Comments on: Overcoming Loneliness: How To Develop a Flesh-And-Blood Support Group

By: Marko

Marko — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:15:46 +0000

I’m here just for the picture since it would be awesome for my presentation for school, is it possible for someone to send it to me in high resolution. My e-mail is juka_0s@hotmail.com if someone from this page can send it i would be very grateful. Thanks in advance, best wishes from Croatia.

By: Loni Harrett

Loni Harrett — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:20:56 +0000

I think I’ve got versions of that song by Emmy-Lou Harris and Gillian Welsh … Hope you had a good time in KY!

By: The Psychology Behind Successful Freelancing | ro-Stire

The Psychology Behind Successful Freelancing | ro-Stire — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:58:04 +0000

[...] Of course, we readily acknowledge a few of the ways that freelancing affects our psyches. For example, we’ve written a boatload of materials about stress. We’ve also written a lot about loneliness. [...]

By: angelica

angelica — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:01:51 +0000

My bf doesn’t allow me to communicate with people because he think I’m a bad girl and will go do something behind his back or lie that am meeting female friends to go do bad stuff with guys, I ended up with ZERO friends. I have no one…each time he pull away and I try to find friends then he comes back and makes me more alieanted, I feel worthless, useless, unwanted, I lost my ways with people ,now i ended up being alone. I now will have to pay for a shrink just to listen to me, coz am so lonely and i feel suicidal.
I don’t think your tips will work for me :( even it’s great for NORMAL ppl.

By: 10 More Reasons Why Freelancing Is Not for You | ro-Stire

10 More Reasons Why Freelancing Is Not for You | ro-Stire — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:52:25 +0000

[...] I work from home the most response that I receive is “I could never do that–I’d miss my co-workers too much.” Of course, if you really want to freelance there are many workarounds to the loneliness [...]

By: Better Off Alone

Better Off Alone — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:15:53 +0000

Im suffering from major loneliness however I’d rather be alone than surrounded by fake friends being “casted” around me. How about you? Do you want someone around you genuinely interesting in befriending you or just interested to be part of “the show” giving you unnecessary drama……?

By: jamie

jamie — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:17:38 +0000

great post! and I thought I was the only one – listening to talk radio during the day to just hear a live human voice..any human voice..to make sure the world is still out there ;)

I am a freelancer and a some-time contractor for a nonprofit – I like to go in atleast once a week to work from their offices, I feel very fortunate to have such a welcoming, friendly place to work – it honestly really does reduce stress to just sit in the lunchroom for 10 minutes talking to everyone from the different departments.

I also belong to a usergroup which meets once a month, and while I have an innate “shyness” that has been in the way of getting me out the door to more monthly groups, I feel like I’m slowly making progress :)

Getting lunch with a friend atleast once a week can be tremendously therapeutic! Sometimes working from home, you get so far “in the zone” with noone to interrupt you, it’s easy to turn into a zombie – breaking up the day for a little while, casual lunch with a friend, is a good way to get the life back in me :)

By: Mia Lobel

Mia Lobel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:00:37 +0000

This is for Austen. (And Laura – this is a great conversation – thanks again for the post!)

I didn’t do any advertising to start my group. I just invited a few friends out for drinks once a month and told them to invite whomever they wanted. Each time we met, I collected the business cards of anyone new who showed up, and included them on the next gathering’s invite (with their permission, of course.) Then I started a Facebook page (which has a way of spreading on it’s own) and with very little effort, I now have about 200 people on the email list.

Granted, I’m in the Bay Area where there are TONS of work-at-home freelancers, but I think there’s something to be said for the power of word of mouth. And like you said, the interest is there – freelancers need each other to stay sane!

Best,
Mia

By: Laura Spencer

Laura Spencer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:23:57 +0000

Hi Austen!

Before you branch out into something of your own, you could look and see what’s already available.

Is there a Meetup group near you?

Someone else mentioned coworking – that could also be an option.

Starting something new from scratch is always tougher than going with something existing.

For what it’s worth – here’s my feedback:

In your situation, I have to wonder if the magazine that your project was featured in was targeted towards those who work from home or just to the general public in your area. Keying in on your target group would be crucial to starting a new organization.

By: austen osborne

austen osborne — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:11:56 +0000

Hi Laura,

Great article. Reminds me of a project I started a year or two ago…

I work from home, and I wanted to start a non-business group for local home-workers like me. I spoke to a few people in a similar position to me who thought it was a great idea; I got a whole free page of editorial in a local magazine (7000+ readership); the local newspaper also ran a piece. Guess how many people replied. Yep. Two! And one of those was a friend who emailed to say they’d seen the article!

Maybe it’s time to revisit that group idea. Every single person I’ve mentioned it to thinks it’s great. Any ideas on overcoming that inertia?

Cheers

Austen.