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Here's to Your Health
Why Friendship Helps, Heals and Makes Us Happy By Carma Haley Shoemaker
Many experts agree that we, as humans, function best and are happiest and healthiest when we have friends in our lives. According to Carl Charnetski, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and co-author of Feeling Good Is Good for You: How Pleasure Can Boost Your Immune System and Lengthen Your Life (Rodale, 2001), our health is literally affected by the number and quality of friends we have in our lives. "Chronic loneliness, experienced by millions, can actually be a health risk," says Charnetski. "The absence of friends is associated with higher instances of illness and a great likelihood for death. However, loving and living within a social network of friends and family improves your health and your chances of recovering from illness."
The old adage that honesty is the best policy holds true for friendship. It is in a friend's honesty that we often find the truth that can help us overcome, cope or heal. "The healing friends are the ones who listen and who can make us laugh, often at ourselves," says Levine. "Our friends also help us to heal by being honest. I remember a friend in Rochester who said to me as my father suffered from a terminal illness, 'Your life will never be the same.' I remember those words and how she said them like it was yesterday. I will never forget her candor and her generosity and her willingness to talk about a really difficult situation. Honesty and security in friendships helps to heal us mind, body and soul."
Keeping Friendships in Shape
Like anything worth holding onto, friendships must be nurtured. However