SCIENCE SAYS WE REALLY DO NEED ONE ANOTHER
There’s no more effective analgesic than expressed empathy, writes Sherv Shragge.
Aristotle once said, “Man, by nature, is a social animal.” The philosopher was more correct than he thought. When the current coronavirus is extinguished, scientists are going to examine what has happened to human brains’ hardwired instinct to be with one another. More importantly for my generation, they will wonder how isolation affected the elderly.
The neuroscientific community agrees after much research that humans are hardwired to be social. When that wire is threatened, there is an overpowering sense of separation anxiety. How could it be otherwise?
I received a letter to this column from a man who was in the throes of this vexing problem.
His wife was in a care home and on the fringes of dementia. For more than a year, he established a routine of visits where he could comfort her by his presence and touch. With the harshness of the COVID-19 lockdown, that sensitive communication between husband and wife was shattered. She would not, nor could she, understand his disappearance
... and he would suffer the same anxiety. Neuroscientists would picture this syndrome as, “Why did he leave me?” He might be suffering the other half of the syndrome: “I’m here, let me in!”
As I write this, the situation has not been resolved satisfactorily. With the fear of spreading the virus, no administration, care home or government department has developed a special protocol for these spousal emergencies. They are emergencies because the cure for keeping the virus down may be making the disease of the mind worse. Separation anxiety could lead to serious depression of both partners.
If we go back a bit, scientists using brain scanning techniques have discovered that — there is no other way of putting it — we need each other.
Dr. Simone Shamay-tsoory a social neuroscientist at the University of Haifa, said, “To better understand what may be occurring in the brain when we interact with others, we need a ‘two-brain approach’ to look at both parties.” This is especially important when trying to study something like empathy, the ability to feel and understand other people’s emotions. So several experiments were conducted using brain encephalograms on romantic partners. One was put in some pain and the partner tried to comfort the other with words and touch.
The scientists were able to observe definite synchronistic brain activity in the pair. In fact, they described it as an analgesic effect! There are hundreds of analgesics on the market today, but none more effective than one’s expressed empathy for another.
Other scientific studies have shown that separation anxiety is fed by the human stress hormone, cortisol.
In a study of couples, social psychologist Lisa Diamond of the University of Utah observed minor withdrawal-like symptoms, such as irritability and sleep disturbances, along with an increase in cortisol in subjects after they were separated four to seven days. Participants who reported high anxiety about their relationships had the biggest spikes in the stress hormone levels. What would happen, I wonder, if the separation was much longer as with the current pandemic? Would minor withdrawal symptoms become major?
Taken together, these two studies should have the scientists working overtime to gauge the final impact of COVID -19 on people; their physiological and psychological behaviour.
I guess it’s always helpful to have the support of the scientific community proving Aristotle was right 2,500 years ago. But really, we knew the answer all the time: people really do need people. It isn’t just a song ... it is reality. I wonder if the Saskatchewan Health Authority is prepared for the epidemic of serious cases of stress, anxiety and full-blown depression that will follow this pandemic.
Sherv Shragge is a longtime Regina radio personality and journalist. His column, After the Ball Is Over, will appear monthly in the Leader-post. Email Sherv at aftertheball2020@gmail.com.
I wonder if the Saskatchewan Health Authority is prepared for the epidemic of serious cases of stress, anxiety and full-blown depression that will follow this pandemic.