CHRISTINA CARON2026年7月9日Allora Dannon, 35, an author who lives in Rochester, N.Y., longed for physical touch for much of her adult life.35岁的阿洛拉·丹农是纽约州罗切斯特市的一位作家，成年后的大部分时间里，她都在渴望身体的触碰。As a “romantic late-bloomer” who didn’t begin dating until she was 32, she said she ached for someone to hold her. Not a “meaningless brush” with another body, she said, but the type of touch that had “intention behind it.”她说，自己是一个“恋爱开窍很晚的人”，直到32岁才开始约会，因此一直强烈渴望有人拥抱自己。她说，她所渴望的并不是人与人之间那种“毫无意义的身体擦碰”，而是带着“情感意图”的身体接触。This wasn’t a yearning for sex. She wanted someone to hold hands with, someone lightly touching the small of her back, a person to cuddle with on the couch. Sometimes she would sob, wondering why it seemed so easy for other people to be touched, but so difficult for her. When Ms. Dannon shared her longing for companionship on social media, her account eventually drew nearly 120,000 followers on TikTok.这不是对性的渴望。她想要的是能牵手的人，能轻轻触碰她后腰的人，能一起在沙发上依偎的人。有时候她会因此而流泪，不明白为什么对别人来说触手可及的触碰，对自己却如此困难。当丹农在社交媒体上分享自己渴望陪伴的心声时，她的TikTok账号最终吸引了近12万粉丝。Being touch-starved, or lacking wanted physical connection, has become increasingly common in our fast-paced, digital world, experts say. And a lack of touch can affect both our physical and mental well-being.专家表示，在这个节奏飞快、数字化程度越来越高的时代，“触碰饥渴”——也就是缺乏自己真正想要的身体接触——已经变得越来越普遍。而缺乏身体触碰，会影响人的身心健康。Without regular touch, we can feel “lonely, anxious, stressed or emotionally depleted without immediately knowing why,” said Ozge Ugurlu, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.加州大学伯克利分校心理学系博士后研究员厄兹盖·乌古鲁表示，缺乏规律性的触碰会让我们感到“孤独、焦虑、压力大或心累，却未必马上知道原因是什么”。Dr. Ugurlu, and other experts on touch, explained why touch is so vital and why they think people aren’t getting enough of it.乌古鲁和其他触碰研究专家解释了为什么触碰如此重要，以及他们认为人们为何普遍触碰不足的原因。Why is touch important?身体触碰为何重要？Research has found that everyone needs some level of human touch for our physical and emotional health, though the amount and type will vary for each person.研究发现，每个人都需要一定程度的身体接触来维持身心健康，不过每个人所需要的触碰类型和触碰程度并不相同。Psychologists have devised tools to measure what they call “touch deprivation,” such as the Touch Deprivation Scale. Higher scores on these scales are associated with anxiety and depression.心理学家还设计了一些测量所谓“触碰剥夺”的工具，例如《触觉剥夺量表》。在这些量表中得分越高，往往意味着焦虑和抑郁水平越高。When touch is wanted and consensual, studies have shown that it can regulate our emotions and benefit our overall well-being. Touch promotes calm by slowing activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that processes emotions, and prompts the release of oxytocin, often referred to as the love hormone. Touch has been shown to improve heart-rate variability, too, which is a measure of good health.研究表明，当触碰是双方都希望而且彼此同意的情况下发生时，它能够调节情绪、促进整体健康。触碰通过减缓大脑情绪处理中枢杏仁核的活动来促进平静感，并刺激催产素——即常被称为“爱情荷尔蒙”——的释放。研究还表明，触碰能够改善心率变异性，而这是衡量健康状况的重要指标。Research has also shown that touch can blunt pain, stress and anxiety. For example, blood pressure and levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, can decrease as a result of touch.研究还发现，触碰可以减轻疼痛、压力和焦虑。例如，触碰可以降低血压和皮质醇（一种与压力相关的激素）水平。Scientists have discovered that a soft, loving caress activates specific nerve fibers that light up parts of the brain associated with emotion, not just sensation.科学家还发现，轻柔而充满爱意的抚触能激活特定的神经纤维，继而点亮大脑中与情感相关的区域，而非仅仅是负责感觉的区域。Touch communicates connection and caring “with crystal clarity to your brain in ways that words don’t,” said James A. Coan, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of the forthcoming book “Why We Hold Hands.”弗吉尼亚大学心理学教授、即将出版的《我们为什么牵手》(Why We Hold Hands)一书的詹姆斯·科恩表示，触碰能以“语言无法做到的方式，清晰地向你的大脑传达联结和关爱的信息”。Why people may feel touch-starved为何人们可能感到触碰饥渴There are a few reasons.原因有以下几点。People spend less time together in person than in years past and more time online. This has altered our friendships and romantic relationships, experts said, which makes it more difficult to feel connected and valued.专家表示，如今人们面对面相处的时间越来越少，而上网的时间则越来越多。专家表示，这改变了我们的友情和恋爱关系，使我们更难感受到联结感和被重视。It can also hurt our ability to figure out whether we’re romantically interested in someone else.这种变化还会削弱我们判断自己是否对某人有浪漫好感的能力。