Pain of solitude

Being alone with nothing specific to do can bring an intolerable sense of emptiness, there seems to be a need for a sense of purpose, the exotelic experience of a goal to work for. Without external input, attention wanders, thoughts become chaotic. Without control of consciousness the mind relaxes and worries immediately creep in. Typically, the individual tries to escape from solitude through TV; or, more drastically, through consumption of alcohol or other drugs, so that the self is no longer responsible for the direction of psychic energy; or through obsessive habits. None of these develop attentional habits that might lead to a greater complexity of consciousness. On the contrary, the ultimate test of the ability to control the quality of experience is what a person does on his own. Filling free time with activities requiring concentration, increase skills and develop the self, while still coping with the threat of chaos, also leads to growth. It requires learning to use the time one has alone instead of simply escaping from it. This control of consciousness enables development of discipline and is particularly important for the young who need complex skills learned on their own in order to find well paid and satisfying jobs. They also need to develop discipline for later life, so that attention can be controlled in solitude when one will need to turn one's energies from mastery of the external world to a deeper exploration of inner reality.