Is it possible to live without friends?
Faced with this question, many are likely to say, “Of course it’s possible!I don’t have any friends and am I alive?. Of course, we won’t run out of oxygen because we don’t have a social connection, the heart will. “We don’t stop and we’re not going to turn into smoke because of that. However, how do we live without them?
- In fact.
- It’s clear that no one loses their lives because they don’t have at least one friend.
- However.
- In many cases.
- This fact is seen with some sadness.
- Disappointment and discouragement.
- Suffice it to say that one of the reasons people seek therapy is to feel lonely because they cannot build strong social bonds and have no one to talk to.
- Laugh and share good times with.
- Life.
People are social beings and the brain needs this quality interaction with friends to enjoy positive emotions, feel validated and find safety. As evolutionary psychology points out, having friends is not necessary for our survival, but it makes life of higher quality and, at the moment, we achieve happiness.
It is often said that the quality of our social relationships is driven by what we experience as a family, but that is not entirely true.
There are those who have a traumatic past for abusive parents or lack of affection and who, however, have built their true family with friendships. Sometimes the opposite is also true: having a loving family doesn’t always guarantee that we forge strong friendships.
On the other hand, and beyond all that, no one can deny that having good friends gives color to life, that almost without knowing how they become accomplices, unexpected treasures that travel with us for a while or sometimes forever. coming and going; That’s for sure, false friendships and friendships that make us better people.
However, there are those who, for lack of social skills or also to accumulate more than one disappointment, have no friends, so the question is: is it possible to live without friends?
You can live without friends. Research conducted at the University of Arizona by Dr. Melika Demir and Ingrid Davidson have shown something interesting that invites us to think, they found that friendships are a variable to know happiness, but this factor is not the most important, on average, for people.
The most important thing is the satisfaction of basic needs and also the sense of competence. Feeling independent, having basics like food, work, housing or even having a partner is more desirable. Another factor is “net relationships. “
As the philosopher and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman would say, society is increasingly individualistic. This makes the links more fragile, unreliable and even abrasive. Friends come and go, they rarely last and, although it can lead to disappointment, some get used to it.
People need access to daily social interactions, at least basics. Talking to colleagues, talking to the neighbors, who sells us bread every day?These are moments that do us good, to the point that a lot of people don’t need to go. In other words, they do not want or seek to strengthen strong bonds to form genuine friendships.
Therefore, this kind of somewhat superficial interaction is sufficient for some men and women, who could safely claim that it is in fact possible to live without friends.
We already know that if you can live without friends, there are many people who do not have that kind of connection for one reason or another, now maybe this fact has some kind of psychological cost, it is true that each person is different and there are those for whom the family or the male partner will suffice, others may even feel realized in their own loneliness.
However, this is neither normal nor recommended. In addition, there is one fact to keep in mind: suicides are becoming more common in this individualistic society with fragile relationships, the fact that we do not have friends does not kill us alone, it is true, but it gives us life. harder.
People need quality friendships, figures in which to place trust to create spaces in which they can obtain emotional food, friendship makes life fuller, makes more sense and provides us with this kind of support that promotes mental health.
The absence of this dimension creates voids and wounds in which dissatisfaction and loneliness navigate, painfully clinging and distorting our reality. Should we not deprive ourselves of friendships. The benefits are incalculable.