The Hidden Sign of Loneliness

20 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this reflective monologue, the speaker shares a recent insight about the structure of friendships. They propose that most people have at least two distinct groups of friends: one group they can turn to for raw, vulnerable support during difficult times, and a smaller group they can call on to celebrate achievements and brag. The speaker emphasizes that not every friend must fulfill both roles; rather, a balanced social network provides access to both verticals at some point. Loneliness, they argue, emerges when one of these verticals is completely absent—when there is no one to confide in during hardship or no one to share successes with.

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I've learned this recently, which I find incredibly fascinating, which is we all, I hope, have a couple of friends that we can go to in the most difficult times where when, when we are not in a good place, when we are feeling very weak, that we know who we can be raw with. I hope. What I've learned is that there's an even smaller number of friends that we can call and brag. To. Not every friend has to have all those things. It's okay that some friends, you know, they, they have— they're over here and some friends over here. The point is, is I think the striving should be that we have access to everything at some point. And I think where loneliness shows up is when one of those verticals is completely missing. No one to brag to or no one to go to in hard times.