400 Friends and No One to Call: Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community
A friendly, candid, and comforting guide for isolating times when we have no one to count on.
Despite the inclusive promise of social media, loneliness is a growing epidemic in the United States. Social isolation can shatter our confidence. In isolating times, we're not only lonely, we're also ashamed because our society stigmatizes people who appear to be without support.
As a single, fifty-eight-year-old woman, Val Walker found herself stranded and alone after major surgery when her friends didn't show up. As a professional rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal how utterly isolated she was by asking for someone to help, and it felt agonizingly awkward calling colleagues out of the blue. As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation, but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding a sense of community.
400 Friends and No One to Call spells out the how-tos for befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging. On a deeper level, we are invited to befriend our loneliness, rather than feel ashamed of it, and open our hearts and minds to others trapped in isolation.
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"This book is a marvel! Without any pomposity, this is a compendium of real life stories and useful tips about solving the universal problem of loneliness. Val Walker is able to walk a fine line that never veers into 'clinical' distance or cloying sweetness. I plan to recommend this book widely!"--Jacqueline Olds, MD, Co-author, The Lonely American, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital
"In this vitally important book, Walker has given us an informative and heartfelt examination of a world that encourages the kind of isolation that will kill us if we allow it. She shows us a way out of the pain of isolation, offering wonderful insights about building connections that will sustain us."--Scott Allison, PhD, Author, Heroic Transformation, Professor of Psychology, University of Richmond
"With honesty, compassion, and practical wisdom, 400 Friends grapples with a critical and timely issue. At the Health Story Collaborative, we're thrilled to have her knowledge and guidance for breaking through isolation."--Annie Brewster, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Founder of the Health Story Collaborative and Co-founder of The Opioid Project
"Perhaps now more than ever, the experience of loneliness and isolation is almost universal. In 400 Friends and No One to Call, Val Walker brings a collection of diverse voices together to teach us how we can break past that isolation and build communities that support us and help us find our way. Her clear, empathetic, and compassionate voice carries the reader through the forces that isolate us, and gives us tools needed to move to a new sense of belonging."--Allie Cashel, president and co-founder, The Suffering the Silence Community, Inc., and the author of Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial
"Val Walker has written an important book about a paradox of our time: We have friends all over the place, and yet no one to turn to in rough times--a paradox with serious ethical and social implications. Insight and hands-on advice are needed. For those who care, Ms. Walker's book is a must-read."--Claus Jarlov, CEO, communications consultant, founder of Global Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
"The work I do in fighting the stigma and isolation of addiction is all about the power of community. We hurt as one and we must heal as one. 400 Friends shows us how."--Paul E. Kandarian, actor/writer, longtime contributor to the Boston Globe and Rhode Island Monthly
