People with many friends tend to outlive those with few friends
"Friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost."
Friends are always there for us, to laugh with us in the happy times and to provide us with a shoulder, when we feel like crying. They serve as one of the biggest supports in our life. We can always count on our friends, whether we need any advice or any help. The best part is that a friend's advice will always be for our betterment, whether it hurts us or pleases us. After family, friends are the one who care for us. They bring a smile on our face when we are sad and they go out of the way to make things alright for us.
Many people find it difficult to make new friends as they get older. Yet some older people are able to have an active social life as they age. We should all learn the secrets to having a successful social life no matter how old we get. Why is it important to keep making new friends as you grown older? Those seniors who are isolated and lonely tend to have more health problems and a poorer quality of life than those who have a good social network of friends and family.
Older people confront unique challenges in trying to make new friends for these reasons:
- Older people may become less physically mobile and more confined to home.
- They often have less money to spend on recreation and entertainment.
- Older people are also more likely to suffer from depression and withdraw from others.
- They may be physically frail and afraid to go out at night.
- Conversations may become more difficult when hearing and eyesight start to fail.
As you grow older, make sure you stay living in the present, not in the past.
In your conversations with others, don't be fixated on who you used to be. Don't talk only about yourself and your children's lives, or complain about all your ailments and operations.
It's important to listen to others and let conversation become a two way street.
Be willing to make many social approaches to others, no matter what the outcome. Stay interested in the current world and stay optimistic.
You will only make new friends if you can show that you can be interesting and interested in others.
When you develop an active social life as a senior citizen, you make close and personal connections that can last you throughout the golden years. Follow these steps to find fulfilling friendships to make the senior years enjoyable.
Look for friends to shop with. Ask neighbors or former coworkers to attend concerts or plays with you or to join you for a meal.
Reach out to people in your community by offering to speak at community centers, volunteering at schools or giving your time to non-profit organizations. As a senior citizen, you have a wealth of knowledge to share, and these opportunities provide you the chance to develop friendships with those with whom you interact.
Make a list of the activities you enjoy and those new ones you would like to try. Research the availability of these activities in your town and set up a schedule to participate in as many of these activities as you can. Organized activities provide excellent opportunities to meet new friends.
Visit a gym or a community center that has workout facilities so you can get in shape and improve your health. Staying active alongside other seniors allows you to have fun while working out.
Join a book club. Inquire about them at your local library and then attend the meetings regularly. By sharing your views on books and authors, you will have the opportunity to meet new friends who love reading as much as you do.
Go to your neighborhood senior citizens center and research the activities and trips offered by the facility.
Consider broadening your knowledge of the world by sitting in on college lectures. Other senior citizens are likely doing the same and you can establish friendships with them.
Most of us know from experience that having good friends can make our lives richer, but research now shows that our friends may also increase our longevity. The same isn't true for our relatives.
In a 10-year longevity study of people aged 70 and older, researchers at the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia concluded that a network of good friends is more likely than close family relationships to increase longevity in older people.
The research report is based on the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing <http://www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B0E9850F-4466-4B84-A933-A335D05C3232/0/ALSA.pdf> (ALSA).
How Was the Longevity Study Conducted?
ALSA, used a series of interviews with nearly 1,500 older people to assess how much contact they had with their different social networks, including children, relatives, friends, and other confidantes. The group was monitored annually for four years and then less often for a decade. The researchers also considered how economic, social, environmental and lifestyle factors affected the health and well-being of the seniors in the study. After controlling for those variables, the researchers were able to see the positive effect friendships have on longevity.
What Makes the Longevity Study Significant?
According to Lynn Giles, one of the four researchers who published the report, there is nothing new about evidence showing that social networks increase longevity, but ALSA went a few steps farther.
"What hasn't been done before is to break down which social networks might be most beneficial," Giles said in a statement published on the Flinders University web site.
"It looks as if friends are the most important in terms of survival."
What the Longevity Study Found
Based on results from the study, researchers learned:
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Close relationships with children and relatives had little effect on longevity rates for older people during the 10-year study.
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People with extensive networks of good friends and confidantes outlived those with the fewest friends by 22 percent.
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The positive effects of friendships on longevity continued throughout the decade, regardless of other profound life changes such as the death of a spouse or other close family members.
Giles said that neither the study nor the report suggests that family ties are unimportant to older people, only that they seem to have little effect on survival and longevity.
For example, she pointed out that another study showed that close relationships and frequent contact with family members were the most important factors in helping older seniors avoid disabilities and increase longevity.
Why Are Friendships So Powerful for Longevity?
While the study couldn't say for certain why close friendships have such a dramatic effect on longevity, the authors of the report speculated that friends may encourage older people to take better care of themselves-by cutting down on smoking and drinking, for example, or seeking medical treatment earlier for symptoms that may indicate serious problems.
Friends may also help seniors get through difficult times in their lives, by offering coping mechanisms and having a positive effect on mood and self-esteem. Giles said the research didn't distinguish between the effects of new and long-term friendships on longevity.
"The central message is that maintaining a sense of social embeddedness through friends and family appears pretty important for survival," Giles said, "and it seems that non-kin relationships are particularly important."
