Lack of hugs during Covid-19 lockdown hurting national mood

Lockdown restrictions mean people are missing out on the intimate contact needed to buffer loneliness and anxiety, a new international study finds.

Zoe Hayes from Tugan brings her birthday girl Oaklan, 3, to catch up with her friend Gianna Kolovos, 7, across the border in Tweed Heads. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

We’re missing hugs, those of us in lockdown, and it’s hurting our psychological wellbeing.

And the longer these Covid-19 lockdowns go on, the more we crave those moments of “intimate touching” with our loved ones, moments at present denied to so many of us.

With more than 12 million Australians in lockdown and the entire nation dealing with restricted interstate and overseas travel, a new study from Europe finds people in lockdown deeply miss the intimacy of hugs and kisses from close family and partners.

When they are deprived of this physical contact, it affects their psychological wellbeing, and collectively hurts the national ­psyche, the study authors say.

“Intimate touch deprivation during Covid-19-related restrictions increases feelings of anxiety and loneliness, while also making us crave touch more,” report co-author and Sorbonne University academic Louise Kirsch said.

“This tactile deprivation due to physical distancing is affecting the national mood.”

The study, Social Touch Deprivation during Covid-19, published in Royal Society Open Science, examined how people felt about being denied “intimate touch” (hugging, kissing or caressing from a partner or close family), “friendly touch” (such as hugs or high-fives from a friend or acquaintance) or “professional touch” (a handshake or tap on the shoulder from colleagues).

Being deprived of intimate touch because of Covid lockdowns was having the most significant impact on people’s sense of wellbeing, the report finds.

“Stay-at-home and border restrictions are creating touch deprivation, especially from the most needed type of social touch, intimate touch,” Dr Kirsch said. “(This) is associated with worse … feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

“Individuals seem to crave this type of intimate touch the most during Covid-19, with such effects being more prominent the more days they have been in lockdown,” she said.

Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci said touch “affirms the strength of love between people”.

“Touch communicates love, it communicates comfort. When you are in a Covid lockdown, comfort is very important as it reduces the stress racing around your body,” Dr Tucci said.

“If you are isolated and not getting those hugs or that warm embrace, or even holding hands, your body is not receiving those signals that the world is OK. And that feeling runs across the lifespan from kids to older people.”

On the Coolangatta-Tweed Heads border, Zoe Hayes brought her three-year-old daughter Oaklan to the barrier to play with her daycare friend, Gianna Kolovos, aged 7.

“It’s Oaklan’s birthday, and she’s been missing her friends a lot since she hasn’t been able to get to the family daycare,” Ms Hayes says. “She’s such an affectionate child, always giving her friends and educator cuddles and snuggles. It’s a shame she’s missing that at the moment.”

Ms Hayes said her work as a ­pilates instructor also showed the emotional benefit of touch. “We use tactile cues to correct movement, and people definitely respond so positively to that touch,” she said.

The international study says social touch in humans is a “stress buffer” that helps regulate cortisol and heart rate responses to acute stresses. “Studies have shown that touch, such as a caress on the forearm and a rub on the back of the hand, reduces feelings of social exclusion and the perception of loneliness,” it says.