#touch repulsion

— Plain Touch-Repulsed Banners & Dividers.

Like I am trying so hard to find middle ground with some very touchy and touch starved people, people I care about and one who doesn't get any physical contact other than what they get from me, I'm trying to tolerate it on days when it's not too overwhelming, but the lack of mutual effort is making want to stop allowing touches from anyone at all.

Like, this shit is socially debilitating and that's almost entirely because of other people not understanding or believing it and taking it personally. Like it should not be this impossible to get someone to understand that "physical contact is viscerally distressing" does not mean "I find your body specifically repulsive", and yet that always seems to be where it lands.

My main blog is @rjalker. My pronousn are it/its.

What is solitaremit? Solitaremit is a term coined to describe people who are both touch averse / touch repulsed, and who never experience "touch starvation", where someone craves physical contact with others.

Let me repeat that again: Someone who never gets touch starved. The key word here is "never". Solitaremit is not intended to encompass a spectrum of experiences, it defines a specific experience only, and that is intentional. Touch aversion/repulsion is itself already a spectrum, this term has been created specifically to allow the most silenced part of that spectrum a way to have a voice.

Here is the coining post for the term solitaremit, as well as its counterpart for people who do experience touch starvation.

Here is the archived version of that post.

Here is the PDF version of the text in the post, as well as the HD versions of the pride flags.

Why do we need the word solitaremit?

Because touch starvation is touted as some universal experience every single person ever born has, and people claim that if you say otherwise, that either means you're lying to yourself and are purposefully "denying yourself" touch as a form of self-harm, or you're so traumatized and damaged already that you can't trust yourself to know what you do and do not need.

This term was coined to offer a safe haven for the people it describes, because every other part of the touch averse/repulsed communities is already seemingly dedicated to being touch starved, and in eternal conflict over wanting something you simultaneously hate.

Well I literally do not want it at all. I never have and I never will. I do not crave physical touch. I do not get touch starved. I am not suffering or self-harming or denying myself a basic universal need.

I am touch averse, and I am solitaremit. I do not need or want you to pity me or lecture me on how much I'm hurting myself by not letting other people touch me.

This blog is being created to spread awareness of the term itself, so other people can use it if they want, and so I can answer questions from other people if they have any.

If I can find them, I will also reblog stories and art with solitaremit characters, positivity posts, and anything else I think will be helpful or fun. I will also reblog posts calling out and explaining athiktophobia (ableism against touch averse people), and those will be tagged as "athiktophobic posts". There is not yet a term for ableism specifically against solitaremit people, but I'm sure we can come up with something, since it'd definitely be helpful.