The urge to be close to other people is strong. The drive to be held is compelling, and when we’re deprived of human touch, we feel as if we’re starving, in an emotion they call skin hunger.
Nonetheless, it is possible for us to feel as if we have too much contact with others, and not enough space in which to be ourselves. When this happens within a social relationship, people describe themselves as feeling suffocated.
It’s as if the people they’re close to are surrounding them, covering them in soft, warm blankets that, although comforting at first, cannot be escaped. Sometimes it feels as if there isn’t enough air to breathe, and a panicky impulse to run begins to build. If you can’t get away, you might die, at least on the inside.
Feeling suffocated is like being overwhelmed, but instead of a being overcome by a chaotic situation, a suffocated person feels as if they are covered in the heavy affection of well meaning people who simply don’t know when to stop. The tragedy of the situation is that it’s often people who feel most in need of affection who drive others away by making them feel suffocated.
As with the ancient emotion of angh, the emotion of being suffocated is physically manifested as a sensation of constriction. With suffocation, however, the constriction is soft and gentle in its insistence, like a pillow held over your face.
