You're allowed to be here, nobody says it's okay.It's not what you feared, and the ones who look fine were crawling inside too.
One man's map, from the chair you're in. Free, one page, no catch.
The path
In this order.
1 of 7 · the path
The room
You're in the right place. It's allowed, and it isn't what you feared. None of this is done alone, and nobody who got out did it alone either.
The tweak
Go to one meeting this week, and stay to the end, when they say the three words.
Why, and how sure
The first thing is not a method; it is a room with people in it who sat where you are sitting. You hear them name what you are doing before you can name it yourself, and that is how the names get to you. Where to turn is beside this on the page: the meeting, the doctor, the rehab, the line to call. The book never does those; it says where they are. How sure: this rests on the rooms, seventy years of them, and one man's year sat in it for want of a sentence; not on trials.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
It's okay that you're here
You're in the right place. It's allowed. And it isn't what you feared.
Nobody told Mike that. Nobody said it would be okay to go, that the help was there, that it wasn't as miserable as it sounds. So he sat in it a year longer than he had to. If you're reading this in the chair, or in the parking lot after, you've already done the hardest part.
The rooms have said it to every newcomer for seventy years, in three words at the end of every meeting: keep coming back.
2 of 7 · the path
The door: the list
You can start with one thing, today, that takes five minutes and costs nothing. The people who were where you are started exactly there.
The tweak
Write three things down tomorrow morning, on paper, before anything else.
Why, and how sure
A list of three to five things you are grateful for, on paper, first thing in the morning. It changes the filter the rest of the day is seen through. How sure: the rooms have handed this on person to person for decades, and the traditions longer; the trials on gratitude practices are small and short-term, and the vault holds one concept on it with little behind it yet. The shelf holds this one, not the science.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
Start a gratitude list
Write down, on paper, three to five things you are grateful for, first thing in the morning. Not typed. Not spoken into a phone. Written. It changes the filter you see the rest of the day through.
It will feel too simple, and some mornings it will feel fake. Do it anyway. It is the first thing to change, and the other things follow from it.
Where it comes from
It is the program's own practice, handed from one person to the next in the rooms for decades. It is older than the program. Don Miguel Ruiz, in The Four Agreements, puts "the mastery of gratitude" in the same breath as the mastery of love and of life. Counting blessings was a practice long before either.
One man's day
These are from Mike's notebook, written the way they were written. One man's route, not yours.
The first one that hits the hardest, and everything else flows from, is gratitude. There is no one way to do anything. You find what works for you. But the map is clear. Write down — put on paper — inscribe — not type, not voice-to-text — write down 3–5 things that you are grateful for. Do it first thing in the morning. That changes the filter that you see the rest of the day in.
Mike's notebook
Some of this seems too simple to be of service, and it's so simple and easy that it can't work, so give me the hard nuggets so I can get down to some serious make-my-life-better stuff — or, my life is okay, I am already grateful, let's move on. (NO!!) These are the building blocks for everything.
Mike's notebook
As I kept refuting the intrusive the gratitude slipped into its place.
Mike's journal
3 of 7 · the path
Coming down from survival mode: sleep, food, moving
The body you are in right now is braced for survival, and that comes down. You cannot think your way out while you are in it; you can let it settle, and then the mind has room.
The tweak
When you notice you are braced, breathe out slower than you breathe in, for one minute.
Why, and how sure
Sleep, food, moving, and a slower breath. When the body stops bracing, the thinking that was impossible becomes possible, and the rest of this method becomes something you can do rather than read. How sure: slow breathing has trials behind it for anxiety over weeks, small and short-term; sleep, food and moving are what every rehab and every tradition already puts first, and the vault says little about them yet. Noticing what is going on in you is the start of all of it.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
4 of 7 · the path
Seeing it straight, and stopping the fight
You can look at where you are without the story that makes it bearable and without the fight against it, and it will not finish you. The people who did it say it was the first free breath.
The tweak
Say one true thing about where you are, out loud, to one person who will not argue with it.
