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Solitude
Published in Stephen Buetow, From Loneliness to Solitude in Person-centred Health Care, 2023
Nothing should be assumed wrong with persons for not having company or not wanting to pass the time with others. They may enjoy being alone to satisfy experiences such as a hunger for individual success. In cultures like Canada,2 many persons welcome their own company. Even the group-oriented “shame society” of Japan3 tolerates and has an affinity for solitude despite loneliness being a significant problem associated with hikikomori, severe social withdrawal, and kodokushi, solitary deaths. Japanese mainstream media promote ohitorisama, a party of one. Solo dining is widely accepted, with activities, ranging from karaoke to travel, catering for single customers. Rather than connect with poor companions or strangers,4 persons may exercise personal control through solitariness. They release themselves from the eyes of persons they know and social obligations to maintain harmonious relationships. This ability to flourish alone does not devalue social interaction,5 although persons may still overestimate the benefits of spending time with sociable others.
Hikikomori: psychopathology and differential diagnosis of a condition with epidemic diffusion
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2021
Giovanni Martinotti, Chiara Vannini, Chiara Di Natale, Antonella Sociali, Gianfranco Stigliano, Rita Santacroce, Massimo di Giannantonio
This characteristic can someway be evidenced also in the European society thus hikikomori may be seen as a disease affecting, potentially, most of the post-industrial countries. What emerges from this analysis of personality traits and familiar aspects is that the characteristic subject affected by this condition is male, mostly the eldest son of a family with a good socio-economic background, with a familiarity for anxiety and/or depressive disorders and with a familiar structure characterised by an absent paternal figure (Sarchione et al. 2015). A Spanish study highlights a correlation between social withdrawal with maternal anxiety and mood disorders. In this perspective, maternal anxiety would reinforce that of the child, thus leading to an inhibition of the exploration of the external world (Malagón-Amor et al. 2020).
Comorbidity and sociodemographic characteristics of adult autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: epidemiological investigation in the World Mental Health Japan 2nd Survey
Published in International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 2021
Maki Umeda, Haruki Shimoda, Karin Miyamoto, Hanako Ishikawa, Hisateru Tachimori, Tadashi Takeshima, Norito Kawakami
Hikikomori (Social withdrawal). Social withdrawal was assessed by using the data from the hikikomori section in the Japanese version of WMH-CIDI. Hikikomori, in Japanese, is a form of social withdrawal among those who retreat from social interaction for protracted periods of time. The definition of hikikomori in this study was based on the Japanese government guidelines; a state of social withdrawal for more than 6 months, rarely communicating with other than their family members and confining themselves in their house without going to school or work. The same types of withdrawal state caused by physical illness or injury were excluded from the hikikomori cases. Respondents who were 64 years old or younger were assessed for the lifetime experience of hikikomori.
Gaming Disorder: A New Diagnosis? Part 2
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2020
Hikikomori were defined by a Japanese expert group in 2016 as having the following characteristics: (1) spending most of the time at home; (2) no interest in going to school or working; (3) persistence of social withdrawal for more than 6 months; (4) avoidance of social and personal relationships (e.g., friendships) and (5) no evidence of schizophrenia, mental retardation, and bipolar disorder. Other criteria are more controversial. These include the inclusion or exclusion of psychiatric comorbidity, duration of social withdrawal, and the presence or absence of subjective distress and functional impairment (Stip et al., 2016). Kato et al. (2020) proposed updated diagnostic criteria for hikikomori based on in-depth clinical interviews with patients. Using their criteria the person must meet three conditions: a) marked social isolation in one’s home; b) duration of continuous social isolation of at least 6 months; c) significant functional impairment or distress associated with the social isolation (Kato et al., 2020).