Caroline Millington

spending time alone should be celebrated, not feared.

According to Drs Klein and Taylor, this calming response doesn’t occur in

men, because they produce high levels of testosterone under stress, which reduces the effect of oxytocin. So, when it comes to stress, ‘Men walk, women talk.’

In one 2017 study in America, researchers found that lonely people had a 50 per cent increased risk of early death, and in another study, those who had the most friends over a nine-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60 per cent.

having a strong network of friends also increases self-confidence.

People also take cues from their friends who exercise or eat well to lose weight and develop healthy habits, as claimed by a highly publicized 2007 study.

study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry showed that increasing your level of social connection can protect your future mental health.

A 2010 review of 148 studies found that people who felt less socially connected had more risk of early death than those who smoked, drank or were obese. Therapeutic programmes that focus on building social connectedness are effective in treating depression, anxiety and schizophrenia; and people who make new social group connections are less likely to develop depression.

The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) showed that, when a person’s level of social connection goes down, they experience worse mental

‘My definition of a friend is somebody who adores you even though they know the things you’re most ashamed of.’