How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

[anunitu]

I would imagine that many here would not have as much a problem being alone with themselves with NO noise of any kind. The question is: In a world where we seem to require constant input so as not to become bored,can the average person just be alone with themselves without going nutters? I know people that get a bit weird if they have to be alone with themselves for even a short time. It seems that in our constant need for stimulus,we lose the ability to delve into our minds and our inner space. In past times there was very little to do,other than read or do busy work to make the time pass. So,what is your threshold for just being alone with yourself?

[Monk]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

The rare moments that I have of being truly alone are much coveted. And yes at those times I read, spend time at my alter, make things in my little work shop, bike ride, fish and sometimes just sit and enjoy being alone. I have a cell phone(a very simple one) and a lap top with internet of course. I do not have cable TV or even an ipod. Some people would call me a loner because I do not feel a need to have many(sometimes any) one around me, or be in constant contact.
On the other hand my kids and wife seem to have a need to be in constant contact with the outside world. This has lead to many arguments about texting at the dinner table or sitting for hours on the internet and holding conversations(typed) with many people at the same time. I have often wondered what would happen if all these distractions became unavailable suddenly and if in fact many people would simply start acting like lemmings and follow each other off a cliff. I'm fairly sure many would in fact become a few french fry's short of a happy meal.

[anunitu]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

I myself have always been a "Loner" and truly it tends to make people view you as "Strange" and sometimes it makes people angry for some reason. I do sometimes spend time with others talking,but at a certain point I get up and leave because I have reached my limit for talking,and people get miffed that I just leave without saying goodbye. One person got very angry because I never said hello to him(I did not really even know him) and he ended up arguing about why I didn't say hello,finally I just got up and walked away saying nothing. I think after that he got over it,but people are strange when you ignore them,I think it is an ego thing or something. Quite frankly I am not the most interesting person,and I find it strange that people will go to great efforts to "make you their friend" when you ignore them.

[Monk]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Social edicate has never been one of my strong points ether.

[callmeclemens]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Complete Silence is a military form of torture. So not too long I reckon.

[Ophidia]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

I can handle being alone, in the quiet, without anything going on around me or anything 'to do'. I used to like to challenge myself to see how long I could go without talking, and even being married, with a job, I can still go days without saying anything that isn't absolutely necessary. Meditation and reflection have always just been easy for me. I never questioned why, I just like the quiet inner spaces better than the noisy outer ones.

Of course, once I found out about my personality disorder, it made more sense. So now whenever I have the urge to get the heck away from everyone, and go to my 'happy place', so to speak, I feel all weird and awkward because now it isn't spiritual practice or a personal preference, it's enabling a symptom.

[TheTeddy]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Being alone with no distractions is how I meditate. Other than that though, being alone with no distractions leads my mind to wander, and I go into a snowball. My mind goes several different ways. I write fiction mostly fantasy stuff so I'm constantly thinking of the world my characters are in. This is great for my writing, horrible for my sanity. I usually need my music simply to calm my mind outside of meditation.

[Medusa]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

As someone with bipolar I HAVE to be by myself for some part of the day. I need it to re-charge. I am the most happy when I am alone and quiet. Though then there are those days being alone with myself makes it easier to 'think' it's a good idea to be dead.

Bi polar. Its like casino time!

[Denarius]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Not more than five or ten minutes I reckon. Some people like being left alone to their thoughts, not me. My brain is an ass.

[Sarkana night]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

I do not mind being alone. I'm also a bit of a loner, and I'm happiest at those times where I can be alone at my "secret hiding place" singing without any distractions.

[ChainLightning]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Alone is a blessing. Together is a blessing.

I can be alone, with the quiet desolation of the farthest recesses in my mind for days. Weeks. Possibly even months but I haven't tried it. I've no qualms about exploring new avenues of thought without someone to bounce those ideas off of. I usually attribute it to being an Aquarius, as I can even feel alone in a crowd of 20,000. I have my world and everyone else lives on a different one.

That said, I want someone to be there. Someone to love and share life experiences with. Someone I can bounce ideas around with and see what happens. I would very much like to have company on my personal desert island.




Or even their island. I'm willing to relocate to other worlds.

[MaskedOne]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

Complete Silence is a military form of torture. So not too long I reckon.

Not a perfect comparison. Silence is a method of placing psychological pressure* on a person if and only if people with some control of the environment and the victim's movement conspire to make it so. To pull an analogy from MythBusters

They had an episode dealing with the water torture myth. Premise being, you strap a person down and just drip water on their forehead. Two different tests were pulled. Adam sat in a recliner and fell asleep during the test. Carrie was actually tied down and they applied a water drip. IIRC she freaked out in under an hour. Simple crap can exert powerful mental pressure but that doesn't mean it always will do so.


*Torture in this case is relative and context dependent. I refuse to call staring at a man for fifteen minutes without talking torture but I know for a fact that such a trick can be surprisingly effective.

To the OP:

Depends on context and my mood. Sometimes I really like being alone to think and/or sleep but I can also get exceedingly pissy if you take away my ability to head into town and visit friends/eat fast food/etc. If I'm on my own, doing little by choice then quite some time. If the previous apply because circumstances force my hand and I have other things I want to do, then I'm not a happy person.

[Gardenia]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

I would imagine that many here would not have as much a problem being alone with themselves with NO noise of any kind.
...
So,what is your threshold for just being alone with yourself?

Well, what counts as really alone with just myself? Does reading still fall into that, or is that a distraction? Writing? Drawing, painting, some other sort of craft? I can sit around reading for hours alone, or doing crafts... Hell, I love to spend an hour or so 'napping' in bed most days, which is not really napping, but just laying around thinking, re-charging. But what can I say? I also like music, radio stories, podcasts, video games, or hanging out online. So, yeah, I like to have a few hours of quiet alone time in a day, that's nice, but anything more than that...? Stops being nice, just starts being boring. (And ideally, it's something like an hour of 'nap' time, an hour of internet, an hour of reading in quiet, an hour of cleaning with music... not just hours of silence. )

[anunitu]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

I kind of meant meditative time,but being alone and doing things you like alone is also like not needing other people to be able to enjoy your pastimes.

[sharukhshazz2214]

Re: How long can you be alone with yourself with no distractions?

being alone scares the shit out of me

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i feel scared when im alone all by my self