Telling someone “I’ve been kind of lonely” is one of the bravest sentences you can say. It usually gets a “me too.”

Loneliness is unusually hard to say out loud because it feels like reporting a personal failure rather than a condition. It is neither, and it is far more widely shared than the surface of anyone’s life suggests. Naming it to one person tends to produce recognition rather than pity, because the other person has usually been there too.

If it is true for you right now, tell someone plainly and without apologising for it. You do not have to explain it or ask for anything. Saying it out loud is often the first thing that makes it smaller.