A form of severe social withdrawal, called hikikomori, has been frequently described in Japan and is characterized by adolescents and young adults who become recluses in their parents' homes, unable to work or go to school for months or years.
Many of them choose to stay up all night and sleep during the day. Some don't even talk to their parents and will come out at night to make food or the parents will just leave it at the door. In this video, a former Hikikomori and a current one talk about their condition and why they chose seclusion.
What is Hikikomori? The term hikikomori was coined in Japan in the 1990s to describe young adults who had withdrawn from society and remained isolated in their homes for extended periods. Hikikomori is not recognized as a clinical diagnosis but is rather a social phenomenon that affects people of all ages.
The cause of hikikomori is not well established. Many practitioners report that patients become hikikomori after a stressful event triggers new socially avoidant behaviour that then extends into hikikomori. Some studies find that hikikomori is correlated with dysfunctional family settings or having experienced trauma.
Experts have previously told CNN that hikikomori is often thought to stem from psychological issues such as depression and anxiety, though societal factors play a role too, such as Japan's patriarchal norms and demanding work culture.
The condition has also been considered more common among men, and this study provides the first epidemiological evidence to back this up. Still, 20 of the 58 hikikomori were female. Yong and Nomura found no relationship with country region, number of family members or social class.
Experts are also beginning to explore hikikomori's possible connection with autism, depression, social anxiety and agoraphobia. Not only does a hikikomori person lose many years of their life in isolation, the condition also affects their family.
With 1.2% of the population affected, this has become a significant social and mental health issue which has also been identified in other countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Iran, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA.
The survey concluded there are an estimated 1.46 million people in Japan who have withdrawn from society, about 40 percent of them women.
He makes small soft toys, his mother takes them to the buyer. Most hikikomori people live with parents. Most hikikomori people don't work or make money. Their families have to support them.
While many people feel the pressures of the outside world, Hikikomori react by complete social withdrawal. In some more severe cases, they isolate themselves in their bedrooms for months or years at a time. They usually have few or no friends.
Adolescent or young adult. In Italy, most hikikomori are between 14 and 25 years old. In Japan, however, the average age is a lot older and there are many recluses over 40, who started their own isolation during adolescence and have perpetrated it for tens of years.
The person may leave his or her room only at night when unlikely to be noticed by others and often spends time using the internet, reading, or playing video games. The person must meet each of the following six criteria: The person spends most of the day and nearly every day confined to home.
Many experts explain that those hikikomori who resort to violence are not representative of the group at large. Most of the youth, they maintain, simply engage in antisocial behavior without being violent. Nevertheless, the media has been influential in a heightening of fear of hikikomori incidents.
Existing literature demonstrates that hikikomori people are younger, most usually men, often from wealthier fami- lies, and reside more in the cities; however, it is argued that women as homemakers are often excluded from hikikomori studies because their hikikomori situations can often be overlooked because of the ...
Specifically, hikikomori has been found to co-occur in around a third of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD: [14,20–22]). ASD is characterized by difficulties with social communication and social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns in behaviors, interests, and activities [23,24].
A chain-smoking 43-year-old in a puffy down vest, he was one of an estimated one million or more Japanese known as hikikomori, which roughly translates as “extreme recluses.” Typically male, between the ages of 30 and 50, jobless or underemployed, they have largely withdrawn from society after Japan's extended economic ...
Provide ongoing support: Recovery from Hikikomori can be a long and challenging process, and ongoing support is important. This can include ongoing counseling, peer support groups, and other resources that support continued social reintegration and mental health wellness.
They reported a prevalence estimate that 1.2% of the general population in Japan would have experienced Hikikomori in their lifetime. They also reported that individuals with Hikikomori are 6.1 times higher risk of mood disorders (major depression, dysthymic depression, manic, and hypomanic episodes).
This broader concept of pre-hikikomori allows those with hikikomori to avoid going out and be physically socially withdrawn (from in-person social contact) for at least 6 months but still have social contact with others over the Internet, such as through online games or social media.
Another major difference between hikikomori and agoraphobia is the age of onset. Hikikomori is strictly a disorder of youth. Those who were in Dr. Saito`s first group to be diagnosed were, as of 2013, not yet 40 years old.
hikikomori, often used interchangeably for the condition and its sufferers, was coined by Japanese psychologist Tamaki Saitō in his 1998 book Social Withdrawal – Adolescence Without End.
Hikikomori has been defined by a Japanese expert group 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 withdrawal for more than 6 months; (4) exclusion of schizophrenia, mental retardation, and bipolar disorder; and (5) ...
Yet, Japan continues to report greater under-utilization of mental health services than other developed countries. One primary reason for this is hypothesized to be the cultural climate, which includes the stock of social, cultural and medical knowledge surrounding mental illness.
The pathophysiology of hikikomori has not yet been elucidated and an effective treatment remains to be established. Recently, we revealed that avoidant personality disorder is the most common comorbidity of hikikomori. Thus, we have postulated that avoidant personality is the personality underpinning hikikomori.