The Psychology of Friendship

Friendship is so important, it has the capacity to affect our mental health. Interpersonal relationships of any kind, such as those involving significant others and family, make a difference on an emotional level too, but friendships may play the most vital role of all when it comes to mental health. Here’s why:

A friend is someone who we choose to make bonds with. We aren’t forced to make or keep a real friend. Typically, friends are picked because we have one or more things in common with them. We also gravitate to those who make us feel good about ourselves and life in general. Friendships are also developed with people we can communicate well with.

Love relationships differ. Often they are complicated. Usually, we actually go to a friend when we’re having trouble with our love life, which makes a friendship as important or more important that the love relationship.

Friendships are connections. Humans have a deep primal need to connect to others. When we find someone who fills that need, it actually sends out endorphins into our body. Endorphins are hormones that make us feel good. So, when we are around a friend, our body is pumping out positive emotions. We are likely to experience relief from stress, grief, and other negative emotions simply by being around a friend.

The fact that we tend to confide in a friend is also mentally healthy. Stress is relieved through talk therapy in a way that is very conducive. While having an alcoholic beverage may reduce stress temporarily, it doesn’t tend to the problem completely and constructively, like talk therapy with a friend does.

Friends bring out the best in us. We learn to give and not just take. We develop care and concern for a friend which we exhibit time and time again. Good friends return that care and concern. The relationship is built of trust, unselfishness, and love.

We also tend to listen when a friend has a problem. The psychology behind being a friend is quite strong too. We feel useful. We feel empathy and sympathy and other emotions that make the bond of friendship even stronger. When we are trusted, we tend to do what is required to earn and keep that trust. Ultimately, we become better people when we practice being a good friend.

Friends are usually people who we enjoy and like to laugh and have fun with. Laughing is so healthy, it can cure things, like depression. Laughing also helps us live longer. You might say that friendships add days to our lives because, it’s true. They also add quality to our lives.

Friendships are not only important to our mental health, they are imperative. A person can die of loneliness. They just give up the will to live. Good friends help give one another reasons to live and to have a higher quality of life. Together, they elevate one another to a higher level...a level that only those with close friendships can experience. Together, we are better and that is what friendship is all about.