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Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#111

Post by totetsu »

ericol wrote: post #13

More or less for my entire life I've had the idea that my social needs were not on par with the rest of the people, and this quarantine seems to have proven just that. Bear in mind I do enjoy social life; when I was living in Spain in my 30s (and single) I had a very active social life, and had a moderate (~30) amount of friends split in 2 groups with which I continuously interacted. When I left Spain for my place of…

I think social needs are not static, it depends on what you are become used to.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#112

Post by richardbrevig »

somerandomqaguy wrote: post #107
richardbrevig wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, all needs in the hierarchy are basic and necessary!

I wouldn't classify social interaction as a need. There's plenty of examples of people without any human contact surviving, to the point that we have a well established word for these people; hermit. Imperial Japanese holdouts after the end of WW2 are the classical example, and to a lesser degree you have hikikomori in modern day. The most extreme example is Christopher Thomas Knight (the North Pond Hermit) with only…

Please review Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs [1]. I'm just communicating what he said in his book Motivation and Personality. His theory is taught in every introduction to psychology textbook.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#113

Post by danybittel »

I call bullshit. I stopped reading at the setup: "the researchers had 40 socially-connected healthy human adults spend 10 hours (9am to 7pm) alone, with no social interaction and no other social stimulation (e.g., twitter, email, reading fiction)." All they did was deprive them of social media. I think it's well known by now that this is a source of dopamin.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#114

Post by ddeck »

danybittel wrote: post #113

I call bullshit. I stopped reading at the setup: "the researchers had 40 socially-connected healthy human adults spend 10 hours (9am to 7pm) alone, with no social interaction and no other social stimulation (e.g., twitter, email, reading fiction)." All they did was deprive them of social media. I think it's well known by now that this is a source of dopamin.

Additionally, they also forced them to get up in the early morning on the social isolation day, locked them in an unfamiliar room, and gave them close to nothing to do:

On the day of the isolation session, participants arrived at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT building 46, at 8.15am...Subsequently, participants gave their phones and laptops to the experimenter and were guided to a room containing an armchair, a desk and office chair, and a fridge with a selection of food, snacks and beverages. Participants remained in that room from 9am until 7pm. [1]

It's not clear to me why reading material was withheld. It seems to make it harder to draw conclusions regarding the social isolation aspect.

For the fasting session, they only had to report for the 7pm fMRI session. It strikes me that the type of people with time to participate in an experiment like this likely correlates with people that get up later than 6-7am each morning (as would have been required for the isolation session), but it seems there wasn't any accounting for possible sleep deprivation effects.

[1] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.25.006643v2....

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#115

Post by danybittel »

esotericn wrote: post #70

Er, yeah, I've been saying this for months. We are social animals. Literally just existing is stressful at the moment for most of us, because there's a constant urge that is not being satisfied. Not only for socialisation but simply the low-level stress of constantly having to 'check yourself' when you realise literally everything you'd normally be doing is either disabled or handicapped in some way. To me, lockdowns…

"We are social animals." Are we though? We're not like a flock of fish, herd of sheep, pack of wolves not even like apes. Or when was the last time you met a silverback human?

If we keep indoctrinate that, we may miss the real solutions.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#116

Post by pengaru »

cletus wrote: post #79

I am an introvert. Many people (including many introverts) thinks this means you don't like people or social gatherings. That's not the case. Or at least it's not necessarily true. Here's the best way I can describe it: being an introvert means that social interactions cost you energy. Being an extrovert (since I'm not one) seems to mean that social interactions gain you energy. I see this in a relative of mine who i…

For me, part of the draining effect isn't just due to being an introvert... it's because I tend to engage far too willingly in what most would treat as shallow casual interactions.

I tend to treat even strangers with too much respect to give them less than my full attention and thoughtful responses. That makes it a draining chore.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#117

Post by pingyong »

ericol wrote: post #13

More or less for my entire life I've had the idea that my social needs were not on par with the rest of the people, and this quarantine seems to have proven just that. Bear in mind I do enjoy social life; when I was living in Spain in my 30s (and single) I had a very active social life, and had a moderate (~30) amount of friends split in 2 groups with which I continuously interacted. When I left Spain for my place of…

I've been almost completely alone for about 3 months now, at least physically. And honestly... I couldn't feel much happier in that regard. It's been great. Maybe I'm broken or something.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#118

Post by 1bc29b36f623ba8 »

ericol wrote: post #58
obiefernandez wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same issue. My wife is going absolutely stir-crazy and dreaming of all the adventures, while I'm absolutely happy to be productive at home with relatively few distractions.

Well, my partner has the same issue. Even thought we are living in this city because it was the best for her career (She's a professional flamenco "bailaora" and where we lived before her career was dead in the water) she doesn't have a large amount of friends, but boy does she crave for going out. She is really having a bad time going through this, while I'm surfing the wave without issues.

Same here. The missus is almost crawling on the walls due to the lack of social contact, while I'm having the time of my life; the lack of social interactions gives me so much extra spare time.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#119

Post by kstenerud »

I've spent the majority of my life in social isolation, mainly because I keep forgetting to maintain relationships. I'd drop off the radar for months on end, until a concerned friend or family member would manage to get in contact with me (I don't use social media because it's too much bother to maintain). In 2001, after the dotcom crash, I took a yearlong sabbatical where I saw no one, spoke to no one, and by the time I was pulled into the open again it hurt to speak.

TBH until I met my wife, I never thought it possible to be comfortable living with someone.

I know I'm an extreme exception, but I'm one of those people who don't feel a craving for human contact.

Re: Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger

#120

Post by EE84M3i »

Trasmatta wrote: post #32
briefcomment wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you really call living with your family isolation? There are people out there who live with no one, aren't near family, and can't see friends because of the lockdowns.

Yep, this me. I haven't been able to see friends or family since March 15th. So I haven't even touched another human in that long. It's been really bad for my mental health. I have a hard time empathising with people who say they've been super lonely but still live with family.

Do most people consider going 2.5 months without touch a long time??????
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