Alone vs. Lonely
 

I tried searching the boards for this, but I could not find anything. I am trying to figure out my feelings today. What is the difference between alone and lonely? Here are the definitions from dictionary.com. I don't feel that this helps me at all. Maybe neither one of these words describe how I feel.

alone (adj.)
Being apart from others; solitary.
Being without anyone or anything else; only.
Considered separately from all others of the same class.
Being without equal; unique.


lonely (adj.)
Without companions; lone.
Characterized by aloneness; solitary.
Unfrequented by people; desolate: a lonely crossroads.
Dejected by the awareness of being alone.
Producing such dejection: the loneliest night of the week.


What do you think is the difference between alone and lonely?

Alone is objective. Lonely is subjective.

You can be alone and happy. You can't really be lonely and happy. The connontation of lonely is a bad one, whereas some people LIKE to be alone.

That said, maybe you're looking for .."ignored" or "abandoned" or "left behind.." ? :(

Easy.
If I'm in...say a stadium, with 10,000 other people, certainly I'm not "alone". Yet, I can still feel lonely.
I am somewhat of a loner. So, it's not uncommon at all for me to be physicaly alone, and yet not feel lonely.

Make any sense?

I think one can be content being alone. That is, comfortable without the company or intimacy of others.

Being lonely, however, carries a meaning of discontent with one's current level of companionship OR "alone"ness... I mean, I think it's obvious that people can be dissatisfied with living alone, sleeping alone, etc. But a related, and more hidden loneliness happens even when surrounded by a marriage and kids, because one becomes even more self-conscious of the lack of intimacy in a situation that is supposed to be intimate.

My simplistic view of it...

Alone is a physical state of being. Lonely is an emotional state of being.

^ hooo hoooo ! touche.. well said.

Alone has three vowels. Lonely has two.

Thank you all so much for your responses. Even yours, CaptObvious. You made me laugh. I think JinnKai hit the nail on the head

sportswidow, if you feel like it, why don't you tell us how you're really feeling? I know your question goes beyond a surface interest in semantics/etymology... tell us what's up, girl. :)

Alone, and myself a friend
Thought in my heart of those I love
Help me see alone will end

Lonely makes for weeping mind
A thousand friends cannot remove
This stained emotion that I find

Solitude does not feel so bad....as this abandoned soul crys

This is something I have thought about a lot. It came up at a time when I was feeling simultaneously lonely and anti-social. For a long time I thought that the two should be mutually exclusive -- that by choosing to be anti-social, I deserved to be lonely. Then a friend cleared it up for me with a simple statement. Being lonely is not having anybody who resonates with you, and that being anti-social is not wanting to be around people who don't. That said, being alone just is.

My dear widow, it is perfectly normal to feel lonely even when surrounded by people who should care for you. It happens most often when those people don't know how to relate to you in all the ways you need to relate. Maybe this helps and maybe it doesn't. Either way, you might feel better if you tell us a little more about what you're experiencing.

You can be alone, and not be lonely until you want to be with other people, but can't.
You can be with people, yet still be lonely because you want to be with other people. (example, "She's leaving home after living alone/ For so many years/ Bye bye")

Kudos once again to Redlemon.

When it's all said and done, they're merely words. I for one do not think that semantics will get you any closer to your objectives at all.

Is there a difference between say sitting in a crowded area and feeling isolated, and say being stranded in an abandoned piece of pristine wilderness in northern Borneo? Yes I think that there is, what's important is what your situation is and how you feel about that, not the terms we use to talk about them.

Just to add one more thought.

Alone means merely not being around others. However, you can feel as if you're alone, regardless of the actual situation. That feeling of disconnectedness is lonelieness.

The opposite is when you feel connected, despite being alone, when the bonds you have are strong enough to fulfill you even when the people you're connected to aren't with you. That's solitude.

I've never felt more lonely than when eating in restaurant or going to a movie alone just after having ended a relationship. I don't mind those activities nearly as much now because they aren't a reminder that I don't have anyone. The connection is still there, even when I am by myself.

Gilda

Have you read her journal?

Gilda basically hit it best. Feeling lonely is feeling a loss of connection. You know you aren't physically alone, yet feel you are? That's being disconnected...been there, done that, can't afford the tshirt.
Sometimes (most times, really), we get so wrapped up in the immediacy of our family and work lives, and we begin to cocoon ourselves, eventually cutting off our connections to what used to bring us joy. Then the worry starts because we know we lost something, but we're not sure what. We prioritize the wrong things thinking it will help-making ourselves busier with family and home, which just makes things worse. It's a cycle and before you know it, the loneliness has pervaded, taken over.
Call a friend you haven't spoken with in ages...leave the toys out a day or two and do something joyful...delegate so that you don't feel everything must be done by you or it won't get done. And if things don't get done around the house, fine...if tomorrow were the last day you could walk around freely, what is it that you'd regret not having done? Do it....

Finding the word you most associate with the feeling can help in figuring out what exactly the feeling is.

For me, I feel that alone is when you simply don't have anyone around you, or if you do, you are not actually associated with anyone around you, and you are wherever it is you are by yourself. I can have 500 people around me, but I can still be there alone. That, by itself, can be positive or negative. If you like being alone, which sometimes I do, then that's fine. If you crave the presence of another person, that's lonely. Lonely can happen anywhere, at any time, whether you're by yourself or in a packed stadium- lonely is more about feeling that there's no one in your life to be with, even if it means you're at home and wish you could go do something with a friend, or wish you had a friend, it's not always about an SO.

I'm having a bout of that, myself, recently, and I need a girlfriend. lol I'm just such a relationship guy that if i'm not in a relationship, i'm unhappy. Currently, I am alone at my computer, but i'm lonely in general, wherever I go. :)

I've never had this difficulty before myself. I love my Mum. You can call that feeling humbring, fiitrickoth, hate, it doesn't change a thing about what I feel for my mother. The sequence of letters you use to describe that feeling is irrelevant to me, you can say 'You hate your mother', and I will still feel the same feeling. Calling it hate, ain't gonna make it hatred.