United States: As experts reveal, even before the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the population of the United States became less social and spent an increasing amount of time alone in their leisure time.
This transition has grown the feelings of social isolation, leaving many people longing for connections and companionship that once felt more accessible.
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According to a new Gallup report, around 20 percent of American adults are struggling with “daily loneliness,” indicating the highest levels in the past two years.
Moreover, the US Surgeon General, commonly referred to as the “Nation’s Doctor,” has also declared that we are presently going through a serious loneliness epidemic.
Associated risks
According to Dr. Kelli Harding, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, “It can do everything from increase rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, increased rates of dementia, and actually decrease how long we live,” ABC News reported.
“It’s as risky for health as, you know, smoking 15 cigarettes a day,” she added.
Combatting loneliness epidemic
Professional cuddlers such as Jasmine Siemon from Bethesda, Maryland, are already here to fight the loneliness epidemic.
She employs platonic touch therapy in helping adults with problems such as intimacy, stress, and isolation.
Siemon said she always asks her clients what triggered their interest in touch and cuddle therapy.
“I want to know what their touch history is. There’s a clear understanding of having agency over your body in the session,” she added.
Moreover, “At no point am I going to touch you in a way that you’re not comfortable with or that you’re not curious about, and vice versa. So the boundaries are the rigid boundaries — no touching anywhere a bathing suit covers,” she added.
Siemon admitted that even though it seems strange, she knows firsthand that this kind of work makes a difference, as she can testify from her/include the example of Elliot Wallace, with whom Siemon has been having cuddle therapy for a year now, ABC News reported.
According to Wallace, “I found myself being nervous in certain cases, whether people were very close, like moving in too close or taking up my space or even being touched,” “And I wanted to find a way to not have that [be] threatening anymore.”
According to Wallace, working from home makes it very difficult for him to get to know people. He goes to Siemon so that he can find out who he truly is and be free and emotionally available around people.