Solitary Confinement: Will it Make You Crazy?

Researchers still do not have enough evidence to show that isolation benefits an individual’s psyche. A study involving animals showed that a year of isolation obliterated them socially.

However, a similar study conducted on humans can be difficult to accomplish. One reason for this is that universities normally won’t consent to such kind of study. Obviously, this is because it is just too risky for study participants. The physical risks of isolation could be minimal especially when the study is conducted in a controlled environment. However, the negative impacts that isolation may cause to a person’s psychological aspect could be irreparable.

How Isolation Affects the Prisoners

A psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School who was able to interview hundreds of inmates found out that one third of inmates either became actively psychotic or suicidal.

These findings have led the Harvard psychiatrist to conclude that isolation can indeed result in specific psychiatric syndrome. Some of these psychiatrists syndrome are panic attacks, hallucinations, overt paranoia, thinking difficulties, diminished impulse control.

Some inmates had trouble maintaining their state of alertness as a result of isolation. Other inmates even develop crippling obsessions. In fact, one inmate developed this obsession that led him to become unable to feel that his bladder is empty. As a result, he finds himself standing in front of the toilet for 24 hours a day. Emptying his bladder was all that is in his mind that he couldn’t do anything else but try to pee so he could empty his bladder! It cripples him in a sense that he finds it hard to do something else. He was stuck in that thought of emptying his bladder.

Does solitary confinement make inmates more dangerous?

Solitary confinement makes prisoners become more of a danger to themselves. A lot of them were found engaging in self-mutilating activities. The rates of self-mutilation is higher than the general population of inmates. Another danger that isolation brings about is the increased tendency to become suicidal. A study conducted in California’s prison system revealed that solitary confinement has been linked to almost fifty percent of all cases of suicide among inmates. Another study conducted in a federal prison system showed that 63 percent of suicides occurred in inmates who were housed in a special housing status which isolates them from other inmates. These special housing lockin units were too depressing for inmates that they preferred to commit suicide to be able to escape from it.

What Happens to Inmates Released from Solitary Confinement?

In one study, a prisoner told the researcher that during the very frst moment that he was exposed socially right after being released from solitary confinement he find it too difficult to interact with other people. They still struggle to come out of their cells not physically but figuratively. Unfortunately, the anxiety that he feels everytime he was exposed socially is just too much for him to bear.

Looking at the Other Side of Isolation

Research reveals that there are around one third of seniors aged 65 and above are living alone. The same thing is true with the other fifty percent of seniors aged 85 and older. Another research also suggests that social separation can adversely impact individuals. Experts found out that people who are living in isolation were found to have poorer immune system, disrupted sleep patterns, increased levels of stress hormones and more inflammation. Moreover, isolation is also found to increase a person’s risk for heart disease and stroke. Individuals who were isolated were two times more likely to suffer from premature death. Research also shows that children who were socially isolated were found to have poorer health two decades after.

In other words, isolation attacks our basic instincts that enable us to save face. Isolation makes it too hard for people to ask for help. Thus, it leads people to suffer from a plethora of adverse health issues. This brings us to the issue of just how important social connection is to humans.