Thousands of teens and young adults in America have sealed themselves off from the outside world. In increasing numbers, America's youth have fallen victim to a condition called Acute Social Withdrawal. What happens is that teenagers suddenly lock themselves into their rooms and stay there, sometimes for years at a time. Like other behavioral disorders, this condition is not often discussed openly and largely goes unnoticed by the public. These teenagers don't want anyone to know, and if the parents do try to get help, the kids often threaten to assault them or commit suicide. So their parents keep quiet. More...
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Just so you know, that story is completely bogus. First of all, the American Health Association doesn't conduct studies. It's a discount health care plan: http://www.ahahealth.com/
ReplyDeleteSecond, there is no listing for a Pavement Studios at that address or anywhere in Brooklyn at all.
So, yeah... hikikomori is almost completely unknown outside Japan.
I am honestly suffering from this, and I'm not a Japanes. I withdraw and feel pressured all the time, an example of this is that it occurs specially on occasions such as family parties or events when friends of the family also come and for some reason I go to my room and stay there even if its my birthday, one more example is when summer starts I will gradually disconnect myself from my friends and after a few days I begin to sleep the whole day and just wake up at night and I don't know why prefer to isolate myself, I'm not depressed but just always feel pressured. BTW I just read about Hikikomori the last few 2 hours and I had this like 3 years and I'm living in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI'm just like the Anon above me except i live in Sweden. I have been staying at home for 4 years now and sleep during the day because i feel pressure when around other people. My family had a "Movie night" here at our house yesterday with most of my relatives and all i did was staying in my room untill they left.
ReplyDeleteI’ve lived as ‘a part’ of ‘society’ for maybe two years total out of the last fifteen or so, with my last two years being spent exclusively indoors (Teh Interwebz is a wonderful thing when it comes to ordering groceries!), and I can safely say that I prefer a largely asocial mode of existence.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents’ worth.
I think I can understand why anyone would want to withdraw from society. While I'm not a "social outcast" I must admit that I enjoy solitude and isolation, even though I stray into "society" every now and then...
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm often out and getting on with almost everyone I meet, I am pretty afraid of getting too close to people, I reach a barrier where I won't let them any closer. And I'm in the UK
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:42 Yes, I can understand that and am a bit like that too, although I'm not afraid of people. It's just that most of the people I know or meet don't seem very interesting...
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate with the social withdrawal phenom... I am currently living a life where I get out less and less like once a week just for some groceries. I spend most of my time in my house especially in my room where I would be surfing the net, watching classic films, playing with my PSP. Not sure how all of this started maybe because of depression? You see I quit my job last month, had a serious fight with my girlfriend which led to an unfortunate break up. Maybe I'm still trying to recover but this is all new to me locking myself for hours in my room, sleeping all day only to wake up in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll recover in time...
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