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Mental Health Foundation (UK) on loneliness

Not the only source on the web on this topic, a short BBC News Magazine item titled “What’s the difference between being lonely and a loner?” Mentions the Loneliness Project report, based on a survey of UK residents, released by The Mental Health Foundation. In brief, the answers to the title question:

  • Loneliness is not about being physically alone
  • It’s about each individual’s evaluation of isolation
  • A loner gets satisfaction from being alone, someone who is lonely doesn’t

Among other conclusions, the Mental Health Foundation report notes that:

  • younger people (up to 60% of those surveyed aged 18-35) feel more lonely than older people (at 35%);
  • technology has an isolating effect if not complemented by social networks;
  • growing emphasis on work and productivity diminishing the importance of social life exacerbates loneliness;
  • smaller family size contributes to more loneliness and depression.

URLs
BBC News article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8703173.stm
Mental Health Foundation news release page: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/media/news-releases/news-releases-2010/25-may-2010/
MHF Loneliness Project with download links for the report: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/loneliness-and-mental-health/

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India hermit: no food, water

This is not the first report on Mataji, the India hermit who claims to have not eaten food or drunk liquid almost all of his 82 years of life. This Independent Television News (ITN) item features a 2+ minute video. (The video is also available from the Telegraph TV (UK) filed under “Weird News”; see link below. The text of the article is reprinted here since such items often disappear from the web:

An elderly Indian hermit man has stunned doctors in the western city of Ahmenabad, after claiming he has not eaten of drunk anything for seventy years, and then proved that he can survive without fuel or water for four days.

Prahlad Jani who is known by his followers as Mataji, which means the Mother Goddess, is an 82-year-old.

Medical staff, researchers and scientists from New Delhi-based Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences of India (DIPAS) carried out an observational study on him after he made his claim, to verify whether it was a hoax.

But, staff are astonished that he has survived even their four day test, let alone seventy years without food and drink.

Neurologist Sudhir Shah of the Sterling hospital where the study was conducted on Jani claimed that his survival and biological processes are miraculous.

He said: “I want to tell you that we are all watching a miracle in the science, or biology so to say, because it is already 108 hours since Mataji’s admission into this hospital and he has not eaten anything; he has not drunk a little drop of any kind of liquid but more importantly, he has not passed a drop of water or stool.

“That makes science a little difficult. A person can live without food and water for three or four days.”

Mataji claims he was blessed by the Hindu goddess Amba when he was just eight.

URL: http://itn.co.uk/a91d4f3a764a424d652db8d5d4b8661d.html
Video URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/7764884/Indian-hermit-stuns-doctors-by-surviving-without-food.html

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Idaho hermit

Idaho hermit Richard Zimmerman, called “Dugout Dick,” recently passed away at 94. He is described in this article from the Idaho Statesman.

Zimmerman was one of a number of Idaho loners, and perhaps the last. He was entirely self-sufficient, living in a series of caves, growing fruits and vegetables, and maintaining a root cellar. Placed in an elderly care center recently by an acquaintance, he left of his own accord and hitchhiked back to his caves.

Article: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/23/1164899/death-of-caveman-ends-an-era-in.html
Video: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi3045786649/ – link brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary
Another video, from NBC News (local?) circa mid-1980’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD53LVjXIHs

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NYT on solitude

This New York Times article titled “Embracing a Life of Solitude” is placed in the Home & Garden section because it sees solitude as escape, “downtime,” as one interviewee puts it, or plain “fantasy.” Usually this escape is to a more natural setting, as in the examples in the article, which emphasize discomfort and survivalism. The tone of the piece may be further gathered from the egregious notice of the French roast coffee drunk by one “escapee” and the sexual qualms of another who felt that solitude deprived him of meeting members of the opposite sex.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/garden/15alone.html?pagewanted=1&ref=garden

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Hermit tortoises

“Hermit” tortoises, in this case the red-footed tortoise, learn by imitating other tortoises. The experimenters conclude that social learning is based on cognitive ability, not an evolved specialized learning skill. The red-footed tortoise grows up without parents or siblings, and shuns others of its species. Cognitive learning, in the case of this experiment, consisted of a puzzle to solve for attaining a treat — which does not work with human hermits!

URL: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/03/31/even-antisocial-tortoise-hermits-learn-from-each-other/