Why, and how sure
Seeing it straight: the plain facts of your situation, said to yourself without softening and without arguing. Accepting that it is so is not approving of it, and it is not giving up; it is where the fight stops wasting you. Radical acceptance is one part of this, not the whole. How sure: taught in DBT, drawn from Zen; some trials, short-term, small samples; not in the vault. The Serenity Prayer and the shelf's own line hold it.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
See it straight, stop fighting it
Look at where you are without the story that makes it bearable and without the fight against it. The plain facts, said to yourself, without softening and without arguing. Seeing it straight is not approving of it, and it is not giving up.
Accepting that it is so is where the fight stops wasting you. That acceptance is one part of this, not the whole; the seeing comes first.
Where it comes from
The rooms close every meeting with it, and have since 1941: the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It was a theologian's prayer before it was the program's. Forty years ago Marsha Linehan brought the same move into the clinic from her Zen practice and called it radical acceptance: accept what is, all the way, so that the pain of it does not become the suffering of fighting it.
One man's day
These are from Mike's journal, written the way they were written. One man's route, not yours.
Clarity is a Bitch. It is facing the stark cold naked truth… But it is very liberating.
Mike's journal
Becoming aware of the things I accept, and acceptance of the things I become aware of.
Mike's journal
It's funny along with my 9 month chip came with the gift of more clarity
Mike's journal
5 of 7 · the path
One small change, every day
A small thing done every day grows into something you could not have done in one go. Nobody got out by one big move.
The tweak
Pick the smallest version of one change and do it tomorrow at a fixed time.
Why, and how sure
One change, small enough to do on a bad day, done every day until it carries itself. The size is the point: small enough that you will do it, repeated until it no longer needs deciding. How sure: the vault holds habit formation and the gap between meaning to and doing, with trials behind implementation intentions over days; the one study that counted found a habit took anywhere from 18 to 254 days to become automatic.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
One small change, every day
One thing, small enough to do on a bad day, done today and again tomorrow. The size is what makes it possible. The repeating is what makes it yours, until it no longer needs deciding.
Not all of it at once. One thing.
Where it comes from
The program does not ask you to stay sober for life. It asks you to stay sober today, and says so on the wall of every room: one day at a time. Don Miguel Ruiz, in The Four Agreements, says it word for word, and says what the repetition does: taking the action over and over strengthens your will and lays the foundation for the new habit to grow.
One man's day
These are from Mike's journal, written the way they were written. One man's route, not yours.
Change one small thing everyday. Even if you change the same thing in a completely different manner. Do something new everyday.
Mike's journal
You can't want a change in your life without making a change. Do one small change consistently - allow it to grow. Change will come to you.
Mike's journal
Anything, make it something small. Don't fix all of it at once. Do something small. But you have to do it. And again. And again.
Mike's journal
Now all I have to do is keep doing it. Every day.
Mike's journal, eighteen months alcohol-free
6 of 7 · the path
Compassion as a tool: be nice to someone and your day gets better
You can use kindness to move your own day, on purpose, when you are wound up. It works on you, not only on the person you are kind to.
The tweak
The next time you are aggravated, do one kind thing for someone within reach, before you do anything about the aggravation.
Why, and how sure
Being decent to someone else when you are aggravated swings the pendulum back: your day gets better and less stressful, and the aggravation has somewhere to go that is not you. Compassion here is a tool you pick up, not a feeling you wait for. How sure: no vault concept and no trial behind it on the shelf yet; the traditions and the rooms have held it for as long as there have been rooms.
This rests on the old wisdoms and one man's journal, not on trials.
Compassion as a tool
When you are wound up, be kind to someone else. Not because they need it; because of what it does to your own day. You do not wait to feel it. You do it.
It is a tool you pick up, on purpose, when you are aggravated. The aggravation gets somewhere to go that is not you.
Where it comes from
The program found this out the hard way and wrote it down in 1939: nothing so much insures immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. The twelfth step makes it the practice, and the rooms say it shorter: you have to give it away to keep it. The traditions had it first. The Buddha's loving-kindness practice is a thing you sit down and do, on purpose, toward people you did not pick.
