#voluntary isolation

"A recent court ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights marks the first time an international judicial body has decided that indigenous peoples living in “voluntary isolation” have a right to do so, and that governments must act to ensure that right.

The ruling comes off the back of 20 years of activism challenging the Ecuadorian government’s encroachment on indigenous lands for oil drilling, and this, as well as other extractive activities like logging, were ruled to be intolerably disruptive to three groups living in voluntary isolation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

International treaties protecting the rights of indigenous peoples have long been ratified at both the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS), but a case specifically determining whether a group living in voluntary isolation, which used to be called “uncontacted,” were guaranteed protection to allow them to continue doing so has never been ruled on.

While the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009 and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2013 introduced guidelines and recommendations that included a right to choose self-isolation, neither were put into writing under international law, nor included in any treaty amendments.

As such, the Costa Rica-based court’s decision that nation-states, in this case Ecuador, must follow a “precautionary principle” when making decisions about future oil operations that may impede a group’s ability to live in self-isolation.

“This principle means that, even in the absence of scientific certainty regarding oil exploration and exploitation projects’ impacts on this territory, effective measures must be adopted to prevent serious or irreversible damage, which in this case would be the contact of these isolated populations,” said the court opinion, written in Spanish, and translated by Inside Climate News.

The three groups in question are the Tagaeri, Taromenane, and Dugakaeri, who are part of the overall Waorani peoples since they share cultural traditions and language.

Testimony was heard from a community leader of the Waorani, Penti Baihua, and two young women who at the ages of 2 and 6 were survivors of violent encroachment by oil workers who killed members of the girls’ group, forcibly introduced them to modernity, and displaced them to different parts of the Amazon.

In the current case, the court ruled that a protected area the size of Delaware that was established in the early 2000s to guarantee indigenous Waorani (and others) rights was created in such a way as to leave oil exploration areas outside protection, despite being the ancestral home of Baihua and his people.

A 6-mile deep buffer zone surrounding the heart of the Tagaeri, Taromenane, and Dugakaeri’s territory called the “Intangible Zone,” has been repeatedly penetrated by extractive industries, which have built roads and other “colonial” infrastructure.

The court ruled that Ecuador must honor the results of a 2023 referendum, in which voters chose to stop oil operations in that region indefinitely.

The court used the term “living in voluntary isolation” to reflect that fact that there are no unconctacted tribes on Earth, but perhaps as many as 200 who have seen evidence of modernity, and received minimal contact—perhaps from a related tribe that doesn’t live in isolation—and chose to remain without any interaction with the modern world either out of fear or self-interest."

I think there’s a big difference between volunteering for something extremely dangerous and being forced into that situation.

 And the research on solitary confinement in particular bears this out: volunteers who are told they can leave the experiment any time last longer then volunteers ‘told’ they can only leave when the experiment ends.

 Voluntary isolation is something that still happens. My impression is that it’s self-selecting: the rare people who are naturally much more resistant to isolation are much more likely to volunteer for isolation.

 That said, based on the interviews I’ve read with people who volunteer for extreme isolation they still develop symptoms eventually.

 They don’t always acknowledge their symptoms as symptoms. And they sometimes go to great lengths to hide their symptoms.

 I’d suggest in the case of this monk, thinking about whether/if:

You know for sure he actually had no human contact for a whole year

You were in a position to accurately judge his mental health

Your own capacities at diagnosing mental health conditions on the basis of a single conversation

He reframed mental health problems as a religious experience (ie hallucinations as visitations, depression/suicidal urges as struggles with sin)

 A lot of mentally ill people can ‘look normal’, especially for short periods of time. A lot of people are not comfortable talking to strangers about their inner most feelings and struggles. The fact someone didn’t report a personal matter to you does not mean it didn’t occur.

 Resistance, even unusually high resistance, does not eliminate a physical need.

 We are social animals. We need social interaction in order to remain healthy.

 If you want to write a character who chooses isolation there’s nothing wrong with that.

