Friendships are not a luxury. They are as important to our well-being as water and oxygen. The statistics on the health risks associated with a lack of friendships are shocking. People with no friends or poor-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely, according to Holt-Lunstad’s meta-analysis of more than 308,000 people—a risk factor even greater than the effects of smoking 20 cigarettes per day.
More simply put: Adult friendships are not optional if we want health and happiness. Ultra runner, master life coach, and doctoral student in somatic psychology Nicole Whiting writes, “What if we celebrated our friendship stories in the same way we celebrate our love stories? We can. We should.”
While academic literature is full of why we need adult friendships, there is a dearth of information on how to do it. It can be helpful to sort fact from fiction when it comes to friendships, and I’ve identified what I believe are the top four myths of adult friendships that contribute to keeping us stuck in dangerous isolation patterns.
4 Myths of Adult Friendships
-You need a best friend
-If you don’t invest a lot of time, the friendship isn’t worth it
-Social media friends don’t count as friends
-Friends are forever
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