolves around how they deal with that. how do they bear such a phase of extreme social isolation without anyone to support them. and then we go into details on that and instead i. people who suffer from chronic loneliness often require psychological help i know a consequence for lines on kuyt paradoxically one of the consequences of loneliness is that people withdrawals so it's incredibly tough to reach lonely people because by definition they're not easily reachable. and one of the symptoms of loneliness is not being able to go and seek out other people on the gulf and that's precisely the problem for many programs all measures designed to tackle loneliness they aren't able to get through to the people they're actually trying to reach. one.

mid january humble work. he says had some luck in finding a friend. thinking they're going. at an event organized through the friendship that he met terrence they hit it off right away. if i had often enough i've always been this way i never had tons of friends just a couple really good ones and i count terrence as one of them. so until of point of this is how it's all going to come to the friendships i want to feel i can trust someone confide in me and and the. and also that you can rely on one of the other one of the dear to bring the things that are on your mind . if they can that might make it easier for the other person to do this everyone a flat out lie start. finding

a friend over social media for christiane the gamble has paid off. though he's not likely to forget the pain of loneliness for a long while to come. i think it does mean you can find something positive in everything positive goes on in my case i'd say it's how you only know the value of friendship when you no longer feel so alone as well and if that then if you are nice it is and how bad you felt before what you only notice that afterwards. being alone is part of being human to avoid becoming lonely it helps to take action early on and build up a social network. we can all contribute but it takes much more than that here if we as a society speak out and stress that learning this is something know something many people feel that would go a long way to helping those affected of course that wouldn't solve the problem but it might encourage us to talk about it

a bit move in the sphere. india . using some of the. same. innovative projects are helping most who come to life to switch to renewables moving be enough to meet their energy needs to. 30 minutes.

selling sex is a. pink is for grows and blue is focused on industry makes lots of money with gender stereotypes. the women and men are saying that. some business is not looking. conformity. made in germany. 90 minutes. i'm going crazy thing in the forward time. to handle the new lives in times of the current a pandemic d.w. reporter is just like everyone else and she's looking for answers and thankfully with the help of pleading expect a few of them. thank you this is not life as we know it. all together our new web series.

this is the news live from berlin millions flee their homes as a massive storm bears down on india and bangladesh psycho m 5 is already lashing the coast with landfall expected to bring flooding and landslides the storm is also jeopardizing coronavirus response efforts we'll get the latest from the dead also coming up. pollution plan.