Andrey Kurpatov – about digital autism as a consequence of self-isolation

A well-known psychiatrist told how, being within four walls, to maintain sanity and the ability to communicate normally with other people

We are now facing the longest and most massive period of self-isolation in recent history. Andrey Kurpatov, a well-known psychiatrist, scientific director of the Laboratory of Neurosciences and Human Behavior of Sberbank, spoke about the consequences that can await us as a result of changing our habitual lifestyle. He predicts an increase in the number of digital autists – people who are not capable of empathy and existence in society, and gives practical advice on how to maintain their mental health and the ability to work, friendship and personal relationships.

– If the self-isolation regime lasts for some more time, how to overcome the fear of the unknown?

– The situation is actually very mobile, everything is still changing several times – both forecasts and measures taken. At the moment, all states are balancing between the risk of a high mortality rate, on the one hand, and economic problems, on the other. The task of each economy is to find its own adequate balance.

Obviously, the world cannot sit in quarantine for a year or two, and at the first opportunity, restrictive measures will be eased, which is already happening in many countries. But, of course, everyone is watching the consequences of these decisions. If a strong rise in incidence does not follow, then such a strategy is likely to be implemented more actively.

People can now be divided into two groups:

• some need to make decisions on the organization of their business in the current conditions, because they are personally responsible for it;
• others, who are, conditionally, employees, just need to psychologically adapt to uncertainty.

And these are two different strategies of psychological adaptation.

The first group must constantly build and revise in connection with new introductory plans with different time horizons and different scenarios. — optimistic, basic, pessimistic. The more such plans and actions a person responsible for his business, project or direction has, the easier it will be psychologically for him. Because no matter how the situation changes, he has a plan for it. This approach reduces the psychologically traumatic sense of uncertainty for decision makers.

The second group is people who depend on the decisions that are made by their leaders. On the contrary, they should concentrate more on today’s day, on a weekly perspective. We got the task – distributed the load over time and work as if everything is fine, everything is under control.

Otherwise, there will be a feeling of “conditioned helplessness” – when we try to control what is not in our power. It is in our power to fulfill a specific task at work, but it is impossible to influence the decisions made “from above”. If you can’t, then you shouldn’t even try.

And of course, psychoprophylaxis measures are very important – psychotherapeutic techniques that allow you to relieve stress levels. Digital hygiene rules – limiting the consumption of content from social networks. Social communication with relatives, acquaintances, friends, colleagues, albeit in a remote format, but with video communication.

“In addition to the fears associated with the virus itself, people’s fears about work are added. What if the company goes bankrupt? What if the employer realizes that I am not needed? What if robots replace me? What if everyone stays away? What can you advise in this situation?

— These fears are quite understandable and many are quite justified. Of course, some company executives found that the Earth did not fall out of orbit due to the transition to remote work – some of the work does not require the physical presence of employees in the office, and this is savings on potential freelancing.

The growth of freelancing means the growth of competition, which in itself is already stressful for most of us. Many company executives have even thought about how much they really need these remote employees – whether they are doing something that cannot be done without.

Finally, many companies are actively reducing staff, realizing that this is the only way for them to survive, some simply go bankrupt. So, mass unemployment awaits us, and the problem with employment will arise first of all for people who do not have any serious, special professional skills.

On the other hand, we are now experiencing serious changes and we need to adapt to them. While under the potential risk of being fired, one cannot help but think about how you can be useful in this rapidly changing world. Therefore, if you have a penchant for some kind of activity that is now in demand on the market, then it is a sin not to learn the appropriate skills.

As our fellow futurologists promise us, the current generation will have to change their field of activity at least five times. Therefore, the willingness to constantly learn and relearn is a skill that is now indispensable.

— In connection with the regime of self-isolation, a lot of online services for training and self-development have appeared — free courses from eminent universities, virtual tours, master classes. How to overcome laziness and apathy and force yourself to comprehend something new?

– Laziness is just a good explanatory model for justifying one’s own idleness. There is no such mental phenomenon as “laziness”. Like, I’m just a lazy person, so I can’t force myself. Laziness always hides the actual, real reason for this inaction.

We are so arranged that we do something only if this action makes some sense for us. More precisely, if our brain sees it in this action, and you can’t deceive it. What would be the point of suddenly starting to learn foreign languages? We lived half our lives without them, and then suddenly it was needed? What exactly is your goal behind this “must”? Is it really “should”?

It is important not to delude yourself into looking for the true reasons for your actions. The truth may be unpleasant, but it is better than illusions, it is a tool. Behind the same abstract desire to learn foreign languages, a person may simply have a desire for self-expression, and for whom it is an escape from something really difficult, which really needs to be done.

Every action has an end result, a goal that you are counting on. If you begin to understand the real reasons for your actions, you can see how you can achieve the desired result in a different way, with great effect. And then there will be no problems with laziness at all.

— Remote work blurs the boundaries between work and leisure, between home and office. How to properly organize your day and set yourself up for compliance with the regime?

The first thing to do is structure your time. Literally, constantly create schedules and follow them. Moreover, both daily charts, and for a week, a month.

