You’ll feed your stomach every day but what about the skin? The largest organ in your body and the barrier that distinguishes where you stop and the outer world begins is just as hungry. You’ve experienced “skin hunger” before even if you were not at all aware of what was going on or that it had a name. This is the feeling of intense yearning because, although you’re surrounded by people, there is no contact. This is also the reason behind why we feel most alone in the most well connected era in human history – just verbal communication cannot substitute the need to touch and be touched.

A study done on baby monkeys gave them the chance of a “wire mother” and a soft and warm “cloth mother” and they predominantly chose the “cloth mother”- even though the wire mother was the one with the food. This goes to show that skin hunger trumps even the most basic instinct of nourishment. We all hunger for touch. Being embraced by someone you trust and feel comfortable with is literally an anesthetic. It heightens the pain threshold and reduces stress, lowers cortisol and boosts oxytocin (the bonding hormone) instantly. Though casual sex has become a surrogate for this undefined yearning in the contemporary culture, the thing is it doesn’t work on a deeper level because skin hunger is also a hunger for understanding, acceptance and support, and a brief exclusively carnal encounter with someone doesn’t cover all the bases.

Can you go mad without touch? Yes. This is why the highest and the most severe punishments to those whose freedom has already been taken away by imprisonment is solitary confinement – complete lack of contact with others. It will eventually drive you insane and make you mentally unstable and physically ill. We are social and need other bodies to thrive. Did you know that the elderly that are untouched have twice better chance of dying soon than those who are regularly touched? So feed your skin regularly, shake hands, hug, cuddle and kiss… Do it as if your life depends on it – because it does.