Is loneliness really a choice?

There are many kinds of cells. Blood cells, cell groups, party cells, isolation cells, cellphones, and so on. According to some research isolation, alienation and lonelieness has become a major issue, along with anxiety disorders in many guises; phobias, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive behaviours, GAD,  to mention but a few. Loneliness can be experienced by anybody, none of us are immune.
Loneliness, even the word sounds lonely, like a contagious disease; "Look out, don't associate with lonely people you may catch it!" Loneliness hangs in the air, it get's under your skin like a chill, and although invisible to the naked eye, we sense it and it makes us feel very uncomfortable.
                             I guess there's a reason for why "solitary confinement" is such a harsh punishment for us humans, we don't flourish neither do we cope very well if the only company we have is ourselves. We like to be part of, to belong, to feel accepted, to exchange ideas, to share, with others. We are herd creatures and with the world shrinking through the world wide web one wonders why then there are more and more lonely people? Why are we more anxious now when knowing as much as we do one could easily surmise that we should feel more sure and secure? Alas, we are not, we are showing up on masse in hospitals, doctors surgeries and medical centres with diverse symptoms of anxiety.
Have you ever wished you could become invisible? Easy, just become homeless, aquire some form of mental health issue, dress badly, be a teenage runaway, a catlady, a baglady, a man speaking to himself, sit in a wheelchair, be fat, be old, be foreign, in short, there are many ways in which we run the risk of becoming invisible.
 The Beatles sang in the song Elenor Rigby:

Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
In the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream

Waits at the window, wearing the face
That she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Well, they are possibly most us at some point in our lives......which for me begs the question: is this part of the human condition and is there a cure? Gandhi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world". Mother Teresa saw the invisible people in Calcutta and through her actions they became visible to us. There are many organisations who tirelessly forge on to help us open our eyes and see the invisible people. Maybe there is someone you know who struggles with loneliness, who battles with anxiety, who would be glad for a call, an email, a letter, or a visit?
Sometimes the smallest gesture of kindness and interest can change a life, can make someone invisible, someone visible.