Friendship Between Women: A Sensational Way To Combat Stress

Friendship between women has been studied for decades by the fields of Social and Health Psychology. And it is that, unlike the friendship between men or the mixed one, the feminine one  is something more particular

You have to take into account something, and that is that you could make a thousand arguments about the benefits of friendship, and even so, one would fall short. Being able to count on another person in whom to place trust without feeling judged is a luxury available to very few.

In fact, friendship between women has its own level of understanding: sisterhood. This feeling arises when women, instead of confronting each other, find that it is much more satisfying to ally. Because united, they can achieve more than in the fight alone.

In a world of voids, it is positive connections that count

One essential point should be made clear: it is not about having many “friends”. What most affects health and well-being is having authentic and meaningful friendships, those that are often counted on the fingers of one hand.

Nowadays, social networks help to stay connected. But is it a real connection?

Everyone has dozens of friends on social media. It requires immediacy and emoticons are used to represent emotions that, later, in real life, are not shown with such agility.

There are millions of WhatsApp groups , through which it is impossible not to keep up to date. And yet, the greater the interaction, the greater the gaps and the feeling that “something is missing.”

That “something” is a satisfying personal life. There, where you are surrounded by support networks, people who bring happiness face to face and security with their closeness; special beings to whom to offer friendship and complicity in exchange for nothing.

A good way to combat that known emotional void is to promote good social relationships. In this case, women tend to react differently from their male counterparts.

Women react to stress differently

To understand how and in what way men and women cope with stress, it is necessary to delve into the always fascinating world of neuropsychology.

• According to this report by the American Diabetes Association, stress would significantly increase glucose levels and blood pressure. This could be very dangerous, especially in the long term, for the well-being of the person.
• In the same way, when a person experiences anxiety and stress for a long time, they  pour into their bloodstream a real “cocktail” of neurotransmitters, made up mostly of cortisol and epinephrine.

• There is a hormone that also functions as a neurotransmitter and that could be key to reducing the impact of stress: we are talking about oxytocin.

Oxytocin, in addition to counteracting the production of cortisol and epinephrine,  plays a modulating role in the central nervous system and promotes calm, as suggested by this study by Dr. Flórez Acevedo . In fact, it is believed that it could be used as an anxiolytic against certain types of disorders.

For its part, in the case of men, stress impacts in a more complex way.

• For starters, there is one aspect that is interesting in itself: they produce less amounts of oxytocin.
• By not benefiting from the presence of oxytocin as harmoniously as women, they feel the desire to flee or fight more urgently.

All this makes stress a deeper and more chronic dimension in the male gender.

Friendship, a great provider of oxytocin

Every human being has the genetic need to “connect” with others, to build bonds based on empathy and recognition.

In women, as already mentioned, this could be due to the high presence of oxytocin in the brain, a hormone that aims to promote temperance.

• Thus, when life curls up, when stress hits and fears grind, women seek friendship with other women to regulate those fears and achieve that comforting complicity with which to hide anguish and relativize problems.
• It should be noted that friendship is a dimension that gives the female gender different aspects – and, at the same time, complementary – to a relationship with a couple or the bond with a family member.

• Women know, in turn, that these friends are not obliged to solve their problems. It is not their function nor do they seek it. What they need is to feel heard and to know that they are understood.

Friendship, a great help

To conclude, it is necessary to emphasize the fact that a positive, solid and respectful circle of friends is the key to health and fullness of life, both for men and women. 

The sense of support, comfort, and strength that true friends bring is very rewarding. For this reason, it is very important to take care of them: everyone knows that whoever has a friend has a real treasure.