I don’t know about you, but if I am too isolated for too long I start to get a little… well… stir crazy. We neglect our social lives at our peril, but sadly, it is often the first thing to go when we become over busy, stressed, depressed or pre-occupied. We need to nurture our friendships and social connections. Why?
Meet up with friends for great health
Research has shown that as a person’s social network shrinks, that person’s risk of death increases. And the correlation is almost as strong as the connection between smoking and mortality.
One study, reported in The Lancet, followed 61 women with advanced ovarian cancer. Those with good social support had much lower levels of a protein linked to more aggressive types of cancer. Lower levels of this type of protein, (interleukin 6), was also found to boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Women with weaker social support had levels of interleukin 6 that were 70% higher in general, and two-and-a-half times higher in the area around the tumor. (1)
Social contact with friends good for stress
A PhD professor at Carnegie Mellon University has shown that a strong social support network is a prime buffer against stress. It seems friends provide us with emotional support, a friendly ear, mental stimulation, a source of material help and advice and a sense of healthy self-esteem. People with many friends report feeling more control over their lives and generally happier.
The dangers of solitude
Other research has shown that having few friends and feeling lonely is bad for our health. Don’t get me wrong, we all need to be able to function independently and it is good to have some space and privacy sometimes (and some people may be naturally better suited to being on their own). But study after study has indicated that those with fewer friends die sooner after having had a heart attack than people with stronger social support. Having many friends also seems to reduce your risk of catching the common cold despite the fact you are more likely to be exposed to the virus.
Well socially connected people suffer less cardiovascular and immunity problems and have lower levels of stress hormone (cortisol) in their blood streams. (2)
We are meant to socialize
We are group creatures and clubbed together to survive and develop as groups. In fact, being connected to other people seems to help us throughout life. It seems we are even less likely to suffer the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in general if we maintain a healthy friendship network throughout our lives. Comparing those who developed dementia with those who did not showed that those people who had higher social activities were 38% less likely to develop dementia. (3)
So although friends can sometimes drive you nuts, it seems that having friends is still important. And friendships, like anything in life, need to be nurtured and tended. If we get out of the habit of socializing regularly, we can lose social confidence and motivation to get out there and meet up. This new hypnosis session ‘Socializing motivation’ created for hypnosisdownloads.com is meant to instil a life long sense of the necessity and value of looking after one’s social networks, encouraging new friendships and maximizing social confidence.
Me, I’m off to look in my social calendar to see what’s coming up…
Mark
(1) In 1989, David Spiegel, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, published a landmark paper in Lancet. It showed that women with breast cancer who participated in a support group lived twice as long as those who didn’t. They also had much less pain.
(2) Tasha R. Howe, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at Humboldt State University.
(3) Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, vol 3 2003 .
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