Background
Why Russians are banned from playing chess on Antarctica (and other lessons about isolation)
How does isolation affect us? It is pertinent question now that more and more people are stuck at home because of the coronavirus. “You shouldn’t fight the loneliness; you should make friends with it.”
Tirza Pulleman
Friday 20 March 2020
Illustration Silas.nl

I’ll bet you 100,000 dollars that I can survive thirty days in a dark, enclosed space, Rich Alati, an American poker player, challenged. Two years ago, he allowed himself to be locked up in a small room with only a bed, a fridge and a bathroom. No light, no television, no WIFI. His meals were delivered at irregular times, so he could not mark the passing of time by them. He tried to keep himself occupied with yoga and meditation.

After four days, he started to hallucinate. “First shapes and colours, then I saw a train”, he said later. “I had to convince myself it wasn’t real. It was hard, because I was frightened too.” Then he started having bad thoughts. In the end, he wanted to settle: couldn’t he be released early and get $62,400?

That was allowed – after all, he was there voluntarily – and after twenty dark days he walked in sunlight again.

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS

Scientific research has shown that long stretches of isolation often have a detrimental impact on our mental health. People who are isolated for a long time are frequently confused and angry and display symptoms are post-traumatic stress sooner than other people. A study of Taiwanese hospital staff who were quarantined for nine days during the SARS outbreak in 2003 reveals that they displayed symptoms of acute stress, exhaustion, fear, irritation, insomnia, had an inability to concentrate or make decisions and performed badly at work sooner than normal. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress can even occur three years later.

Nonetheless, scientists found that quarantined Chinese students did not seem to be mentally affected (during the outbreak of Mexican flu in 2009), perhaps because the students were young and had no serious responsibilities (like caring for a family).

Due to the coronavirus, Dutch people started self-isolating en masse a few days ago. Unlike the surrounding countries, where complete lockdowns are in place, we are still allowed outside here in the Netherlands (even though many occupants of Leiden student houses are staying indoors voluntarily). But what if that changes? Which lessons can we learn from earlier instances of isolation?

American poker player Rich Alati during his twenty days in the dark.

People frequently go into isolation, for scientific reasons, for instance. Italian sociologist Maurizio Montalbini shut himself up in some underground caves for a total of three years. His record: 366 successive days When he resurfaced, he claimed he had been down there for only 219 days. Although he had lost weight and called himself “mentally unstable”, his outlook was bright and his motto was: “You shouldn’t fight the loneliness; you should make friends with it.” Maybe the one and a half kilos of chocolate he took with him to the cave eased the solitude.

The ultimate isolation is perhaps that of astronauts. In the seventies, three American astronauts were so fed up with the long hours, exhaustion and disagreements with NASA that they turned off their radio and ignored their bosses for an entire day.

Hallucinations

Staying locked up for so long affects our brains and causes hallucinations. A Russian space mission had to be broken off in 1976 because the crew could smell something strange and suspected a leak. Back on Earth, the smell turned out to be a hallucination.

Researchers on Antarctica are also severely tested: they are often shut off from the world in a region were winter can be six months of complete darkness. The stress levels are high at the research stations there and can have extreme consequences: in 1959, a researcher at the Russian Vostok station was so extremely angry at losing a game of chess that he murdered his opponent with an axe. Since then, Russians have been banned from playing chess on Antarctica.

Scene from the movie Gravity (2013). The ultimate isolation is that of astronauts.

Of course, that was an exceptional case, but high levels of stress and depressions are a serious threat on Antarctica.  “If you’re there with someone you don’t like, it’s hard luck, you can’t walk out”, American psychologist Peter Suedfeld has said. “And if you miss someone very much while you’re there, that’s hard luck too. You’re stuck there without them.” He is studying ways to reduce the stress. He believes that virtual reality could be the solution, as it offers researchers “the chance to step into another, completely different and exciting world.”

Are there any other ways of getting through a lonely period if you don’t happen to have VR handy? Many prisoners, including those in the Netherlands, choose to educate themselves and many get their (business) qualifications, some of them even attend criminology tutorials with university students.

According to Leiden historian Bart van der Boom, self-tuition was how many Jewish people passed the time in hiding during the Second World War. “They took correspondence courses on bookkeeping or drawing cartoons, they kept diaries and read books, but overall they felt that they were wasting their time. Most of the time was spent speculating how long they needed to remain in hiding.”

Playing ludo

Helen Berman spent three years in hiding in Rotterdam from the age of six and tried pass the time with schoolwork. “My father would spend the mornings teaching me subjects from primary school, even though he wasn’t a teacher. We acquired children’s books by illegal means, until the time came when I had read everything we could get our hands on.” But she didn’t spend all of her time learning. “I’d play games with my father, too, like Ludo, and we’d do crafting together. My second cousin was taught gymnastics by my father.”

Of course, her experience of isolation can’t be compared to the current corona quarantine. “The Jews’ experience in hiding was marked by a lack of information”, Van der Boom continues. “The worries about their friends and relatives gnawed away at them. Sometimes they managed to smuggle out a letter but often as not they didn’t succeed. The overwhelming uncertainty, we don’t have that now. You can ring anyone, or get in touch on Whatsapp or FaceTime. We can communicate ourselves silly if we want.”

Self-tuition was how many people passed the time in hiding during the Second World War.

Of course, her experience of isolation can’t be compared to the current corona quarantine. “The Jews’ experience in hiding was marked by a lack of information”, Van der Boom continues. “The worries about their friends and relatives gnawed away at them. Sometimes they managed to smuggle out a letter but often as not they didn’t succeed. The overwhelming uncertainty, we don’t have that now. You can ring anyone, or get in touch on Whatsapp or FaceTime. We can communicate ourselves silly if we want.”

The study above reports that communication is crucial for getting through this current isolation. According to the researchers, a telephone with an Internet connection is “no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity”.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE BIG BROTHER HOUSE

Poker player Rich Alati is not the only person seeking fortune and fame by being locked away for a long time: there are the participants on reality shows like Big Brother for example. 

The current Australian, Canadian and German candidates have already been in isolation for five weeks to record the show. Until Tuesday, they had no idea there was a corona pandemic. They were only told about it on Tuesday – live on television, obviously.

On Big Brother (conceived in the Netherlands in 1999 and discontinued here in 2006), twelve participants are shut up in a house for three months without access to television, Internet or telephones. They are not allowed to sing, watch or quote films, read books or write either. It sounds like the perfect to storm for madness. That’s what its critics believe too: for years, the show has been slammed for its lack of support for the occupants’ mental health.

“I’ll never forget my first panic attack”, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, a former participant on the English series, wrote. “It was on the last day and I begged Big Brother to leave me in the house forever. The thought of leaving that safe environment for the big, bad real world was just too much for me.” 

The current participants will probably feel the same way.