The Experience of Loneliness in the Silences of MS: A Study on the Experience of Loneliness among MS Patients of Sanandaj

The present article is an exploration of the hidden tumult of loneliness among MS patients of Sanandaj. This article aims to study the subjective experience of loneliness and the objective state of loneliness through the medium of the disease: both the meaning that they assigned to loneliness and the meaning that is imposed on them. First, the meaning of loneliness is clarified all through the throng of the studies on loneliness. Then it is argued that, loneliness as a subjective experience can be understood only through its objective possibility and the objective mediums. In most cases, MS is the experience of process of deprivation from social support in the era of transformation of social bonds. Observation, interview and writings of MS patients, have been our sources for the exploration of their loneliness. There are some meaning-makings in the description of loneliness as a subjective experience: social network without social support, a process from becoming lonely to being lonely, and being without having a clear future. On the other hand, the patients’ subjective experience of loneliness as the result of the objective state of having MS is the consequence of three basic shortages in their social relationships: lack of recognition, lack of security and lack of feeling of continuation.