A hug against isolation

Aspects of isolation and sensory deprivation

-        introduction into body-therapy methods

Have you ever thought about your fears? Probably yes! So let me state mine. As I am a person, who really enjoys movement and touching, one of my biggest fears is that I won’t be able to move or touch anymore. The second one focuses the social aspect. As many people, I fear being alone, rejected or even worse – isolated for a long period of time. 

For me, being involved in sports and social activities, this thought is pretty fictional. But regarding demographic changes in our society, including the improvement of medical conditions, we can subjectively sum up, that the number of people being isolated or immobile increases rapidly. Our major problem is: we don’t see them!

My personal anxiety towards this subject might also explain my passion for the field of space psychology, which focuses on aspects such as isolation, sensory deprivation and confinement. 

But we don’t have to go to space to understand those problems. Specific environments on earth provide useful examples, which help us to draw conclusions. Just imagine long term isolated people in hospitals or old retirement homes, or just think about the increasing number of singles in big cities. 

Regarding space, being on the ISS doesn’t seem to be such a big problem, but as soon as we start to imagine a long trip to Mars, all these circumstances might possibly occur. 

Therefore it is unavoidable to understand these issues, and furthermore to focus the methods we use in earth conditions to help these people. Maybe we can apply some of them for special environments. 

I used to work with an old man. He lived in an retirement home, suffering social isolation but also the results of confinement. Which conclusion could I draw from my work there?

My first observation addresses sensory deprivation. This describes the removal of stimuli from one or more senses. It is hard for us, to imagine this. However, for people who live in long-term isolated and sensory deprived conditions, it can have severe impacts on their perception.

To help you imagine this aspect, let’s create an example. Imagine your morning routine. Brush teeth, shower, drink coffee, dress up. How many things did you already touch just in order to fulfill you daily routine?

The biggest organ in our body is the skin. When we touch things, all the incoming information has to be processed and analyzed by our nervous system and our brain. All these sensory impressions are normal to us: Touching, feeling different temperatures, listening to different sound, voices, smelling, watching – all this causes so much neuronal activity. 

Now, imagine my old friend, or the astronaut in his space habitat. No change in temperature, no sounds, no wind, no smell.

The biologic organism possesses a high flexibility towards new environments and adapts as soon as there is as need to survive. Leaving our loud and demanding world, also charges us to change and readapt. 

In hospitals I could observe that long-term isolated people reduce their activity, sometimes to a minimum. A person, who has been isolated for one month, maybe still reads a book or watches TV. A person being isolated for 5-6 month maybe just stares.

Some psychologists refer to the topic of “Embodiment”. The term Embodiment points out the idea of our body and mind having an impact on each other. To know that physical processes change our psychological status, is important to know and helps us applying therapy methods. 

The first, and the most important we need to focus on are personal resources. Maybe my old friend suffers sensory deprivation, but he still has an imagination. This is something very important, and we use it in therapy. 

Maybe he can’t leave the place to touch things, but I can bring them to him! This is what I did! I build a touch-box. Usually children use it, but it also works for old people. 

With my old friend I did a lot of drawing and touching. He was a marine soldier in his younger years, and we tried to awake this memory and let it live, using painting. 

This all sounds nice, but should astronauts start to paint now? No, but we can learn out of it. Regarding the technological development, I am dreaming of things like a touch-glove. That would be a glove which could simulate touching things like grass, water or wood. And this is something astronauts and people in hospitals could use.

In my introduction I talked about my fears. To finish this article I want to declare my hopes. So, reading this text will not improve the situation for astronauts trying to fly to Mars of course. Nevertheless this small text can have a positive impact on you regarding the aspects of isolation in our daily life. As I said, the biggest problem is that it is invisible to us. But we can change it doing small things.

 If you live in a city, just knock your neighbor’s door. Ask more private questions to the people you work with. Hug or touch one person at least every day.

I pointed out the importance of touch for us humans. It is not only physical. The image of “I am touched” or “this is touching me” has really emotional aspects. For my old friend, this emotional aspect worked with the memory of the seaside. Even though he had to live in a confined environment, he would – through the power of imagination – be able to sense the freedom of his past. 

This text has been a talk at the SpaceUp ISU unconference/ 11.04.2015