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Is it possible to avoid speaking/use app to speak to limit Covid19 spread? Psychiatric consequences?

Discussion in 'Psychiatry' started by afkar, Jul 7, 2020.

  1. afkar

    afkar Well-Known Member

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    Just an idea I thought up,

    Transmission of Sars-cov-2 is still one of the hottest topics in latest research. However, with all the precautions, there are still more than 120,000 new cases everyday and thousands of new deaths. There has been some articles that suggested that prolonged speech in confined space is the possibly most responsible event that leads to transmission (for example, https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-exactly-do-you-catch-covid-19-there-is-a-growing-consensus-11592317650). Although it is debatable, I think limiting speech can be one way to stop infection.

    We don't need to stop communicating to each other, as there has been tons of application that is capable of reading typed expression. And we have entered the era in which we meet people physically while hunching and seeing smartphone instead after all. However, I'm curious to what this idea might bring, in case people actually do it.

    Human interaction has always included conversations since thousands of years ago. So the limitation of speech may change the social interaction significantly. I have seen several patients who are confined at home or even chained due to their mental illness, an act that is called 'pasung' in Indonesia. Some of them truly lose the capability to speak or create any expression, some even get used to maintaining the same posture when they were shackled, while some who has not been in pasung for so long and still has minimal human interaction can manage conversation as normal. Of course, this practice is very much frowned upon but people still do it. The people who use 'pasung' against their family member will only release the patient and bring them to psychiatric hospital when there is pressure from society or government.

    However, that is the case when people are confined and have limited interaction. What do you think will happen if people still have their freedom, can meet people once in a while, make facial expression (despite the mask), funny gesture, or even dance around, while only speaking by typing in smartphone? I believe it might result in certain amount of stress, but to what extent? Does it worth the possible advantage?

    Another thing that I might add is that severe mental disorders like schizophrenia are often correlated to poverty of speech, social isolation (even before the disease), and even semantic ability.

    What do you think?

    I also made a discussion in researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/post/W...king_to_each_other_Mental_health_consequences
     

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