Article Title: How can we help the hikikomori to leave their rooms?

Article Summary

The article at hand introduces to the reader the ‘hikikomori’, people who very infrequently leave their house, and suggests reasons for this behaviour while trying to decide on remedies to help them out of their shells. The author states that ‘hikikomori’ is a Japanese term that refers to both the sickness and the sick, and the sickness is of a psychological nature. The hikikomori are people, not otherwise bogged down by tremendous work, who rarely leave the house in days or years. While they do live with family, suggesting only incomplete isolation, they are people who generally report some sort of psychiatric problem, and have been under treatment for the same. They comprise in a greater number of males than females, and report anxiety of the unknown, or other people, and propensity to self-harm as opposed to harming others. The fear of school, or transferring educational institutions from school to college, arouses great anxiety in them and makes them often quit attending, leading the author to believe that making younger people stay in school to get an education could be a solution, as could be the provision of greater social activity concentration in the geographical proximity of potential hikikomori. Hikikomori need to be made to feel that they can actively choose how to live their life, if they are to heal.