390,000 Die from Embarrassment?

390,000 people die from embarrassment each year.

I made that number up. Do you want to know why?

Because I could not find any statistics on how many
people die each year from issues related to embarrassment.

But I’m certain they do. It’s common sense really.

I’ll show you how I arrived at that specific number in just a minute.

To be clear, I’m not talking about “Oops I forgot your name” embarrassments
or you blabbed about your coworker’s affair when you shouldn’t have
and your face turned beet red and you exploded kind of embarrassment death.

I’m talking about how we physically mistreat our bodies because
we’re embarrassed to talk about some troubling issue.

“What might some of these “embarrassment issues” be?” the wise man asks.

1. The medicines you’re supposed to take give you an unwanted
   side effect, like constipation, or muscle aches, or headache, but you refuse to tell your doctor.
   Instead, you just stop taking your meds.
2. You’re embarrassed by some condition like severe itching, or anything related to “down there” but you don’t want to tell your doctor so whatever you have spreads,
   gets infected, or reduces the immune response of your body over time
   so that when you get the next big thing, you can’t fight it.
3. You’re a big, tough man who don’t go crying to the doctor every time
   he feels bad. You tough it out. I know, I know, there’s a lot of tough women
   out there doing this too. But this is not the sort of thing you want to raise
   your hand for when they ask, “Who else does this?” Dumb.
4. You’re always saying, “What? Could you repeat that?” But you’re
   embarrassed to get your hearing checked so you get run over by a bus
   crossing the street. Or rear-ended backing out of your driveway because
   you could not hear the horn honking.
5. You’re lonely, but rather than admit that and look for help or the company
   you need, you suffer silently, because “that’s just how life is” you tell yourself.
   It’s embarrassing to say, “I’m lonely”.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!”, you exclaim with all the passion you can muster.

How did that last one, loneliness sneak in there. No one dies from loneliness!

Oh, contraire my naive old friend!

Yes, it’s probably true that you never attended a funeral where, when asked,
the family said, “Oh, he died from loneliness”.

Yet just like all the other secret dumb things we do when embarrassed by
our condition, loneliness IS THE SECRET CAUSE behind so many medical conditions.

Here are some real physical impairments that loneliness has been proven by researchers to cause:

1. Higher Blood Pressure, which increases your likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke
2. Weakened Immune Response
3. Sleeplessness and less efficient sleep absent the detoxifying effect, causing daytime dysfunction
4. Anxiety which encourages the production of the harmful stress hormone cortisol.
5. Poor appetite leading to poor nutrition leading to poor health
6. Increase substance abuse including alcohol and drugs
7. Headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension, migraines
8. Sedentary lifestyle, binge-watching TV or computer which leads to loss of strength, muscle tone, mobility
9. Poverty by attempting to fulfill human needs through cycles of buying material “stuff”.

Researcher say some 15% of the population is lonely. That’s 29-45 million people.

Back to my hypothesis, which is the starting point of all research and problem solving.

I’m suggesting, using the low end, that if a mere 1% of those 29 million lonely people
are neglecting their health because they are too embarrassed about their loneliness
to seek help, or have no idea where to start, 290,000 people would die each year because
they were lonely.

What a shame too. All those lonely people, wishing, wondering how could they connect
when there were 29 million other lonely people thinking the exact same thing.

What if there were a way to introduce them all?

Clinics won’t work. Remember, no one wants to say they are lonely.

I think whats needed a is private resource where people can go get information
on how to make friend and lovers in the modern world. I’m researching and
working on a book currently which should help.

Be sure to join my list so you can be one of the first to get this helpful
resource to fight and fix your loneliness issues.

To wrap up, 290,000 deaths caused by loneliness, plus say another 100,000
from people in the 4 other groups above compromising their health by not
telling their doctor about some “embarrassing” problem and you’ve got the
full 390,000 I led this article with.

Sadly, we may never know the real statistic. We can only do our part
to reduce the likelihood of our dying of embarrassment.

Yuval Noah Harari notes in his TED Dialogue: Statistically you are your own worst enemy.
At least, of all the people in the world, you are most likely to be killed by yourself”.

“Bene Vivere!”

Elderbob Schwarztrauber

P.S. Don’t be embarrassed to tell your doctor anything. It’s all confidential
and no matter what you have going on where, you’re not the first. They’ve seen it all before.
Spoiler Alert: You’re not so special to them! They see 15 or 20 patients every single day.
They’ve forgotten your issue by day’s end and move quickly on to wondering “What’s for dinner?”

But, take heart, you are special to me!

I’m here to help.