Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
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- Ethnic group
- Italian
It seems people have forgotten all of the research on this subject. Touch, or physical contact with other human beings, is essential for human mental and even physical health.
People had better not let this media nonsense make them afraid of engaging in it. Speaking personally, I'm a very "touchy" person instinctively, and I think it draws people to me. I'm not talking about invading someone's personal space completely, but it's a wonder how much a gentle pat on the arm or back, or stroking a child's hair or cheek can do. People aren't necessarily even aware of it, but it completely changes the reactions.
See:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/07/crisis-touch-hugging-mental-health-strokes-cuddles
"[FONT="]Carlson met Harlow as a freshman... In his laboratory, she witnessed monkeys that as infants had been deprived of their mother’s touch. In social groups, they would “go off in a corner, self-grasping, staring into space.” She saw similar patterns of behaviour in humans three decades later when she visited [/FONT]orphanages in Romania[FONT="], a legacy of Ceausescu’s regime, where tens of thousands of infants were raised with minimal human touch."
"[/FONT][FONT="]We know from the science of what goes on under the skin that when the skin is moved, pressure receptors are stimulated,” she says. This “slows down heart rate, blood pressure and the release of cortisol”, which gives people better control over their stress hormones.[/FONT][FONT="]
Being touched increases the number of natural killer cells, “the frontline of the immune system. Serotonin increases. That’s the body’s natural antidepressant. It enables deeper sleep,” Field says. "
"“This is what I’m concerned about,” McGlone says. “If this evolutionary system is in any way disturbed or interrupted, brains are good at finding compensation. It could be drugs or alcohol ... If you remove a reward system, the brain will try to find some other way to get that reward.”"[/FONT]
People had better not let this media nonsense make them afraid of engaging in it. Speaking personally, I'm a very "touchy" person instinctively, and I think it draws people to me. I'm not talking about invading someone's personal space completely, but it's a wonder how much a gentle pat on the arm or back, or stroking a child's hair or cheek can do. People aren't necessarily even aware of it, but it completely changes the reactions.
See:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/07/crisis-touch-hugging-mental-health-strokes-cuddles
"[FONT="]Carlson met Harlow as a freshman... In his laboratory, she witnessed monkeys that as infants had been deprived of their mother’s touch. In social groups, they would “go off in a corner, self-grasping, staring into space.” She saw similar patterns of behaviour in humans three decades later when she visited [/FONT]orphanages in Romania[FONT="], a legacy of Ceausescu’s regime, where tens of thousands of infants were raised with minimal human touch."
"[/FONT][FONT="]We know from the science of what goes on under the skin that when the skin is moved, pressure receptors are stimulated,” she says. This “slows down heart rate, blood pressure and the release of cortisol”, which gives people better control over their stress hormones.[/FONT][FONT="]
Being touched increases the number of natural killer cells, “the frontline of the immune system. Serotonin increases. That’s the body’s natural antidepressant. It enables deeper sleep,” Field says. "
"“This is what I’m concerned about,” McGlone says. “If this evolutionary system is in any way disturbed or interrupted, brains are good at finding compensation. It could be drugs or alcohol ... If you remove a reward system, the brain will try to find some other way to get that reward.”"[/FONT]