Educated daughters vs strong daughters: The difference

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Indian government, Indian law, and pro-female organizations in that land talk about increasing education of girls and women. I get very amused at this ineffective and useless propoganda that does nothing great to help the girl child and women. This is because most women even if educated are unable to continue work, career or do entrepreneurship because their parents or in-laws or community will not allow them. So it means educate them for namesake and then make them stagnant to do caring and cooking jobs at home. In short, educate them and again throw them in the same gutter or furnace as before. Education gives them no financial independence, no autonomy, no freedom to decide for self or children. Then what is the role of education for them? Nothing. I pity the parents who think that educating a daughter makes them finish their duty towards her. They continue to rear her as a cow or sheep. The net result is an educated women with no respect or autonomy and no space of her own. This ca...
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Social isolation, loneliness, and its effect on the human brain!

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Humans are by nature gregarious and like to mix, socialize, talk, and belong. But the Covid-19 pandemic created the need for social isolation and social distancing. And hell broke loose for many. Disorders of mentation increased and the consultation with psychotherapists and suicide help lines increased drastically. What exactly happens to a person in isolation?

Experiments of self-isolation

In the past, many scientists tried to study the impact of prolonged isolation on human brain. In 1964, Josie Laures and Antoine Senni isolated in two caves located in French Alps for months. 126 days passed by but Antoine taught that only 2 months have elapsed. In 1972, Michel Siffre repeated this stunt. Michel revealed:

“Physically it was not tiring, but mentally it was hell,” 

An experiment of isolation on graduate students of McGill University showed that the students jad hallucinations with restlessness and had mental deterioration in cognition. It was also extreme in one person who felt that he was simultaneously present at two places but was unable to decide which one was the 'real him'. 

Social isolation (Source: APA)
Coronavirus infection and the skin rashes-Read here

Loneliness and health

Extreme isolation is rare. Studies have revealed that those who are lonely have 50% lesser chances of survival. Besides, lonely people are prone to heart ailments, depression, and inflammation. Thus not only the life span but quality of life of socially isolated individuals also suffer. 

But though we know that poor health is associated with loneliness, the exact mechanism was unclear. But recently researcher Gillian Matthews from Imperial College London accidentally found that isolation affects the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and its neural connections. Gillian said:

“Taking that idea suggests that there are mechanisms in place to help maintain social contact in the same way that there are mechanisms in place to make sure we maintain our food intake or our water intake,”

“Without the full level of social contact, survival reduces in numerous species,”

Thus there are regions in the brain that crave for social contact and not having it affects them. When social contact is resumed, these areas that are rich in dopamine neurons get excited. MIT neuroscientist, Livia Tomova states:

“The idea of the cravings is that the goal should be to seek out others and reinstate social contact.”

“If you are in a state of prolonged stress, the same adaptations that are in the first place healthy and necessary, will actually become detrimental because they’re not designed to be long-term states,”

Thus social connections are protective for humans. NHS has realized that loneliness is bad and has put up a loneliness strategy to counteract it by starting social clubs. But how much and what kind of social contact is enough to overcome it is not certain. Besides, one is not clear about how and to what magnitude does loneliness affect young minds. Are social media platforms enough? Livia says:

“It could also be that most people are fine, because maybe social media does fulfill our social needs really well.”

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