Faux feeling Something done to me
Isolated
Not a feeling: a thought about what someone did.
‘I think I am being kept apart from other people.’
Why it’s not a feeling
Isolated can be a feeling when it simply describes being alone inside. Here it means something else: the belief that you are being kept apart from people, by someone or by circumstance. As an account of how you came to be cut off, it is a thought, and the feelings that go with it are often loneliness, sadness or fear.
Feelings underneath
Needs
When these needs aren’t met
Saying it as a feeling
‘I feel isolated.’
When I spent nine days at home on my own after the operation with no visitors, I felt lonely and sad, because I need connection and community.