Touch to stay alive

Danny and Me, photo by Joe DeCarlo, Sparksville, United States,  love therapyWithout touch babies have been known to die, that’s why attachment in the early years of childhood is so important. We need touch to stay alive. To touch and be touched is the necessity of life. That’s why one of the methods of torture or punishment has been isolation, it can make a person go crazy. It is important to teach children from a young age that sulking (withdrawal) is counter-productive to having their needs and wants met. Communicating what they are feeling is vital to their own wellbeing and future relationship development.

they argued constantly
from early morning and then
when he came home from work
late into the night
sometimes they wouldn’t talk for days
sulking so badly that you could
cut the air with a knife, so to speak
I often wondered how they managed
to get through the day in such an
atmosphere of bitterness and misery
with no touching
then after 13 years they divorced
and took their dysfunctional behaviour
to their new separate relationships
which did not last long either
we need touch to stay alive
in more ways than one

4 thoughts on “Touch to stay alive”

  1. Hello Affie! I’m a student in year 12, and i’m conducting a social research project on ‘touch’. i was wondering if there’s any way i would be able to interview you, via phone or internet?!

    if you could reply to my email address that would be brilliant!
    benita

  2. Lurie, your comment on this post is very important so I am writing a post referring to that specifically. You are not alone and you are actually describing a symptom of these conditions: codependence, low self esteem, lack of trust, and love addiction. Recovery will ease the pain.

  3. I am a member of CoDA and S-Anon, struggling to have healthy relationships. I did a google search on “Addiction to Touching” and found this site. Wondering if it’s possible? This is an achillies heel for me: I need to be touched and am not, that *I HATE* how unselective I’ve been and can be. Is it possible that this is my compulsion? Can I be addicted to touch that grew/grows out of the deprivation of it?

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