One man's day
These are Mike's words, the way they were said. One man's route, not yours.
You use compassion to swing the pendulum from aggravated: be nice to someone else and your day gets better and less stressful.
Mike, talking it through, 31 October 2026
By giving love you defeat hate. You don't have to love what you hate. By being self aware you can learn not to hate. And then you Love.
Mike's journal
Where to turn
A doctor or therapist can help.
If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US, any hour), or your local emergency number.
For drinking or drugs, SAMHSA's helpline is free, confidential and open every hour: 1-800-662-4357.
7 of 7 · the path
The wheel
The spokes are your reactions to what comes in through your senses. The reactions are the same in everyone; what comes in is yours alone. There is no first spoke and no order here: the map is the same for everyone, and the route is your own.
Hearing them named is how you start to notice one in yourself. The names:
- Attention stuck on the threat
- Attention stuck on yourself
- Going over and over it
- Grief: missing what's gone
- Hopelessness
- How you read what just happened
- Meaning to and not doing
- Not seeing a way through
- Pulling back from life
- Pulling back from people
- Restless, irritable, discontented: can't settle
- Staying away from it
- The habit firing on the cue
- The inner critic
- The pull
- What you believe about your own thinking
- Worry
Attention stuck on the threat
Attention stuck on the threat is a setting, not a verdict. Your eyes go to the bad thing first and stay there; that is a habit of looking, and a habit of looking can be noticed and moved.
The tweak
Three times tomorrow, when you catch yourself staring at the bad thing, name it in two words, then find three ordinary things in the room and name those. Thirty seconds each time.
When attention is stuck on the threat, the worst thing in any scene gets found first and held longest, so the day is made of its worst parts. It is not simply that you are low and so look there: in the one study on file, how long students' eyes stayed on negative words did not go with how low they were to start, but it did predict who got worse over the next five weeks. Moving attention on purpose, to the next ordinary thing in the room, gives the day its other parts back; noticing where your eyes went is the finger on the rim. How sure: one reading. A study of 49 students with raised low-mood scores, eyes tracked over word pairs, then mood checked weekly for five weeks, found that longer looking at negative words predicted worsening (r = .42); one predictor picked from six, so the figure likely shrinks, nothing was changed to see whether mood followed, and five weeks in one university. A summary of training studies, where bigger shifts in bias went with bigger drops in anxiety, sits on check at trend level. Nothing here is a trial of moving attention.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim
- attentional bias influences depression: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Attention stuck on yourself
Watching yourself from the inside, how you sound, how you look, what your body is doing, is something you do, not something you are. In one small lab test, people felt more anxious speaking about their own sensations than about someone else's, so where the attention points may matter.
The tweak
Once tomorrow, in one ordinary conversation, catch the moment you start watching yourself. For the next two minutes put all of it on the other person: what they are saying, and one question about it.
When attention sits on yourself, the self becomes the loudest thing in the room: the pounding heart, the voice, what the other person must be thinking. The feeling you are watching may grow for being watched, and pointing attention at the other person or the task gives it less to feed on. How sure: three readings, and they pull different ways. A lab experiment with 40 people, 20 with social phobia and 20 without, found the anxiety they rated during a 2-minute speech was higher when they spoke about their own sensations than about their partner's (partial η² = .14), in both groups; the authors only suggest this is how self-focus keeps social anxiety going, nothing was followed past two speeches, and the larger observer-rated effect may be tangled with speakers naming their symptoms. A narrative review of self-focused thinking in social anxiety, with no search counts or pooled figures, says self-focus increases anxiety and keeps it going; the 'increases' rests on lab studies, the 'keeps it going' on models and correlational work. Against that: a randomised trial of an 8-week internet CBT course for social anxiety (464 adults) found self-focused attention at week four did not predict symptoms (β = 0.11, p = 0.09), where safety behaviours and avoidance did; it used a trait questionnaire, not attention in the moment, corrected for no multiple tests, and the authors say other trials found the opposite. All of it is social anxiety, none is everyday life, and nobody here trained people to move their attention and followed them.
