Hikikomori?

[xNoName]

So, I was watching an Anime called Welcome to the NHK! and one word that amazed me was "Hikikomori" [if you don't know what it means check out Wikipedia or watch the Anime].

Once you know what it means, my question(s) raises:

Are you Hikikomori?

Are you Half-Hikikomori?

Have you ever met any Hikikomori?

Discuss.

[Dan Den]

I'm afraid I am a Hikikomori cause I've never been a person who enjoys socializing with others for the simple fact of when a I'm on my own I think about things such as answers to the universe, even as a child my mother said I never liked being around people or even around my brothers and sisters maybe it's cause I really never grew up with a father figure so yeah.

Yeah I do have friends and all but I really don't like going with them around cause of the stupid things they do such as get drunk and high almost every weekend and last year they were in an accident after they were drinking so it's a good thing I wasn't their.

[kaoru]

Yeah, borderline hikikomori here.

I do have a decent social life and get out often more or less, but I don't consider it to be much of a problem.

I mean we've been perfecting the art of "inside" for thousands of years now, it shouldn't be much of an issue if you enjoy spending your time at home.

However when it turns to years of room isolation, yeah it becomes a problem; but if you've seen the show, you know that the hikikomori lifestyle exists because someone else provides for it, it ends, in one way or another. When you realise you hit rock bottom there's no other choice but to go out and make a living for yourself.

[Max465]

No, I have friends, I go out, I do things. Although I tend to pretend differently I am rather social and get along with people.

[zolockit]

It's pretty much impossible to be a complete hikikomori where I live unless you're rich or you're someone in welfare. Even for the latter, you'd still have to prove you are deserving of said welfare and that takes social interaction and proof that you have been trying to better your life. Also what was said in the Anime—that is the basis for this post—is true, as long as life's basic necessities are being provided for you, you can be a hikikomori. It's a luxury.

Thing is, in this city (especially in some of the parts where I grew up) there are no luxuries, for nobody. I had to get my first job at 15 to pay for expenses. Before that, I was straight hustling candy bars on the trains.

That concept of a hikikomori can only be applied in situations where the environment deems it okay for the over nurturing of a person well beyond their adulthood.

It's why I couldn't relate to the anime at all.

Being a homebody is okay though. I mean at a certain age, after a certain amount of exposure, things like going to clubs, parties, trying to deal with the "morning after situations" becomes a total drag. Hibernation to an extent (i.e. not the total escapism of society, rather just staying really "low-key") is okay.