Hikikomori is diagnosed when a person displays severe socially avoidant behaviours for at least six months, causing distress and dysfunction. These behaviours include refusal to go outside of the home, to work, or to attend school, as well as withdrawing from social communication.
Often hikikomori start out as school refusers, or futōkō (不登校) in Japanese (an older term is tōkōkyohi (登校拒否)). Hikikomori has been defined by a Japanese expert group as having the following characteristics: Spending most of the time at home. No interest in going to school or working.
A form of severe social withdrawal, called hikikomori, has been frequently described in Japan and is characterized by adolescents and young adults who become recluses in their parents' homes, unable to work or go to school for months or years.
Hikikomori is currently viewed as a sociocultural mental health phenomenon, rather than a distinct mental illness. Given at least 1.2% of the population (around a million people) are affected, hikikomori is a significant social and health problem. Hikikomori is also increasingly being identified in other countries.
With 1.2% of the population affected, this has become a significant social and mental health issue which has also been identified in other countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Iran, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA.
Many hikikomori sufferers live with their parents, who may make them food and provide other basics.
Japan's Shut-Ins, Hikikomori, Are Living With Their Parents and Have No Jobs.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare defined NEETs as “people who are not employed, not in school, not a homemaker, and not seeking a job” and defined Hikikomori as “those who are neither in work nor school, do not have social interactions and are socially withdrawn for more than 6 months.” To assess the ...
While many become hikikomori due to bullying or harassment from teachers, it is highly rare for the cause to be abuse or post-traumatic stress disorder. Once someone has entered the “hikikomori system” over the longer term, they fall into a vicious cycle, which Saitō expressed with the diagrams below.
However, research has shown that there is an increasing number of middle-aged hikikomori. In addition, many female hikikomori are not acknowledged because women are expected to adopt domestic roles and their withdrawal from society can go unnoticed.
The authors identified a group of psychiatric disorders characterised by hikikomori-like features including psychosis, social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder, depressive disorders, Internet addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hikikomori is not a social phobia
Just like the hikikomori's isolation is not caused by depression, it is not due either to some kind of social phobia, as opposed to, for example, Agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces and public places).
Listen to the person without judgement and encourage them to take support from experts. Individual support: This includes support from doctors and other healthcare practitioners who can help the person deal with the condition. Assessment of triggers and therapy: This may include individual and/or group therapy.
duration of withdrawal: traditionally, hikikomori has been defined as social withdrawal for 6 months or more; however, some advocate a shorter duration (i.e. 3 months) as also being problematic.
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare categorises hikikomori as someone who has not gone to work or school for at least six months, and rarely interacts with people outside their home. Government studies and surveys show that there are an estimated 1.1 million hikikomori across Japan.
Hikikomori, a form of pathological social withdrawal, has been suggested to have comorbidity with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
By and large, Japan's hikikomori are depressed young people who have -- either willfully or through inaction -- shut themselves off by imprisoning themselves in a small apartment (usually a one-room flat) and never leaving, for as long as a decade or more. They buy their daily necessities online.
Clinical characteristics of secondary hikikomori derived from a comparison of social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients with or without hikikomori were as follows: i) SAD onset preceded or coincided with hikikomori, ii) hikikomori SAD patients subset appeared to have a more severe form of SAD, and iii) hikikomori SAD ...
“Hikikomori is Uniquely Japanese”
Similarly, there have been hikikomori case studies from several countries outside Japan including, Spain, Oman, the United States, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Almost 12% of young Australians – 580,000 individual young people – are NEET.
Treatment of hikikomori
Therapy may occur as individual, group, or family therapy, and often psychologists pursue multiple types of therapy at one time. Hikikomori patients are frequently resistant to attending therapy sessions, but family members are encouraged to attend even when the patient will not participate.
There are an estimated 50,000 to 1,000,000 hikikomori in Japan. Many experts explain that those hikikomori who resort to violence are not representative of the group at large. Most of the youth, they maintain, simply engage in antisocial behavior without being violent.
Employment Ice Age (Japanese: 就職氷河期, romanized: Shūshoku Hyōgaki) is a term in Japan (the term lost generation is also used) that refers to people who became accustomed to unstable and temporary employment beginning in the 1990s, until at least 2010.
Hikikomori refers to the recent state of middle and high school students who drop out of school, and withdraw completely from society. Otaku are the deeply obsessed fans of a particular subject who commit their free time (and sometimes lives) to the complete memorization of their obsession.
Most hikikomori come from wealtheir families or at least a household that can afford to support their child while he or she does not work. If a hikikomori works, it is usually online or if it is in a store they are more likely to work. late at night when they will not have to interact with many people.