The Healing Power of Even Virtual Human Connection

By HANS DUVEFELT Almost two years into this new age of varying degrees of self quarantine, I am registering that my own social interactions through technology have been an important part of my life. I text with my son, 175 miles away, morning and night and often in between. I talk and text with my daughter and watch the videos she and my grandchildren create. I not only treat patients via Zoom; I also participate, as one of the facilitators, in a virtual support group for family members of patients in recovery. I have reconnected with cousins in Sweden I used to go years without seeing; now I get likes and comments almost daily on things that I post. I have also video chatted with some of them and with my brother from my exchange student year in Massachusetts 50 years ago. I have stayed in touch with people who moved away. And I have made new friends through the same powerful little eye on the world I use for all these things, my 2016 iPhone SE. Members of my addiction recovery group stay in touch with each other via phone or text between clinics. They constantly point out the value of the social network they have formed, even though they only meet, many of them via Zoom, once a week. The literature has supported this notion for many years and is very robust: Social isolation is a driver of addiction. It is also a driver of cardiovascular risk and is thought to be a risk factor of the same magnitude as smoking. But, do new, onli...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care COVID-19 Hans Duvefelt virtual connection Source Type: blogs