Loneliness is a longing that we cannot fill by ourselves...It is having to figure out how to relate to others in solitude. Wanting to keep track of time to record how long you are held in the chains of desolation but afraid the knowing will only be depressing. Loneliness is not having anyone to talk to or care...it is knowing that nobody understands or stops to consider your situation, knowing no help is coming. Loneliness causes us to be socially retarded, if we are lonely for long enough. To be physically lonely you are by yourself, and if you do not already understand communication....if you are a child for instance...you may not have the opportunities to learn things other people will know, so that when you get older, the physical loneliness will transform into mental loneliness: you will know that you are behind...your emotional IQ will not be up to par, since you have not had as much opportunity to study others...you understand that your circumstances have thus set you apart from those around you, which is what I mean by mental loneliness--the realization that you will most likely be (or you already are) misunderstood, and that the misunderstanding is no fault of your own. This can become cyclic, where a person who is physically lonely as a child feels mentally lonely and then due to the feelings of inadequacy regarding socialization chooses to stay away from others as a defense mechanism; this self-isolation only compounds the feelings of social inadequacy, which makes it more likely that the person will continue to stay isolated.