The evidence is split. Good studies point both ways.
Claim by claim
- self focused attention influences anxiety: The evidence is split. Good studies point both ways.
Going over and over it
Going over it again and again is a thing you do, not proof of what you are. It can be caught in the act, and the people who learn to catch it early get more of the day back.
The tweak
When you catch the same thought on its third lap, stop and ask it one question out loud: what, exactly, happened? Answer in one plain sentence, name the one next thing, and do it inside ten minutes.
Rumination is turning over what went wrong, and why, and what it says about you, without ever getting to what to do next. It feels like working on the problem; it is the opposite, since the thinking stays abstract and the body stays braced. It runs on the trouble of letting a bad thought go, and on a belief that chewing on it helps. The way out in the trials is to make it concrete: what exactly happened, and what is the one next thing; and to notice the thought as a thought and let it pass. How sure: a meta-analysis of 29 trials found mindfulness-based cognitive therapy cut rumination by about half a standard deviation after treatment, mostly in depression, with the gain shrinking after three months and small against CBT; a trial of 121 people in GP practices found the concreteness exercise cut rumination more than relaxation did at eight weeks, though not symptoms; the therapy built for rumination has only a pilot of 42 people behind it, with its developer in the room. That rumination predicts who falls into depression a year on held in about 1,300 adults and again in a one-year follow-up. Its links to worry, avoidance, pulling back from life and poor sleep rest on one student study, one bereavement study inside a review, and reviews' summaries of lab work. The belief part is theory, not data.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim
- attentional control influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- concreteness training targets rumination: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- depression influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- early adversity influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- metacognitive beliefs influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- mindfulness based cognitive therapy targets rumination: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
- mindfulness meditation practice targets rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination influences anxiety: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination influences avoidance: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination influences behavioral withdrawal: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- rumination influences depression: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- rumination influences fatigue: No studies on this yet. It rests on what people in the rooms have found.
- rumination influences hpa axis dysregulation: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
- rumination influences sleep disturbance: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination influences worry: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination occurs in depression: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination focused cbt influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- rumination focused cbt targets rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- worry postponement targets rumination: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
Hopelessness
Hopelessness is a forecast, not a report. It says nothing you do will change anything, and says it with such certainty that you stop checking; the men in the rooms who got out are the check.
The tweak
Pick one thing you have stopped doing because it seemed pointless, the smallest one. Do it once tomorrow, before noon, and write one line that night on whether anything at all moved.
Hopelessness is the expectation that what you want will not come and that nothing you do will change that. In the theory it is built from evidence you gather yourself: go over it long enough and you have a mountain of proof that you might as well give up. Giving up is what it costs you: you stop starting things, and the stopped life then proves the forecast. The way out is not to argue with the forecast but to do one small thing it calls pointless, and see. How sure: thinner than any spoke so far, and said plainly. The vault holds two readings, both reviews restating a theory: Nolen-Hoeksema's lab's own hypothesis that rumination builds the case for giving up, and the hopelessness theory's definition, which lists slowed starting among its symptoms. Neither tests the link from hopelessness to withdrawal; the results of the 67-study review on file are not yet read in. A null on purpose in life easing hopelessness sits on check. What this piece can lean on is the room.
Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
Claim by claim
- hopelessness influences behavioral withdrawal: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
Staying away from it
Staying away from it works, for about an hour, which is why you keep doing it. It can be turned round one small step at a time, and the people who take the step mostly find the thing is not what they feared.
The tweak
Pick one thing you have been staying away from, in its smallest form: the phone call, the street, the room. Go toward it once this week, and stay until the fear has dropped by half before you leave.