• Start by planning your day. Get up and go to bed at the same time. Divide the whole day, firstly, into working time, secondly, into time for housework, personal affairs and communication with relatives, thirdly, for leisure time – reading a book, watching a series.
• Find a place to work in your apartmentwhere you can neither eat, nor rest, nor hang out on the phone. This is the place where you literally “come to work”. The rest of your apartment is your “home”, and there – behind the workplace – “work”.
• Act strictly according to the schedule, observe breaks, but it is for a break from work, and not to do something else. Do not interfere with work and household chores, try to give the brain as little conflicting information as possible.

Usually we all live in a certain schedule, but this schedule is given to us by other people. “You come to work at so-and-so, lunch at so-and-so” – now this task lies with us, and it cannot be canceled just because we moved from the office to the apartment.

We always need time limits, social pressures and a common routine. Schedule and routine are not an annoying necessity, but a way to allow your brain to adapt normally to changes. We should have time for work when we work, and time for rest when we rest – and they should not overlap.

Self-isolation forces people to spend much more time together in a closed space than usual. What advice can you give to families – how to be together 24 hours a day and not become enemies?

– The fact that many people are now experiencing increased irritability towards loved ones is explained by the phenomenon of intraspecific aggression, which was described by the Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz.

Intraspecific aggression – this is an evolutionary mechanism that solved an important task at one time, ensuring the resettlement of the species, thus increasing its chances of survival. Now, as you understand, we cannot settle, but we have the tools to combat intraspecific aggression.

First of all, it is a reorientation of aggression. I think everyone knows the picture – we get annoyed at some, but conflict with others. This is the very reorientation of aggression, but ineffective if our relations with those close to us are dear and important. Therefore, in our case, if you feel anger and irritation, direct this excess psychic energy into common affairs and tasks that require your decision and some specific action.

And also look for the opportunity to be alone with yourself. Let us and our loved ones at least artificially miss each other. Otherwise, care and support is what everyone needs now. Caring for others is our natural way to get away from aggressiveness and not stew in thoughts about our own problems.

– Due to the fact that schools and kindergartens do not work, parents have to not only work remotely, but also take care of raising and educating children in parallel. What to do for those who feel that they are already “at zero”?

– Many parents are horrified, because now the children really have a lot of energy, because they don’t walk, they don’t run down the street, they don’t go to school, etc. And besides, they don’t understand at all why all this is “impossible”, since So far, the children’s brain does not really know how to unfold the future, and it does not understand anything about “tomorrow” and “later”.

Try to keep your child busy as much as possible, alternating the time of study and rest in the same way. If the child is constantly busy with something, then the probability of rest will appear in your schedule.

And despite the natural desire to delegate the powers of the baby-sitter to a smartphone, try to keep your child in the non-digital world – books, games, crafts, etc. The children’s brain needs to receive tactile information, to learn not the virtual world, but the real one. Therefore, the phone as a babysitter is a very bad idea.

– According to your assessment, can this situation lead to an increase in the dependence of adults and children on gadgets? Are there any statistics on their use and a growth forecast for this indicator? How to determine how much time you can spend in front of the screen?

– The statistics of our use of gadgets is already prohibitive – on average 8-9 hours of screen time, and there are only 24 hours in a day. So when people get back to working offline, they just won’t have as much screen time as they do now.

The problem is more likely with children and adolescents, since their brain is only being formed, and it is still difficult to assess what impact constant digital consumption will have on it. Even before self-isolation, according to Kaspersky Lab, 40% of children under 10 are almost constantly online, by the age of 16-18 – about 70% of young people are constantly on the phone.

Rather, we are waiting for not so much a surge in digital addiction as depressive disorders. According to some studies, when using social networks for more than 2,5 hours a day, there is a sharp increase in depressive symptoms and suicidal tendencies.

Therefore, it is possible and necessary to limit both yourself and your child in terms of time spent online. What these frames will be in numbers is up to you. I think I’ve already given enough input. I will only add that, according to last year’s WHO recommendations, children from two to five years old are recommended no more than 15 minutes of screen time per day, up to a year – zero hours, zero minutes.

– What consequences from a long isolation can we expect?

“The consequences will be social rather than neurobiological. We may trust each other less, we will become more closed in on ourselves, the symptoms of “digital autism” will increase. This means that people will worry less about the feelings of others, think about the motives of their actions, take their needs into account, and this will inevitably lead to an increase in the number of interpersonal conflicts, and the quality of teamwork will deteriorate.

A large number of people are already satisfied with the possibility of such remote communication, because in principle they are not particularly involved in social interaction. And now they have an “objective” need to distance themselves from other people. So we will definitely increase the number of digital autists during this period, and with them the general inability to coexist in society.

Imagine that we forget how to communicate normally, effectively negotiate something, cease to be interested in each other, maintain working, friendly, personal relationships? And all this against the background of the inability to turn time around, in the absence of an image of the future, in which there are no more joint plans with other people? We still think little about the consequences of the accession of this asocial “brave new world” – but in vain.

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