Touch starvation is a condition that happens when you don't get as much physical touch as you're used to -- or any at all. You crave contact but can't interact with others for some reason. It's also known as touch deprivation or skin hunger.
Touch starvation refers to a sense of longing for physical contact. Humans are social creatures, and touch plays an important role in development and communication. For some people, the deprivation of human touch may result in negative mental health effects.
The Need For Intimacy
The first and the most obvious reason why you may crave affection is because you don't have enough of it in your life. Some people tend to experience this due to a lack of close relationships, the absence of a romantic partner, or simply not having a strong support network of friends and family.
Touch starvation occurs when you go without skin-to-skin contact for long periods. Over time, it can impact your mental health and well-being. Being touch starved — aka touch deprived or skin hungry — can happen when you have had little to no touch from other living things. As humans, we're wired to crave touch.
Common signs of touch starvation include: Deep feelings of loneliness: A person may isolate themselves from others for a variety of reasons, such as not knowing how to make friends. Either way, if they notice increased loneliness after a lack of human interaction, they may be experiencing touch starvation.
Research has shown that it takes 8 to 10 meaningful touches a day to maintain physical and emotional health. Studies show that “touch signals safety and trust, it soothes” (source).
Hugging and other forms of nonsexual touching cause your brain to release oxytocin, known as the "bonding hormone." This stimulates the release of other feel-good hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin, while reducing stress hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine.
Touch deprivation can increase stress, depression, and anxiety, and lead to numerous additional negative physiological effects. Individuals who go without positive physical touch for a long period can even suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
When you feel like something is lacking within you, you may crave someone. When you're emotionally all over the place on some level, you may crave someone. Feeding into a memory, the way a person made you feel or a desire that you possibly have been suppressing, that too can cause you to crave someone.
Physical touch is one of the five love languages, and it refers to expressing and receiving affection through touch, physical closeness, and other forms of physical connection. Kissing, hugging, holding hands, and sex are all ways of showing love through the physical touch love language.
Physical contact of a non-sexual nature — the hugs and squeezes, the handholding, the random touches — can be an effective pathway for maintaining intimacy, with its many benefits.
People who experience the physical sensations of others have "mirror-touch synesthesia." It means they can feel a sensation on the same part of the body where they see someone else being hit, stroked, kissed, or injected.
Being around the one you love and getting to kiss or cuddle them releases oxytocin. Oxytocin, which has been called the "love hormone," is the thing that makes you feel all lovely inside about your partner and can make you want to invade their personal space even more.
Men who are attracted to you might even engage in more touch. If a man actively tries to touch you during your interaction, it may mean he wants to get closer to you or close the distance between you two.
It means that he likes you. Typically guys won't be touchy-feely with just anyone. If you find yourself with a guy who's affectionate and physically playful, this often means he's flirting with you.
Effects of Touch Starvation
These things can lead to worse quality of sleep and a higher risk of infections. Other medical conditions, including diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure, may get worse. Long-term touch starvation could even trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The lack of physical touch, emotional connection, and sexual intimacy can lead to feelings of loneliness, depression, and low self-esteem. It can also cause physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, and decreased libido.
People who don't get their dose of affectionate touch seem less happy, more lonely, and have a higher likelihood of suffering from depression, mood and anxiety disorders, as well as secondary immune disorder.
Key points. Feeling deprived of meaningful human contact can be referred to as skin hunger. People with skin hunger, or who are affection-deprived, are more likely to experience depression and stress, and in general, worse health.
“Touch is a modulator that can temper the effects of stress and pain, physical and emotional. We have seen in our research that a lack of touch is associated with greater anxiety,” says Fotopoulou.
Several forms of romantic touch have been noted including holding hands, hugging, kissing, cuddling, as well as caressing and massaging. Physical affection is highly correlated with overall relationship and partner satisfaction.
One of the most common causes of thoughts like “I don't like being touched anymore” is underlying problems in the relationship. When we hold resentment towards our husbands, we don't feel connected with them. Often the negative feelings towards our partners manifest as sexual aversion.