 But writing them as if they don’t have a fundamental need isn’t realistic.

 And when we’re talking specifically about a set of harmful practices, which are constantly presented as harmless in order to bar real survivors from support- Then I question the morality of that narrative choice.

 If you’re going to write a character who doesn’t eat then I think you should either explicitly make them magical or read up on anorexia. I’d apply the same logic here.

Available on Wordpress.

This routine consists sleeping, eating, exercising, manually typing from a list of numbers over and over, with breaks for stimulation and going to the bathroom. The only problem is the robots cannot stay with the teenager for prolonged periods of time as they have trackers and need to keep the location of the teenager a secret so they only briefly visit to deliver food and water. My question is what would the effects of this type of isolation be and how much does 2/3the fact that this is voluntary help? If the robots cannot visit more than once a month would them staying longer help keep the worst of the effects of isolation away? From what I read already there wouldn't be many physical effects as the teenager is not being contained in a cell 3/3

The fact that it’s voluntary doesmake a big difference and the fact that the character is doing this for a causeis also a big factor.

 Having a cause and a feeling of purpose seems to be one of the biggestpossible protective factors against the worst effects of solitary confinement.

 But it’s not enough to stave off all negative effects in most people.

 There are a minority of peoplewho are extraordinarily resistant to solitary confinement. These are rareindividuals.

 Ihave a Masterpost on solitary confinement here that you might find useful.Just in case you haven’t read it already.

 The Masterpost was written from the point of view of involuntary isolation. Given theprotective factors you’ve outlined I think you can realistically write thischaracter being less severely affected then I suggest in the Masterpost.

 That said this is still a really serious level of isolation and fromeverything you’ve said it’s going on for an extremely long time. The characteris also young, and that tends to mean the effects are much worse.

 The few accounts of political prisoners enduring solitary that I've readseem to suggest a lower level of actual self harm and suicide. Let me stressthat's anecdotal and a statistical study may not support thatsuggestion. And a lack of action does not suggest lack of an urge. Havingsuicidal thoughts and persistent thoughts of self harm are extremelydistressing whether the individual acts on them or not.

 Depression and feelings of helplessness were pretty clear in theaccounts I’ve read. Political prisoners seemed to use their cause to try andcombat those feelings and feelings of apathy. They’d tell themselves that thefact they were imprisoned meant they’d achieved something.

 I’ve seen less self reportingin that particular subgroup of memory problems, hallucinations, psychosis,social and learning difficulties. But I’m not sure that reflects less incidentsthan the general population because those are all mental health conditions thatare generally judged more harshly by society.

 They’re conditions that could be used to ‘discredit’ the cause. In thatcontext it makes sense not to talk about them even if survivors experiencedthem.

 Having longer visits might help but it depends on how much they can belengthened. If the maximum is a few hours then I don’t think a few more hoursin a month of isolation would make much difference. If they can stay for severaldays that might make a difference.

 I also don’t think that dismissing physical effects entirely is a goodidea.

 The joint problems and eyesight problems are almost certainly due topoor cell conditions. But insomnia, lethargy and physical weakness may well belinked to depression (with a lack of motivation leading to a lack of exerciseand physical weakness for instance).

 The overall effects are something I’d tie to how long the character isgoing to be isolated in total. They’re alone for a month at a time as a stretchbut I’m unclear exactly how long they’d be confined overall. I’m guessing itwould be several years.

 Even with protective effects, even with visits that is going to take aserious and lasting toll.

 It would be healthier for themto take significant breaks that involve outside social interaction. The ‘best’schedule for that would probably be a week isolated working on the tablet and aweek away from it socialising. A workable schedule could be anything betweenhaving one day off to socialise a week or the same every two weeks.

 Part of what I like in your scenario is you’ve got an inherent conflictbetween what it would be healthy foryour character to do and what their strongly held beliefs drive them to do.

