Are you isolating yourself voluntarily? – GOOD SHAPE

Suddenly, the desire to meet friends seems to be gone. You prefer to be alone, at home, watching series on the computer or reading. Weekend programs are reduced to the same activities as usual, in your room. Isolation is a sign of your state of mental health, and it’s important to understand when isolation is actually a choice.

WHAT IS ISOLATION?

“Social isolation is basically characterized by the removal of a person, or even a group of people, from social life”, explains the psychologist and specialist in the Science of Feeling, Beatriz Breves. “However, being socially isolated is not necessarily mentally isolated. In this second hypothesis, the person does not feel like he belongs, that is, he feels alone, without participation, without interest, in short, he feels disconnected from other people and his environment.”

Therefore, understanding the difference between isolation and enjoying one’s own company is part of the process of understanding what is healthy or not when talking about isolation.

“If we focus on the internal world and its subjective reality, a person can, even though he is objectively alone, not feel alone. This happens when, feeling good company with herself, she experiences a state of internal fullness that satisfies her, even when the moments may not be coming very easily”, explains the specialist.

On the other hand, a person can, even when accompanied, feel lonely and isolated. This happens when he experiences a state of isolation that drives him the feeling of inner loneliness – mainly because she finds herself unable to feel like good company for herself.

As a result of this process, the person tends to become incapable of enjoying the moments, no matter how good the events he experiences may be.

ISOLATION AND MENTAL HEALTH

What Beatriz calls “internal isolation”, that is, that which brings suffering, can be a symptom of a series of psychopathologies.

“A person who is feeling unmotivated to interact should seek a professional assessment, as human beings are a biopsychosocial complex, therefore, due to their very condition as a species, interaction with the environment is part of their nature.”

Knowing when to ask for help depends a lot on self-observation of one’s own suffering. In general, a suffering person not only does not ask for help, but also does not accept it. Therefore, what should signal the time to ask for help is the degree of suffering, how disabling the suffering is for the person.

In this regard, it is essential to remember, once again, that human beings live in society and depend on others not only to have a functional experience, but also to your physical and mental well-being.

“For an affective life, it is necessary to establish a biopsychosocial interaction with another person, which is also processed as a very complex interaction”, he continues.

In general, a person’s feelings are not usually positive or negative, but pleasant or not to feel – it all depends on the interpretation that the person has of what he feels and how this interpretation will determine his next actions, whether they will be constructive or not. for your own life.

“Therefore, a person incapable of social interaction, of interaction at work, without the ability to make friends, in short, a person who feels permanently lonely, tends to rush into suffering”, he concludes. “Suffering that, in turn, tends to make them feel far below their productive capacity, therefore, of personal fulfillment, directly implying a feeling of low self-esteem.”

Low self-esteem, in turn, ends up “coloring” that person’s life interactions with dark and gray colors, which suggests a negative view and, thus, negative actions towards life itself.

So here’s the reinforcement: if you (or someone you know) are going through a moment of social isolation, seek help. There are call services free psychological and psychiatric in some of the main capitals of the country and, in acute moments, it is possible to rely on services such as the CVV (Centro de Valorização da Vida) – just dial 188 from any telephone.