FRAAD: It's urgent because loneliness is a signal to the mind and body.
It's a psychophysiological signal, just like when you're hungry it's a signal to
your mind and body get something to eat, because you need food. If you're thirsty,
get something to drink. You need something to drink. When you're
lonely, you need connection with other people. We are social animals. And already
before this catastrophe and the failure to handle it, one in four Americans had
no one to talk to even in the worst crisis in their lives. So we're talking
about a terrible problem. The most popular program in the United States are
the 12-step programs. Millions of people are in them. You're not allowed to go to
meetings. You can't be feeling the connection with those other people at
meetings. There are some meetings on the Internet. It's not the same. Connection is
necessary for people, and it's physical connection, it's physical proximity. The
brain has to work much harder to connect with people on media
than it does with people physically.
WOLFF: Would you advocate getting people together and then having
that social spacing of six to ten feet? It would still be worth it in order to
cope with the mental health? FRAAD: Of course.
And if we did what Sweden did, knowing that young people and
older people end up being alone, building a vast number of
apartments with very small private compartments and big shared space so
that people people could see a film sitting six feet apart.
WOLFF: Right, the way that I noticed the
reporters when there's a press conference, Mr. Trump
stands at the front and the reporters sit in every third or fourth seat so
that there's appropriate safe distance, but at least they can get together and
function. And if you did that for the President's news conference why couldn't
you do that for the society as a whole? FRAAD: Of course. You could
little microphones at every seat and have a discussion. You can have a
presentation and a discussion whether it was about what's going on here that
makes people so afraid and lonely, or whatever it is. Because
we need something, a bio chemical that we produce called oxytocin.
It makes people feel comfort and pleasure
It comes from physical touching. It's not something you
buy (you know like oxycontin at a drug store) it's something you get
through physical touch, and whether that physical touch was putting the money in
someone's hand at the store, or physical touch with a hug or somebody saying
"good going!" and hitting you on the shoulder, or physical touch from
holding hands with someone you like,
or shaking their hand, it's an enormous physical need and
people are doing without it and anxiety is created and anxiety leads to
all sorts of problems. People are already becoming more obese because they're
feeding their themselves. They're eating their hearts out in loneliness. And
diabetes leads to heart trouble and all sorts of other problems.
WOLFF: And so they, if I understand you,
we all know that depression is a major problem in
American society. I can tell you from economics literature it's a major
problem in how people work, the quality of the work they do, the quantity, the
number of times they're absent from work. The impact on the economy of worsening
the depression people have is not even mentioned and yet it could in the end be
one of the most profound consequences, not only of the failure to prepare for
the pandemic but the failure to come up with ways that might have compensated
for the additional loneliness that was produced.
FRAAD: Because one of the things that happens with depression
is a person sinks into themselves, and they can't
think of anyone else, and they can't communicate with other people, so that it
feeds on itself. And depression is a pattern that can happen,
and that's very, very dangerous.
WOLFF: I know you're not charged with this, I wish you were, I know
there's no one talking about it. What can you tell our audience, what are some of
the things that could be done, might be done to begin to cope with these mental
health consequences that are getting too little attention?
FRAAD: First of all,
try to understand that there's nothing wrong with you personally, that being
isolated is a terrible condition, and that you need to do whatever you can
about it. You need to communicate with whoever is close to you, on the Internet
on the telephone, on anything you have. And you need to say
this is not a punishment sent by God
because I'm bad. This is a disease and understand how it happened and talk to
people. Talk to people. Have contact with people. If you live with someone, hug them,
hold them, give each other physical touch, and physical comfort. If you don't, reach
out however you can. Reach out by having friends have a discussion on the
internet, on Google Chat or whatever, where they share feelings and needs and
reactions to this crisis.