“Touch is part of flirting — you bump into each other, and you assess each other’s interest with touch,” said Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies touch and emotion. “When you flirt with someone you’re figuring out: Is this a good partner?”加州大学伯克利分校研究触碰与情绪的心理学教授达切尔·凯尔特纳说：“触碰是调情的一部分——你们会触碰彼此，并通过身体接触来判断对方有没有兴趣。当你和别人调情时，你其实是在判断：这会是一个合适的伴侣吗？”Dr. Keltner was raised in an affectionate family that loved to give each other hugs. But touch can have “a different meaning culturally or individually,” he said. “And we have to honor that.”凯尔特纳博士成长于一个充满爱意、喜欢彼此拥抱的家庭。但他也指出，身体接触“在不同文化中，或者对不同的人来说，都可能有不同的意义。因此，我们必须尊重这种差异”。It doesn’t help that we’re living in a “super anxious” society, Dr. Coan said. We are “increasingly sensitive to abuse and power dynamics” in the workplace and elsewhere, he added. While this is important and useful in many ways, it can also make us more hesitant to touch someone, even if the touch is safe and wanted, he said.科恩博士说，我们生活在一个“高度焦虑”的社会，这无疑让情况雪上加霜。他补充说，我们对职场及其他场合中的“滥权和权力不对等越来越敏感”。虽然这种变化在很多方面都是必要且积极的，但它也会让人们即使面对安全、且双方都愿意的身体接触时，也变得更加犹豫。What helps with touch starvation?怎样缓解触碰饥渴Giving and receiving touch sometimes involves taking a calculated risk, Dr. Coan said.科恩博士说，与他人发生身体接触，无论是主动给予还是接受，有时都需要鼓起勇气，承担一点经过权衡后的风险。“If you want more touch, ask for more touch,” he said. And if it is appropriate and consensual, “engage in more touch.”他说：“如果你希望拥有更多身体的触碰，那就主动提出自己的需求。”如果合适且双方都同意，“那就多去触碰。”He recalled offering his hand to a stranger during a scary bout of turbulence on an airplane.他回忆说，有一次飞机遭遇严重颠簸时，他主动向一位陌生人伸出了自己的手。“It’s weird in our culture, but the circumstance sort of called for it,” he said, adding, “I would like to live in a world where we all did that more.”“在我们的文化里这有些奇怪，但那种情况确实需要这么做，”他说，并补充道，“我希望我们生活在一个大家都更多这样做世界里。”If this sounds uncomfortable or intimidating, there’s no shame in touching your own body.如果这样做让你觉得不自在，或者有些难以迈出这一步，那么不妨先从触碰自己的身体开始，这一点也不丢人。A few years ago, Latishia James, 38, was experiencing “indescribable loneliness.”几年前，38岁的拉蒂希娅·詹姆斯正经历一种“难以言状的孤独”。Her dog, a brown Yorkie-Cairn Terrier mix who loved to jump in her lap and cuddle, had eased some of the pain.她的狗——一只棕色约克夏犬与凯恩㹴混血犬，喜欢跳上她的腿依偎在她怀里——帮她缓解了部分痛苦。“She was my sweet little emotional support baby,” Ms. James said.“它是我可爱的情绪支持小宝贝，”詹姆斯说。But in 2022 her dog died. She was separated from her spouse at the time. And because of the pandemic she had spent years avoiding hugs or one of her favorite forms of stress relief: a massage.但2022年，她的狗去世了。当时她与配偶处于分居状态。而且因为疫情，她已经多年回避拥抱或她最喜欢的减压方式之一：按摩。Then Ms. James, who lives in Atlanta, learned a technique from her mental health therapist that involved giving herself a giant bear hug while stimulating specific pressure points with her fingers and rocking side to side to relieve anxiety and tension.后来，住在亚特兰大的詹姆斯从心理治疗师那里学到了一种技巧：给自己一个大大的熊抱，同时用手指刺激特定的压力点，并左右摇摆以缓解焦虑和紧张。At first she felt embarrassed to try it. “But once I proved to myself it was working, I didn’t care,” she said. “I did it all the time.”起初她觉得做这个动作很难为情。“但一旦我亲身验证它确实有效，我就不在乎了，”她说，“我经常这么做。”People who are craving touch can get similar benefits from “brushing” their skin or massaging themselves using their hands or elbows, said Tiffany Field, a professor in the departments of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Miami, who has researched touch for decades.迈阿密大学儿科和精神病学系教授蒂芙尼·菲尔德研究触碰已有数十年，她表示，那些渴望身体接触的人，也可以通过用双手或手肘按摩自己，或者“轻轻触碰”皮肤，获得类似的益处。Exercise of all kinds is also effective at stimulating the skin and muscles in a way that is similar to massage, Dr. Field said.菲尔德博士还说，各种形式的运动同样能够刺激皮肤和肌肉，其效果与按摩有相似之处。However we go about it, seeking out touch can be soothing, healing and vital for our health, experts said.专家表示，无论我们用什么方式，寻求触碰都能带来抚慰与疗愈，对我们的健康至关重要。In fact, touch “may be the most overlooked sense of all,” Dr. Ugurlu argued. “We may not notice it when it is present, but when it is absent, the effects ripple quietly and powerfully through our lives.”乌古鲁认为，事实上，触觉“可能是所有感官中最被忽视的”。“当它存在时，我们可能浑然不觉；但当它缺席时，影响却悄然而有力地在我们的生命中扩散。”Christina Caron是《纽约时报》记者，报道心理健康议题。翻译：杜然点击查看本文英文版。获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site