Are you someone who has lots of friends, are you someone who has only a few close friends, or are you somewhere in-between?
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people. Friendship is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an association.
Friendships are important to our well being. They provide companionship, someone to talk to and confide in, and someone to spend time with and keep things from getting too boring. But how important are those friendships really to us?
Here are interesting facts about those friendships
1. When faced with major illnesses, those individuals with a great social network are in a better position to survive. The loving support of friends helps them through the healing process.
2. Companionship also said to help reduce stress effects on the body; it protects one from illnesses and hastens the healing process when sick. It makes people less susceptible to chronic diseases like arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases and heart disease.
3. In a lifetime, you go through approximately good 396 friends but only around 1 in 12 friendships last.
4. Not having close confidants or friends can be as detrimental to your health as being overweight or smoking.
5. Knowing what irritates a friend can make your relationship more stable and less frustrating. Scientists call this the “if-then” profile. They consider knowing friends’ reactions when faced with different situations just as important as knowing their tastes.
6. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar has studied the effect that love has on friendship and the results are clear: when a new person enters into your life, he or she displaces two others in your close circle, usually a family member or a friend.
7. Several studies have shown that, at least between chimpanzees, baboons, horses, hyenas, elephants, bats and dolphins, animals can form friendships for life with individuals that aren’t from their species.