Staying away from a thing takes the fear down right now; that is what it is for, and it is why the fear is back, and a little bigger, the next time. Every time you dodge it, you miss the one lesson that would end the fear: that the thing has changed, or was never what you thought. So the fear stays where it was and your life gets smaller round it. Going toward it in small doses, and staying until the fear drops on its own, gives the lesson a chance to land. How sure: the readings here are thin, and say so. That dodging keeps the lesson from landing is argued in Bandura's 1977 theory paper and in a narrative review by the fear-avoidance model's own developers, from older phobia work and lab studies of pain, not from a trial. That it takes fear down in the moment is the DSM-5's own sentence, with no size behind it. That it feeds depression held in 291 bereaved adults over a year, but only in the first year of the loss, and it added little. That going over it feeds staying away is one bereavement study inside a review. The trials of meeting the feared thing on purpose are not yet read into the vault; this piece rests on the mechanism, not on them.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim
- avoidance influences anxiety: not rated yet
- avoidance influences depression: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- avoidance influences extinction learning: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- rumination influences avoidance: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
The pull
The pull is the part of wanting that gets you moving toward a thing before you have it. It can run low, and a low pull looks like not caring when it may be nearer to wanting that has gone quiet. That is something the system does, not a flaw in you.
The tweak
Pick one small thing you used to like. Tomorrow do it for ten minutes, wish or no wish, and write one line afterward on whether the wish turned up once you were in it.
The brain gives the things that point to a reward, a cue, a smell, a message from a friend, a pull that makes them worth the effort. The pull is thought to be a separate part from the pleasure of getting the thing, and dopamine is thought to serve the pull more than the pleasure. When the pull runs low a man can wait a long time for the wish to arrive before he moves. How sure: thin, and mostly brain scans. A pooled analysis of 24 fMRI studies, 822 people (depressed, at-risk and symptom-scored volunteers against healthy ones), found less activity in the caudate and left putamen, parts of the striatum, while waiting for a reward; it appeared only once studies of chosen brain regions were added, since the 12 whole-brain studies alone found nothing after correction, and it is a difference between groups at one time, not a cause. A review that read, but did not pool, a few follow-up studies of adolescents (three or four, two from the authors' own groups) reports a smaller striatal response in fMRI and a blunted feedback signal in EEG before depression began; no adults, and the EEG signal is a response to feedback, so it shows what came first, not what caused it. On dopamine: one review of anhedonia starts from animal evidence that dopamine serves the motivation side more than the pleasure, which is the premise the authors argue from, not a result they test; and a PET study of 25 healthy adults found those whose dopamine system responded more to amphetamine chose the high-effort option more for larger rewards, mostly when the chance of winning was low, a correlation in one small healthy sample. Nothing on file tests whether acting without the pull brings it back.
Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
Claim by claim
- dopaminergic signalling influences reward anticipation: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- reward anticipation influences depression: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
- reward anticipation occurs in depression: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
What you believe about your own thinking
What you believe about your own thinking is a belief, not a fact, and beliefs can be checked. Most men have never once asked whether chewing on it helps or whether they could stop; the ones who ask find the answer is not what they assumed.
The tweak
Next time the thinking will not stop, write down the one belief under it: 'this helps', or 'I can't stop this'. Then put the thinking down for ten minutes by the clock, and write one line on what happened. One test, one line.
Two beliefs run the worst of it: that going over it helps, and that once it starts you cannot stop. The first calls the thinking up; the second keeps you braced against it, so it feels dangerous and you never try to put it down. Test the belief and the thinking has less to run on; that is the idea behind worry's set half hour, where the belief gets tried. How sure: thin. That the beliefs drive rumination comes from two theory papers, not data. A survey of 433 students over three months found worry steadier, and fed by rumination, in the half with stronger beliefs about their thinking; a split at the mean, not a trial. In 206 people followed for a year after a cancer diagnosis, beliefs about thinking, chiefly that worry is uncontrollable and dangerous, predicted anxiety and depression a year on, though once the starting level was allowed for the beliefs added little, two and five per cent. No trial of changing the beliefs is yet read into the vault, and two trials' nulls on the beliefs sit on check.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim
- metacognitive beliefs influences anxiety: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- metacognitive beliefs influences depression: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- metacognitive beliefs influences rumination: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- metacognitive beliefs influences worry: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Worry
Worry is a thing you do, not weather that happens to you. It can be put down for a while, and people who learn it can wait find it gets quieter.
