What is Loneliness Awareness Week?
Hosted by Marmalade Trust, this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week (LAW) campaign takes place from Monday 9th – Sunday 15th June 2025. Marmalade Trust is a loneliness charity offering support for all ages, dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness and empowering people to make connections. Loneliness Awareness Week was launched in 2017 and it grows in momentum each year across the UK and internationally.
Loneliness Awareness Week is vital in increasing awareness and understanding of loneliness and we can create a more connected society.
Whilst we’re seeing an increase in discussion on the subject, stigma remains and some key misconceptions still need to be challenged. Ask anyone to picture a lonely person and most will imagine an older person living on their own. As such, we often rebuke and dismiss feelings of loneliness because ‘that doesn’t apply to me’.
By identifying and acknowledging all the times that we have personally felt and experienced loneliness, we can start to change our viewpoint, accept it and understand how to take action to manage the feeling (and our social connections) in the future.
Meeting Loneliness Together
The theme for Loneliness Awareness Week 2025 is Meeting Loneliness Together. Everyone is encouraged to share their story and raise awareness of loneliness to reduce the stigma around this natural human emotion.
What is loneliness?
We all feel lonely at times – it’s a natural human emotion. We’re biologically wired for social contact, and loneliness is our signal that we need more.
The definition: Loneliness is a perceived mismatch between the quality or quantity of social connections that a person has and what they would like to have.
Everyone’s experiences of loneliness are different. It’s subjective and personal to each of us.
There are different types, including:
- Emotional loneliness
- Social loneliness
- Transient loneliness
- Situational loneliness
- Chronic loneliness
Read the loneliness guide and find out more about the different types of loneliness here.
Loneliness and Mental Health
While loneliness isn’t a mental health problem, if left unchecked, it can start to affect our mental and physical health but it’s important to know that first and foremost, it’s a normal and natural feeling.
Having a mental health problem can increase feelings of loneliness. For example, if you’re struggling with your mental health, you may avoid social events and activities, or find it hard to try new things and worry about engaging with others.
Tackling loneliness
The Marmalade Trust who co-ordinates LAW, has developed a loneliness guide to help you understand loneliness and get tips to help get connected, click here to access the guide.
For more information from Mind on loneliness and tips on managing loneliness, click here.
