Loneliness can be dangerous.

It's addictive. It's dark. It's powerfully destructive.

It doesn't depend on how many friends you have and it will overcome your life if you let it.

Once you realize how peaceful it is, you realize that you don't want to deal with people anymore... and that's where people lose their grip on the outside world.

Sure, sometimes you just need a break... we've all been there once or twice in our lives. Sometimes, we just want to disappear for a day and see who would miss us.

But that's not how it really works.

According to the Urban Dictionary, "Being alone isn't loneliness. Loneliness is being alone when you desire otherwise."

Being alone with your thoughts is an immense task to take on for some people because you have nowhere to run. They're dancing in your head, taking over every other thought that comes to mind. They eat at you and make your stomach turn.

Loneliness literally makes our bodies feel like we are under attack.

Chronic loneliness causes an immediate and severe bodily reaction that typically increases your blood pressure and cholesterol.

In fact, as a result of this intense amount of stress, people who experience chronic loneliness over an extended period of time have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

It has also been discovered that isolation and loneliness are central causes of depression and despair as well.

And here's another eye-opening fact for you: it is estimated that over 40% of us will feel the pain of loneliness at some point in our lives. Wow. OVER 40 PERCENT OF US.

Like I said earlier, some of us want to escape for a day and see what happens, while others of us don't want to disappear at all because we have a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out). We want to be found. We want to be included. We want someone to stumble upon us and treat us like a long-lost treasure they have spent so many years looking for.

All we want is to be acknowledged and told we are wanted.

So, there will come a time in your life where it will hit you like a slap in the face. You'll sit in your room and start bawling... and you'll realize that absolutely no one realizes how unhappy you are.

But it doesn't have to last forever.

Brendan Francis has a quote that really hit home with me. It says, "the innermost core of loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning to reconnect and find a union with one's self."

This really sat with me. It made me step back and think about how I really do wish I had a better union with myself. I mean, I do so much for others, how could I not be in touch with myself? And I still don't have an answer to that question, other than, "I'm working on it."