This article is based on narratives from 20 women who have experienced domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Based on in-depth interviews, we explored their lived experiences of the mechanisms and meanings of loneliness in the context of DVA. The women experienced social and existential loneliness, not as passive consequences of victimization, but through active isolating and lonely-making tactics inflicted on them by the abusers, as well as through responses from personal and professional networks and institutions. We present the concept lonelification to offer a framework for the understanding of lonely-making as a core aspect of DVA, which targets women's sense of self, reality, and connectedness.

My friends, family, relatives … One by one they had to go. But it was always my decision to make. He indoctrinated me that they were so dirty and bad - one was a whore and the other one was a whore. But I was always the one who had to make the decision, and he always said in the end that “Yes, but you must decide for yourself.” He wanted to make it look like it was me, even though he was the one who decided. And little by little everyone disappeared, and eventually, I had no contact with anyone.

The woman quoted above participated in the interview study on which this article is based, where we explored experiences of loneliness among victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse (DVA). The quote captures loneliness, not as a passive consequence, but as an active process orchestrated by the abuser through tactics that disrupt the woman's sense of self and reality. The focus of this article is to decode the processes, mechanisms, and meanings of loneliness based on victim-survivors’ lived experiences of DVA.