On Saturday 12 November at the headquarters of the Donatello didactic center in Florence the training day entitled “Loneliness, anxiety, avoidance: between normal and clinic“Organized byItalian Association for Social Anxiety Disorders (Aidas).
The day was opened by colleague Ismaela Evangelistauthor of the book “Eric’s room“(Published by Les Flaneurs Editore), in which, in the form of a novel, the story of a boy who slowly finds himself limits his spaces, wondering to the world and retreating from the school until he lock himself completely in his room, is told in the form of a novel.
Reading some songs of the novel stimulated the next round table between the author, some speakers and participants; In particular, attention was paid to the phenomenon of “Hikikomori“, That is, young teenagers who close in their rooms and tend to no longer want to get out of it; this phenomenon was born in Japan, where in fact it is the subject of many studies, but also in Italy it seems to have taken hold as can also be seen from the birth of some websites, such as http://www.hikomoriitalia.it.
The day continued with a short symposium on the clinical aspects of the social anxious spectrum. Opened Dr. Procaccicurrent president of the Aidas, telling, through the emails exchanged with an avoidant patient, the attempt to hook into psychotherapy; Subsequently Dr. Marsigli he illustrated through some transcripts of session the salient clinical characteristics of the social anxiety disorder, while Dr. Grimaldi He showed, always through the illustration of a case, the central characteristics of the therapeutic relationship and emotional regulation with the socialphobic patient.
In the afternoon, Dr. took the floor first Barbatoexpert in new technologies (director of the Idego Center), who introduced the theme of virtual reality and its possible and future implications in psychotherapy; It was an opportunity to know the current level of development of this technology and the presence of some software for the treatment of some phobia, such as that of speaking in public. It seems that the scenario is in such constant evolution, that in the short spinning of a few years this technology will be widely available to therapists and patients.
The last intervention was conducted by Dr. Talentedwho presented a cartoon, conceived by him and produced, on the theme of social anxiety and retreat. This cartoon was made under the patronage of the Aidas with the aim of spreading and making this syndrome known more; For those interested, this is available on YouTube.
