Question: Why the relationship with our friends is important for our mental health?

Emily Mattacola answered on 19 Nov 2019:

Humans have evolved to be social creatures. We define ourselves a lot by our relationships with others, and in particular, the groups we belong to. This means that when we feel lonely and like we don’t belong, we experience negative effects from this. These negative effects can be psychological, like depression, but also biological – when we’re lonely for a long period of time, a change in our immune system occurs whereby we stop working to be immune to viruses. This is because viruses are passed person-to-person, so if we’re not getting enough social contact, the likelihood of us needing to be immune to viruses reduces significantly, so our immune system stops working in this way. This is just one example of how deeply ingrained in us being a part of a social group is!