We are pretty much familiar with the word “friend”. A friend is usually the one you met for the first time at school or with whom you established a relationship simply by living in the building next door.
Welcoming a friend into our lives should bring us joy and happiness, but a friendship goes much further than having a confidant with whom you can rely on, take photos or even travel with. According to several studies, friends not only contribute to improving our social life, but they can also help us in multiple ways. How is this possible? Studies have shown that friendships can bring different benefits to our mental health, let’s take a look at some of them:
Reduce stress
According to a study carried out by a recognized university in Canada, secreting oxytocin during a pleasant moment such as a dinner or a conversation causes us to experience relief and well-being.
Friends will always have your back in case you need to talk to somebody or just want to take a break from work or daily life responsibilities, because most of the time they are the ones who come to our rescue when we are feeling stressed out due to personal and/or family issues.
Improve your self-confidence
Friends can help us see situations from a different perspective, they can give us sincere and accurate advice that can impact our way of thinking or even notice details and/or options that we had not considered previously.
There are several psychological studies that affirm that friendships always strengthen trust and raise self-esteem because it favors communication and helps personal development.
Helps to deal with health problems
Unfortunately, no one is exempt from getting ill, and that usually deteriorates our body and our mental health at the same time. Psychological studies have shown that social support is important and can have a positive effect when fighting an illness, in addition to that, friends can help make it more bearable and can even speed up our recovery.
They will make you a better person
Friends are always there to bring out the best in us, they always push us to be better. If you don’t feel good about yourself or you’re having troubles with something, send a message or give your friends a call, because they can help you get through difficult times.
According to a study, it is the same friends who motivate you to look for an eating plan to maintain a healthy relationship with food or who always invite you to practice sports and/or outdoor activities that involve the physical movement of your body.
Our friends are our antidepressants
It is proven that friendship can mitigate the symptoms of disorders such as anxiety and depression, a conclusion that is also corroborated by psychologist Pedro Agustín Garzón: “People who are alone, who do not live with others, do not relate, that is, they have low social interaction, live less and may have greater psychological difficulties.”
A stronger heart
In addition to exercising, identifying risk factors and having a healthy diet, a good friend also protects our cardiovascular health.This is demonstrated by a study carried out by Duke University (United States), which concluded that 50% of adults who had died from cardiovascular problems did not have close friends, while 85% of survivors had long term friendships.
Now that you know some of the physical and psychological benefits of friendship, share with us in the comments who your best friend is and send them a message to let them know how important they are to you.
References:
https://www.vidaysalud.com/el-poder-de-los-amigos-y-su-efecto-en-tu-salud/
Category: Health, Lyfestyle, Mental Health, Physical Health
Tags: antidepressants, friends, friendship, health problems, self-confidence, stress
