Touch is deeply important to me. As is consent. By and large, if I am with friends or good acquaintences, touch seems fluid and natural. I mean, patting each other on the back, shaking hands, squeezing a shoulder - that sort of thing. With intimate partners, I find skin-to-skin touch immensely nurturing and pleasing, whether sexual or not. I also find sexual touching immensely nurturing and pleasing; perhaps that goes without saying, but I suppose not everyone does.

I also think touch is hugely significant in my work as a counselor and therapist. For one thing, I don't initiate touch with a client lightly - not even a handshake. Consent is deeply important, and all the moreso if someone has hand a boundary violation, such a physical or sexual abuse. Of course, sexual touching is never appropriate in the context of that relationship, but sometimes a hug of comfort and encouragment sends a powerful message of nurturance, when welcomed. I also believe (and I think some studies prove this, but I can't put my finger on them just now) that a calmer person's touch can easy the anxiety of an anxious person, especially when there is a good emotional bond between them.

Yes, now I'm remembering that a study was done in the context of attachment relationships, in which experimental design included a woman who is in an fMRI machine and is expecting an electric shock. She holds the hand of either nobody, a stranger, or her close intimate partner (usually a husband) and then pain levels from the shock are measured in the brain scan. Pain levels were highest when subjects were holding nobody's hand, slightly lower when holding a stranger's hand, and dramatically reduced or even absent(!) when holding a partner's hand. Touch is powerful.

I hate being touched unless I'm being intimate/in a relationship. Even in a relationship, there is a time and place for everything.

What can I say..... I'm weird.

To me personally, it’s something I crave if it’s from someone I genuinely like. The problem is, I don’t like anyone enough in this point of my life to desire their touch. After my last relationship, I suppose I became a bit jaded.

But, there’s also a medical explanation on why touch is important. It’s said that when we are in pain, someone’s touch can help ease that pain as it causes our body to release oxytocin. Having been a combat medic and having to see the light leave someone’s eyes as they passed, I held that young man’s hand until he passed and I think that meant more to him in that time than almost anything else in his life.

I am a toucher. Wait, I don't mean that in a creepy way, I just mean that in a romantic relationship particularly, touch is something I seek and give. I also learned to hug my kids and give them reassuring pats and so forth, though my family weren't particularly touchy-feely.

I'm sensitive about it. It affects me. A "vibes" thing, I think. I don't have a woo take on it, but I can feel there's something there and maybe someday in my lifetime science might catch up and give us the rationale in terms of EMF or pheromomes or something.

If I don't know you, I don't want to touch you. (Handshakes and high-fives are generally okay, maybe a friendly shoulder-pat with a chuckle and a smile.) If I don't know you and we touch and I get a squicky feeling, you're on the no-fly list.

If I don't like/trust you, I really don't want to touch you. Seriously. I don't want to get any of that "on me". I don't like the way it feels.

If I like you, touch is for occasional bonding or reassurance.

If I love you, touch is where I give you some of me, and take some of you.

Even in close relationships, I'm not a very touchy person. Not because I don't like it, I think, but because it impacts me so deeply. I have to ration it; I save it for the moments when it really counts.

Animals are a completely different story. I give the best scratch.

Very important indeed. I’m the cuddling, handholding, spooning type of boyfriend. It’s good for mental and physical health and it makes me smile. So I now have a very big wrap-around pillow which is a very satisfying second best thing.

I like touch allot. But try always to be considerate of others who don't like it.

Without touch, the mind would be an isolated island.

I have been alone so long that I sometimes find myself craving touch. But not just any touch. Loving, tender touch by someone I trust and care for. I dislike being touched by strangers or people I don't trust. I remember seeing a documentary from the 50s where they used these sad little orphan babies in an experiment on the importance of touch. They purposely withheld human contact from some of the babies and fed and changed them through an incubator sleeve. These poor babies did not thrive. I don't think it is quite as essential to adults regarding thriving, that is, I don't think I will die from lack of touch...but I definitely feel a deep sadness when I remember how warm and wonderful it felt. I feel like I would be happier and healthier for sure if I had a good cuddle every day.

I was never a touchy-feely person, no one in my family ever was either.
And since the pandemic, you just stay the F over there, thznkyuvurrymuch!!!
I get the touch I need from my dog........

Quite important. It can be healing, communicative, loving, and fun.

Yes. I like hugs, a touch on the arm, a pat on the back. These are ways of communicating which words can't do by themselves.

Yes!! The down side of touch is alot of people think touch means sex. I have always been a touch kind of person but since I moved into this 55 and older low income apartment complex I DO NOT hug hardly at all. Christ I use to just talk to this one guy and next thing I know he's asking me if I want to be friend with benefits. Yikes. THEN because I am so tomboyish a few wondered which aisle I shopped in. I always wondered if I may be bi but explored it. Touch is very improtant and I just get frustrated so many want to equate it with sex. If I sound frustrated it's I am a bit touch starved, very different from sex starved.

Absolutely.

More important than smell, sound or image. It took me a while to understand that, but I got there in the end.

Yes! Physical touch is a basic human need.

One of the Senses.

I come from a close family of demonstrative huggers. Touch is very important. Unless I'm trying to fall asleep. Then you have to be a cat if you want to touch me.

Touch is highly important (i feel ; ) ...pun intended! Touch is very important to me! It is #1 of my two top love languages. I believe if we as humans are deprived of touch we experience a slow and emotionally agonizing death.

Most of the time, I hate people touching me without asking. If I touch someone first, then I feel okay. IDK I have always felt that way?

Depends on what you want to touch.

Extremely. How I connect to people. Lots of hugs.

To me massively !!

It is the end all, be all.