Health experts begin to recognize that the threat from COVID-19 is not just physical; the danger to the mental well-being of millions of people suffering a psychological impact from the pandemic is also giving rise to global concern.  

Living with such an indiscriminate and pervasive threat as the coronavirus is, in itself, highly stressful. The lockdown being enforced in many countries, where people are allowed to leave their home only for essential purposes, is exacerbating the sense of anxiety.

Even when they do go out, strict social distancing measures prevent normal interaction with friends and relatives. The lack of personal interaction is giving rise to psychological problems, in the form of a sense of loneliness and depression. "Of course I can work from home," one psychotherapist quotes a patient as saying. "But can I stay sane while I'm doing it?"

Whether we're an extrovert or an introvert, we're all social beings requiring a certain degree of connection with others. Humor is one weapon for dealing with the enforced isolation. Hence, the popularity of a parody of "Hello" by Adele, which has gone viral: 

Hello from self quarantine (quarantine)
I'm begging Amazon to please (Amazon to please)
After sending more soap, can you please figure out
How to send a box of my friends to my house?

…

Also mitigating the stress and inconvenience of being confined to the home is telecom technology and social media. Whether we're feeling lonely and just want someone to talk to, or we need to convene a meeting to decide a business strategy, we can reach – and see – anyone, anywhere in the world, at the press of a button.

Of course, the majority of us are not alone in the lockdown. Rather, we're experiencing the unusual situation of spending every hour of every day with our closest family. But this can bring its own psychological pressures, as we struggle to deal with behavior and character traits in others that would normally be a minor irritation or cause of laughter, but can now easily provoke annoyance and a major confrontation.

Ironically, people in this situation are likely to dream of spending some time alone. What they are craving, though, is not the enforced state of loneliness, but solitude. Life in quarantine presents us with the opportunity, if we so choose, to appreciate the joys and benefits of being alone, without being lonely.

Henry David Thoreau provides inspiration to those living in self-isolation in his 1854 work, Walden. Subtitled Life in the Woods, it draws on Thoreau's experience of living in semi-isolation beside Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, from July 1845 to September 1847.

In the book, Thoreau describes how: 

"My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; and a little world all to myself. At night there was never a traveler passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man."

Thoreau acknowledges that people might find his choice of lifestyle unnatural. "Men frequently say to me, 'I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially.'"

But he counters this with the statement, "I have never felt lonesome, or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude, but once, and that was a few weeks after I came to the woods, when, for an hour, I doubted if the near neighborhood of man was not essential to a serene and healthy life."

In short, Thoreau appreciated that solitude could be empowering, and the source of serenity, peace and creativity. He described how, by discovering life's true essential needs in solitude, his creative thinking was inspired. Evidently, his philosophy has struck a chord with generations of readers, ensuring that Walden has become one of the most celebrated works of American literature.

In the unusual circumstances in which we find ourselves today, and even though our solitude is enforced, we can learn from Thoreau's experience. Solitude, we may find, can give us the opportunity for cultivating our inner richness through reflection, deep reading, appreciating nature, and much more.

With a different mindset, we may be able to overcome the frustrations and stress of isolation and tap into the potential for personal fulfillment and pleasure afforded by solitude.