How I became a hikikomori and later a hermit

EDIT: I made a video about this subject as well, check it out here.

When I was a child and in high school I had a group of friends. In primary school I was a bit bullied, but in high school I made friends with some more popular kids and the bullying reduced. We would drive our mopeds together, go to parties and later bars/clubs when I was over 18.

However I have always had a loner side to me. Even when I was with friends, after a while I would yearn to be at home at my computer, playing games, chatting and surfing the web.

In 2011 I went to Hong Kong to study Mandarin Chinese. Although in HK they speak mainly Cantonese. It was mostly a nice trip, I really like Hong Kong. The buildings are huge there and it's very densely populated. It's like a human ant hill.

But then one day I went to McDonalds and bought a chicken burger. After this I got food poisoning and had to go to the hospital. Luckily I had travel insurance because it would have cost like $3000 otherwise. However even after I was discharged, I still had stomach problems that just wouldn't go away. So I booked a flight home and nearly passed out in the London airport layover.

After coming home I still had stomach problems. I had to see a gastroenterologist and tried many medicines as well as natural remedies, and found some that worked. But this medicine would make it so that I had to randomly go to the bathroom, although most often it happened in the morning or by lunch time.

This was a bit of an embarrassing condition, so it caused me to isolate myself at home, and my loner side took over. So I became a neet hikikomori from 2011 to 2017. What helped me get out of it a bit was the success of my tech channel, it allowed me to earn money from home. In 2018 I moved to a different country for 6 months, but while I did leave my apartment there, I was still a loner with no friends in that country.

I moved back home because I wanted to be near my parents and help them as they are getting old, they were then in their late 70s back then. They're still alive and doing OK.

My stomach problems got better when I stopped using one of the meds in 2019. My stomach is not perfectly healthy, but I now don't have to use any meds and I don't have to go randomly to the bathroom either, so that's great.

Now I would say I am more of a hermit than a hikikomori, as I go outside to walk, ride my bike or motorcycle. Back in 2011-2017 I only went outside to buy groceries. But during winter I go almost full hikki, as it gets so cold here that I don't want to go outside. If I lived in Spain or some warm country, I would probably just be a hermit year round.

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