Page 18 - February 2025
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WHAT IS HIKIKOMORI?
The World Psychiatry Journal last year The Marxist doctrine of political correctness
published a paper that documented studies has made many people afraid to speak of
done primarily in Japan on what they called factors that would have been part of
"Hikikomori." Basically, this means extended neighborly conversations in the past. They
social isolation of many members of the also found people were afraid to leave their
public, and its causes. comfort zones and venture out. However,
as social withdrawal continues, this
Researchers guessed it would primarily cover dramatically increases the sense of
the elderly and stay-at-home parents but loneliness and alienation.
were surprised to find it affected so many of
the young. The growth of gated communities, where
homes are shut off behind locked gates, was
We have all heard folks tell us that even in a seen as one major factor.
crowd, they feel alone. Loneliness is
increasingly seen as a stepping stone to more Depression and anxiety in all their forms are
serious mental and physical conditions. predictably part and parcel of this, which
then increases the sense of being alone.
The Dunelm Study carried out in the UK said Social withdrawal, either by choice or
that one in three British people lay awake at enforced by circumstances, is now
night worrying about household chores, and recognized as a serious health issue.
in the USA, folks were more worried about
running out of money and being poor than American doctors, in a follow-up study,
dying. claim that social isolation has been ignored
and seen just as a cultural issue, but said
Experts in Hikikomori became aware of whether it’s an 80-year-old Meals on Wheels
marked social isolation. The key factor in recipient or a teenage student living in digs
each case was time spent outside the home. far from home, the results are the same.
They then extended the criteria of
information gathering outside of Japan, Indians have very close family units and
where the figures became even more critical. look after their aged, but in the West, we
tend to leave home and live more
Many people deliberately avoid social independent lives.
situations and gatherings, which
increases their sense of isolation. People Many youngsters just communicate through
need that sense of belonging; their roots Facebook or by computer and texting, and not
are very important at a subliminal level. face-to-face. Whole relationships are now
18 - My Indigo Sun being made and carried out in this way.
