What is alienation?

Alienation is when you feel far away from something or someone that should be close to you, like your toy, your friend, or even yourself.

Imagine you have a favorite teddy bear. Every day, you play with it, talk to it, and go to sleep holding it. But one day, your teddy bear gets packed in a box and taken away to live in another room, maybe even another house. You don’t see it for weeks or months. When you finally get to visit it again, it feels strange and distant, like it doesn’t remember you.

That’s what alienation feels like, when something close becomes far away, and it feels like it no longer belongs to you.

Sometimes, we move to a new school, or our best friend moves away. That can make us feel alone or lonely. It's like your teddy bear is in another room, you still love it, but it feels different now.

Or maybe you used to enjoy drawing, but now you don’t have time for it anymore. That part of you feels left behind, just like the teddy bear who was packed away.