The tweak
When a worry starts, write it in one line and tell it: half past six. At half past six, sit with the list for twenty minutes, and not before.
Worry keeps a bad feeling steady so nothing can catch you by surprise; that is what it is for, and why it feels like work you cannot stop. It runs on a belief that you cannot control it. Give it a set half hour and tell it to wait, and the belief gets tested. How sure: a meta-analysis of seven small trials found a small cut in daily worry time over a few weeks, an outpatient trial found more in generalised anxiety, and the one trial with an active control found nothing; the vault calls postponement contested, and says so here. The belief part held in a three-month survey of students, not a trial. Worry and bad sleep go together at the level of the person, not the day.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim
- implementation intentions influences worry: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- metacognitive beliefs influences worry: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- metacognitive therapy targets worry: Good evidence, not yet the strongest kind.
- mindfulness based intervention influences worry: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this.
- rumination influences worry: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- worry influences sleep disturbance: not rated yet
- worry occurs in anxiety: Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
- worry postponement influences worry: Well tested. Large studies, or reviews of many trials, back this. One smaller study found otherwise.
Where to turn
A doctor or therapist can help.
If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US, any hour), or your local emergency number.
For drinking or drugs, SAMHSA's helpline is free, confidential and open every hour: 1-800-662-4357.
Where to turn
A doctor or therapist can help.
If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US, any hour), or your local emergency number.
For drinking or drugs, SAMHSA's helpline is free, confidential and open every hour: 1-800-662-4357.
What this is
Puddnhead is for anyone who is alive and miserable: after drink or drugs, trauma or loss, or with a life that just isn't what you want it to be. The life is good enough to work with; it's the details and the way you see them that can change. If you're alive, there's hope.
It hands you a map: what the science can show, and what the old wisdoms have shown for longer, said plainly and honest about how sure anyone is. The map is the same for everyone; every terrain is different, so the route is your own. Puddnhead never prescribes.
Use it alongside whatever help you already have (a program, a doctor, a counsellor), not instead of it. It is not treatment, and it does not replace care.
Puddnhead is a non-profit in the making, so that the map is never sold.
Top
Pulling back from people
Pulling back from people is something you do, a call not returned, a plan dropped, and it often follows company losing its pleasure. It is a pattern, and a pattern can be looked at without being a verdict on you.
The tweak
Before noon tomorrow, send one line to one person you have been meaning to answer. Five words will do. No call, no visit, no reply needed, and do not wait to feel like it.
When company stops giving the lift it used to, passing on it starts to make sense. The pulling back is what others notice; it tends to come with doing worse in daily life, and the wish for company often does not go away with it, so the quiet is lonely. How sure: one reading on the spoke itself, and thin. A selective review of social anhedonia in psychosis, depression, PTSD, eating disorders and autism says that across them, people who take less pleasure from social contact then pull away and function worse, though loneliness often stays; that is the abstract's own summary of the literature, with no numbers, and the authors say study designs differ and direct comparisons between groups are rare. No paper on file defines or measures pulling back directly. Close by, but about loneliness, the feeling, not pulling back, the behaviour: a five-year study of 229 Chicagoans aged 50 to 68 found that feeling lonelier one year went with a few more depressive symptoms the next (B = 0.18), allowing for earlier symptoms and much else; the other way round showed in one of six models only (B = 0.13) and vanished when the 28 people with a diagnosis were left out. People with more social support were less lonely a year later (B = -0.66) but not less depressed (B = -0.10). Self-report throughout, one county, from the lab that built the loneliness model, an author manuscript. Nothing on file tests whether a small contact undoes the pulling back.
Early evidence. Not tested well yet.
Claim by claim