Loneliness as a Symptom: What Lies Beneath It in the Method’s View

When someone complains of loneliness, it’s easy to assume the cause lies “in the outside world” or in life circumstances. But from the method’s point of view it matters to step back and ask: isn’t there a state behind it that itself cuts a person off from others? The doctor approaches loneliness not as a separate “relationships” topic, but as a possible symptom with various causes.

Loneliness is always “about something”

The method assumes loneliness rarely stands on its own. Behind it there is almost always something — either a lack of information and understanding, or a psychological state. The doctor lists directly what may lie at the root: asthenia, anxiety, panic attacks, depression. For each person it unfolds individually, but the logic is the same: first find what exactly cuts the person off from contact, rather than immediately “treating loneliness.”

“Loneliness is always either a lack of information, or some psychological disorders — different causes.”

When it’s not “character” but a depleted body

One of the method’s keys is asthenia, depletion. With asthenia a person wakes up already tired, as if they hadn’t rested; their capacity for work drops — what used to come easily now goes “through heaviness.” In such a state the brain runs on different programs, and contact with people becomes hard too. What a person once did “a thousand times without thinking” now demands strength they no longer have.

This is the shift in perspective the doctor offers: to understand that it isn’t the “outside world” that’s tired, but the body itself — the neurons, the cells, the levels of the organism. And then loneliness stops being a verdict on your character.

“To accept that the person, the neurons, the cells, the brain — at the level of the organism — is tired, and that it’s fatigue that aches, not some problem with the outside world.”

Why it matters not to confuse symptom with problem

The doctor warns sharply: some serious symptoms cannot be “sorted out” like an everyday task. He gives insomnia as an example — and the same logic applies to loneliness when a state lies behind it. For him insomnia is “one of the most alarming, serious symptoms,” a manifestation of illness, like a fever or blood pressure. Learning to “knock down” a symptom without understanding its cause leads nowhere.

“Insomnia is one of the most alarming, serious symptoms — it’s a manifestation of illness, like a fever, like blood pressure.”

The boundary of competence

The method draws a clear line: everyday advice (how to dress, how “not to lose interest”) is one thing; states of the brain and neurons are another. The doctor stresses that psychiatry is essentially neurology specialized in the workings of the brain and neurons. So if asthenia, anxiety, or depression lies behind loneliness, it must be addressed not in “coaching” logic, but through understanding what is happening with the body.

Practice: break your loneliness into its parts

1. Name the state, not the label. Instead of “I’m a lonely person,” ask: what am I feeling right now in my body and energy — fatigue, anxiety, reluctance, fear?
2. Check your mornings. Do you wake up already tired, “unrested”? Has your capacity dropped — does what used to be easy now go “through heaviness”?
3. Separate “I don’t want to” from “I can’t.” If contact used to be easy and now takes enormous effort, the issue may not be people, but depletion.
4. Don’t “knock down” alarming symptoms alone. Insomnia, constant anxiety, panic attacks are, in the doctor’s view, serious manifestations — a signal to see a specialist, not to “tough it out.”
5. Change the question. Not “how do I force myself to socialize,” but “what within me cuts me off from others — and isn’t there a state behind it that can be understood and addressed.”