How can isolated living impact a person?

Question

In school, my class is doing a unit on Edgar Allen Poe. For some of his life, he was isolated and he lived by himself. I am supposed to find a website (it doesn't have to be about Edgar Allen Poe) that explains how isolated living can impact a person. I have searched every place I can think of, but I can't find anything. One example would be life as a hermit. Even the slightest help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/no...

do a Google search for "living in isolation" rather than "Isolated living"

why is this in GLBT?

Answer 2

Well I can only tell you how it impacted me.  I became more and more isolated as a result of mental illness, and these are the things that I experienced as a result:

The more isolated I became the easier it was to stay that way.  The longer I was isolated (approximately 6 years) the more I felt that I could never "return" to society again.  It became the only comfortable, but terribly lonely and sad way to live.  It became too hard to leave the house, or more like my self-imposed isolation chamber, even for food or any necessity.  For me, I became agoraphobic.  I lost all my friends, I stopped talking to my family, I lost my job, etc.  This was fueled by mental illness, but isolated living was a direct result of fear.  As a result of that fear I lived in deep depression and paranoia.  Now that I am healing, I find that the reimmersion back into a socially connected person is extremely awkward and discouraging.  Even simple social interactions leave me feeling weak-kneed and frazzled.

I hope this helps, but like I said it is only my own experience!

Answer 3

Well when you live by yourself you never receive the input of others. So your thoughts remain completely unaltered by the outside world and are all your own. Which is possibly how he could come up with such spectacular stories/poems.

Answer 4

it all depends on when the isolation occurred

isolation from infant-5 years [just an example it is not limited to these years] can dramatically effect social skills, language, the brains ability to learn etc. children who were isolated [completely without human contact] for most of their child-life [i'm not sure, but it's in the age range of 7-12] cannot learn language social skills is also dramatically effected because the kid grows up not knowing how to interact with other people, how to behave in a group, manners, when to yell and when to be quiet [some examples]

isolation during teen years can effect socialization and interacting with others normally among a group. same with adults [i don't have much information on it try looking on some psychology websites though]

effects on social isolation and obesity:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cp...

there's a movie called "Mockingbirds Don't Sing" based on a true story of a girl who was isolated and beaten by her father and even after being taken out of the time never was able to gain the ability to learn language and behavior skills. here's the link for info about it :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockingbird...