Study Shows Having a Friend Can Benefit Your Health

Research indicates that not being socially connected can negatively impact your overall health and wellness. These impacts on your health are similar to the effects of high blood pressure, obesity, and many others. Therefore, it seems to make sense that a strong, supportive social network would positively impact your health and well being. Friendships are good for your health. The connections experienced in a good friendship increase your feelings of social belonging, self-esteem, and support positive mental health.

John Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, reports that when you are socially isolated, your brain increases the amount of the hormone cortisol. Cacioppo also states that exposure to a prolonged high level of cortisol can be damaging to your health. The high levels of cortisol can make us more succeptible to cardivascular diseases and many others. Other current research states that as human beings, we are biologically created to seek out social connections. Without these social connections, the same part of the brain that responds when we are hurt, responds by making us feel uncomfortable.

Friendships are less likely to form as a matter of "chance" or "fate"; instead, we are more likely to develop friendships with those whose paths we cross regularly, and with those with whom we have many things in common. These commonalities do not inspire great friendships alone, instead, important key factors like self-disclosure and "give-and-take" come into play. While someone's ability to provide concrete "things" (like money, gifts, etc.) is less likely to be valued in a friendship, traits like the ability to be intimate, to provide unconditional support, and to be loyal are much more highly valued. Most importantly, good friends typically support who we believe ourselves to be, and provide us with much needed self-esteem and support. We connect ourselves with individuals that we share commonalities with, and then a friendship develops by our ability to feel validated. Supported, and valued by these friends. It is not strange to think that we select our friendships based on how our friends make us feel, rather than who they are or what choices they make in their lives.

Friendships that provide us with motivation, acceptance, and accountability lend strength to our bodies and mind. Friendship is a basic requirement of life, and great friendships become not only a need, but a desire.