 If you think it would fit in the story making that explicit could bequite interesting: having the character knowthat they’re doing themselves real damage and driving on anyway because theybelieve it’s the right thing to do. Something like that could be used to showthe readers an awful lot about the character and it could also be incrediblypowerful.

 If the character doesn’t knowthe effects of isolation then they might well find it terrifying. Developingmental health problems is frightening and without social contact, reassuringthe character that their symptoms make sense, that they’re ‘normal’ it can beincredibly isolating.

 Studies of the symptoms of solitary confinement in prison populationsdon’t agree on which symptoms are the most common. Depression and anxiety usuallycome at the top in most studies, with psychosis and hallucinations usuallyappearing nearer the bottom. But different studies have seen different results.

 Generally speaking there isn’t a way to accurately predict who would getwhich symptoms and not every victim will experience every possible symptom.

 Now my general advice is to pick symptoms according to what you feelfits the character and story, and to choose symptoms you feel comfortablewriting. From your summary I think you’ve got a lot of scope to tie symptomsinto the story. The lack of motivation and emotional blunting associated withdepression gives the character something to struggle against in pursuit oftheir cause. Anxiety might make it physically difficult to sit and type innumbers providing a different sort of struggle. Mood swings might not impactthe character’s ability to keep typing but they can be incredibly disturbingand add to the character’s sense that they’re ‘going mad’. Aggression can feeloddly like anxiety with an elevated heart rate, difficulty focusing andpossibly physical difficulty typing in the numbers.

 Multiple symptoms of varying levels of severity seems likely, as doessignificant difficulty readjusting to ‘normal’ life afterwards. If they’restaying isolated for anything close to a year the character is probably goingto have mental health problems to some degree for the rest of their life.

 That might be mitigated by thestrong social bonds that tend to come with political causes. Being a hero ofthe movement would probably provide a very strong, supportive social networkwhich would help the character find ways to navigate and deal with their mentalhealth problems.

 I hope that helps and if I find any decent sources on voluntaryisolation I’ll add them to the Sources page. :)

There has been research; I’ll admit I haven’tread much of it yet.

 I think the way spaceprograms and artic research etc chose people is essentially by self-selectingpeople who are particularly resistant to the effects of isolation.

 They do exist. I thinkI mentioned lone sailors making round the world trips once before and how theyvery rarely experience the extreme effects of solitary, despite being confined to a smallspace alone for a very long period. I’ve also mentioned how political prisonersseem to be more resistant to solitary.

 We know having a causeand a purpose helps people deal with the effects of solitary confinement, itmakes them more resistant to symptoms. And it gives us outliers like NelsonMandela who spent years in solitarywithout having a massive mental breakdown.

 I know NASA (and Iassume other space agencies do this too) keeps potential candidates inisolation and confined spaces for prolonged periods to test how they’d dealwith conditions in space. Which is part of what I meant by it beingself-selecting. I don’t think they have a way to reduce the effects of solitaryso instead they look for people who areparticularly resistant to the effects.

 Anyway here are somelinks I found that might serve as a starting point for research on voluntaryisolation.

 Nasa:behavioural issues associated with confinement. This seems to concentrateon behaviour and psychological problems.

 Polar Researchfacilities: living in isolation. This seems to be about design of livingspaces to try and minimise negative effects.

 Thisisn’t a scientific paper but this BBC article on isolation is interesting andreadable.

 Oh and while Iremember, if this feeds into an story set in an artic-like environment many ofthe symptoms described in the journals of early explorers may not have beenisolation but vitamin D poisoning. Artic animals store vitamin D in theirlivers, an adaption to the long periods of darkness during the winter. As aresult eating the livers of artic animals poisons humans and can cause symptomsincluding hallucinations, paranoia and aggression.

 So treat any first handaccounts of isolation in the arctic particularly with care.

to say i'm tired of my friends? like i love them and wanna hang out with them but i am SO EMOTIONALLY DRAINED and i really don't wanna talk about it

it feels like everyone wants me to and I would rather say "please don't contact me for a week I'm in voluntary isolation"