Japan says 1.5m people are living as recluses after Covid

The Guardian ^ | Mon 3 Apr 2023 | Justin McCurry

[BipolarBob]

I’m pretty much that way now. Is that wrong?

[dfwgator]

I was going to say, I think this is going to become a huge problem in this country as well.

[mewzilla]

For anyone else curious, from 2016...

Hikikomori, A Japanese Culture-Bound Syndrome of Social Withdrawal? A Proposal for DSM-V

But don't get me started on the DSM-V thing...

[llevrok]

And who knows how many in Okinawa caves since 1945!

[jmcenanly]

So, Kubrick and Clarke were only off by a couple of decades.

[9YearLurker]

Is 2% a major social crisis?

[gitmo]

My sister-in-law won’t go outside the home unless it’s a life-or-death emergency. And she won’t let her 89 year old mother go outside either.

[Az Joe]

I see mask wearers here in Phoenix area. Church, gym, stores, etc. Maybe 1 in 20-30, less.

[cyclotic]

There’s still the empty headed retards that wear masks alone in their cars.

[Chickensoup]

Hikikomori – classed as people who withdraw from society, spending all or almost all of their time isolated at home – account for 2% of people aged 15-62, the survey found.

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Just about the average for the population of significantly mentally ill in general population

[Gay State Conservative]

I've visited Japan several times...every visit having been in winter and the most recent one being about 10 years ago.

Even then I was struck by how many people,while out in public,were wearing surgical type masks.

I wondered back then if there was something in the Japanese psyche that made them particularly afraid of viruses...illness.

[wgmalabama]

No. It’s a zombie wasteland out there now.

[Boogieman]

Well, he was not isolated by choice. He was being kept prisoner.

[fr_freak]

I’m pretty much that way now. Is that wrong?

Only if you're sobbing in the closet wearing a mask and cradling a 10 gallon jug of hand sanitizer.

[familyop]

Covid? Ha, ha. Blast from the past. Anyone seen Elvis lately?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Agoraphobia can be self induced and it can be self cured.

You did it as a child when you learned to leave the familiar and go out into the the unknown. You can do it now.

It is not easy and you may need some pointers on how to toughen yourself but it can be done.

[redshawk]

Man that scene still creeps me out.

[redshawk]

Folks in many countries will wear masks to simply help block out the pollution and stuff. They have been doing this for years and years before covid. Just saying.

[Zathras]

There are more than that in the USA.