hikikomori
n.— «Hikikomori is not a disease. For reasons ranging from bullying to exam failure, some young people are shutting themselves away in their rooms and having as little direct contact with the outside world as possible. Many are suicidal, but lack the will to make good their morbid fantasies. It is not clear at what point someone crosses the line into hikikomori. But after a month of seclusion it would not be too soon to seek treatment, psychiatrists say. Machizawa knows one person who shunned professional help for 20 years.» —“Locked inside: Cases of hikikomori, or social withdrawal, on the rise” by Mark Goldsmith Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) May 13, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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