Your friendship affects your mental health more than you think

Your friends affect your mental health a lot more than you think

By Naima Ali

As human beings, we always rely on friendships. When you constantly feel like you’re drowning, when you’re in an endless spiral of melancholy, you need friends to reassure you that you will be okay, no matter how hard it is to believe that. Despite that, friendships aren’t always simple. With long-term relationships come disputes. At times, friendships can be destructive and stressful too. However, this is normal. Overcoming such disputes is what makes the friendship stronger.

Creating friendships are a fundamental part of life and your mental health recovery process where the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself. What I mean by friends, is people who push you and radiate positive energy; those whose happiness is also yours. Having a support network of people who support you can improve your heart in profound ways. People who appreciate and celebrate your existence can relieve stress and make you a much happier person. Your friends should be making you feel joyful. Tey should help you want to live life to the fullest and brave. We need to spread love and remind them that they do matter to us.

Notwithstanding the great joy that a great friendship brings, they can also be tough. Having ‘friends’ who don’t pull their weight can be detrimental to your mental health because the truth is that your relationship with your friends can afect you. When you get into an argument, it can bring you down and make you want to drown in sorrow. Te interactions we have with our friends can determine a lot and that’s why it’s essential that you’re surrounded by people who live up the title of what being a friend means.

I guess at this point we’ve pretty much established that having friends does more good for you than harm. Study afer study has shown this. A good friendship is one which brings you happiness, nothing else. On the contrary, toxic friendships can have a severe impact on your mental health. It’s best to steer clear of people who intentionally harm you. Having wonderful friends is a never-ending beautiful thing.