Hikikomori social withdrawal concern

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]announce to you an epidemic that your family could unknowingly be dealing with. The Japanese coined the term hikikomori for this cultural shift flagged by Japanese researchers many years ago. Now they say it is spreading around the world. Some call it the anti-social trend, but experts say this is a practice of extreme and long-term social withdrawal, having no human contact for several months straight. And this kind of withdrawal can have devastating effects.

[00:00:31]Any sort of social withdrawal is going to be a red flag. So even if it's not something that leads to a diagnosis of some sort, it's still concerning. We're social beings and so that that well-being really can be measured sometimes by the health of our relationships, how confident, how comfortable we feel in those environments are often really good indicators of just our overall health or well-being. Uh so parents, families could feel concerned about their teenagers or family members, friends who are finding themselves more withdrawn and to that extent.

[00:01:00]And parents may not even realize this.

[00:01:02]Whether your child is away at college or lives away from you, experts say that some people are very social online, but they don't ever leave their homes. They might feel safer behind a screen with no eye contact and no pressure of social cues.

[00:01:17]Really important to for yourself and for someone else, take the judgment out of the conversation, right? So know that it's it's okay to feel how you feel is just fine. If it's causing you trouble, it's not creating spaces that you want to be in, it's not getting you to the places that you want to be emotionally and professionally, socially, then let's work on it.

[00:01:39]And I also asked Dr. Waby about the difference in generations because maybe the tablet internet generations will communicate differently, but Dr. Waby says the ability to connect is an essential human skill for survival and it has to be worked on. So being able to empathize, identify emotions, regulate them, those are core pieces of the human experience, no matter the age. Again, if you or someone you know may maybe going through this, don't be afraid to ask for help.