It’s highly unlikely that the concept of loneliness will ever stray far from the whirlwind of emotions that we experience as we travel down the timeline of our respective lives. Our intermittent connection with the feeling of isolation is inevitable, but many will do absolutely everything in their power to avoid being alone.

Everyone who fears loneliness has their own coping method. Some seek intimate relationships, leading them to depend on the comfort of another human being. While this can be healthy, it also frequently leads to codependency.

The danger of a codependent relationship is that those involved become increasingly distant from their peers, often operating as one hardly functional unit. While those involved have each other’s company, they ultimately lose touch with the rest of the world, exponentially increasing their isolation.

Codependents serve as anchors, preventing each other from experiencing what life outside their selective bubble has to offer. Unfortunately, regardless of how miserable the situation has become, the two stay together, in dire fear of their reintegration into society.

Losing a close family member or significant other can catalyze this pattern of behavior. Witnessing the deterioration of one’s mental health due to loneliness is a common experience with older relatives, and while severely devastating, it’s a painful reminder of the baggage that comes with the aging process.

The fate of facing loneliness is an irrefutable fact that comes with age. Physical activities and socializing are moderately effective distractions, however they do not delay the harsh realities that the end of the timeline brings to life. Inevitably, you may outlive many of your close friends, and have to watch them cash in their chips, one by one. Your relatives may begin to see you as a burden, causing great resentment as well an inability to perform simple tasks that once required no thought whatsoever.

Many cynics live by the phrase “you’re born into this world alone, and you’ll die just the same … miserable and lonely.” While there may be some truth to this caustic creed, it, like many philosophical mantras about life and death is only true if it’s chosen to be applied. We all know that death is unavoidable, however, in our final moments of mortality, perspective is the key element to accepting our fate. We can reflect back on our lives and remember the highs and lows, or we can stew in our self-inflicted misery.

With that being said, we are lucky to be at the age where the conscious decisions we make determine the outcome of our lives, although the effects of such choices have no instant gratification. I know we’ve heard this far too many times, but we really do need to seize every opportunity present to us, because it is our solely our decision to die in a state of bliss, or miserable, regretful and lonely.