I was thinking exact same thing today: we as species have been designed to long for something. Look at our history - as humans we always dreamed, hoped and created. The longing and the emptiness drove us to search , to fight, to get out there ... Evolution is us wanting/succeeding at obtaining that which was lacking. Lonelyness is just a drive/fuel/need to fill the empty place in our minds. Passion is what needs to settle in there. Sometimes it even turns into an obsesion. Look at scientists that spend their whole lives obsesing over a thing that most f us would find completely and utterly borring. In our cases the alcohol only temporarily filled that void. We all technically addicts. We jut filled that void with the wrong thing.
So my thinking is we need to find passion and fill the empty space in our hearts/minds.