This is starting to get creepy. More precisely, my skin is starting to feel creepy. There is a good reason for this …
The Hug is the Drug
Yes, I am going through hug withdrawal, which is actually a verifiable chemical condition, just like any other drug withdrawal.
This is the biochemical skinny on hugs:
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Hugs strengthen the immune system.
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Hugging helps when someone is grieving, as it can provide true solace, soothes pain, and calms the soul.
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Hugging lowers stress by reducing cortisol levels.
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Hugging relaxes the muscles, and reduces the tension in the body, alleviating pain, and soothing aches by boosting circulation into the soft tissues.
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Hugs lower the risk of illness, as they reduce stress and prevent its negative effects.
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Hugging reduces fear and anxiety.
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Hugging improves mood, increases the levels of oxytocin, the “love hormone” or the “bonding hormone”, and leads to happiness and euphoria.
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Hugs balance out the nervous system.
(Source for the above: Psychology Today.)
So of course, when we don’t get that stimulation regularly – blame it on anti-social distancing – it is only natural that we start to experience withdrawal. (At least, that is how I am self-assessing my current condition of restlessness, irritability, and creepy-crawly skin).
More “sensory therapy” we are missing out on.
It is not only touching that we are missing. We experience chemical reactions just by getting physically close to someone. The heart, for instance, generates an electromagnetic field that affects the emotional state of anyone who comes within a radius of up to six feet (www.heartmath.org). Then there are pheromones and other chemicals that provide subliminal information and stimulate attraction or revulsion at a biological level. And of course, there are the simple affectations which warm our heart, such as eye contact (can’t be seen from a distance) or a smile (hidden behind a mask).
A Pandemic of Paranoia?
What is interesting to me about this current distancing protocol is that I am actually not missing Tango per se, as much as physical contact, plain and simple.
Or even more to the point, I am missing the freedom to share personal space. I have to censor my instinct to welcome someone with open arms, or put a hand on their shoulder or siddle up beside them. In the stead of a natural welcome is an unnatural fear of anyone coming within a hockey stick’s distance* (a standard unit of measurement in Canada.)
My prayer is that this fear of closeness does not become deepset. Some public officials have, for example, already begun suggesting that we should permanently stop hugging or handshaking as a greeting gesture and maybe even continue to wear masks long after the threat of a virus has passed.
This completely overrides our very human need to be in close, personable contact with each other. Sorry, I just don’t warm up to someone talking to me from behind a mask, no matter how pretty and carefully crafted many are. Remember when wearing a Bershka was a hot political issue? Or walking into a store with a hoodie was prohibited? Has the virus really changed all our social sensitivities?
Dance, The Forbidden Cure
The irony of all of this is that the activity that contributed to keeping many of us healthy on so many levels for so long is likely the last social activity that will be “permitted.” All of the above mentioned positive psychological and physiological effects are accrued when we dance. In Tango especially, entering into another’s personal space is ritualized with intense focus and precision movements: we become acutely aware of the subtle indicators of approval or rejection, acceptance, and attraction.
Will tangueros be the new social pariahs? Maybe we will have to go underground as they did in Argentina in the 70’s?
Alternative Cures
Fortunately, through all this social regulating and censorship, we were never prohibited from buying liquor or cannabis. These mood modifiers have come in very handy when we aren’t getting our regular dose of natural stimulants. Just saying.
Or a more healthy alternative, as one sober milonguera recently recommended, take a walk in the woods. Actually quite an effective treatment for the COVID crazies (less costly and healthier as well).
Photo Credit. Maria Pilar. “The Eyes Have it.” Taken long before COVID however, this could pass for social distancing if you are only dancing with your bubble buddy and there is 6 feet between couples.