We all know that making new friends after university is incredibly tough, but The Wall Street Journal points out that we tend to make it harder on ourselves by thinking that it’s a bad thing to want to make more friends in the first place.
Photo by Christopher Matson.
Once you’re done with university, your life tends to fluctuate in a variety of ways. You’re working more hours, friends are having kids and you just generally grow apart from people you’ve known for years. A lot of people end up shedding a lot of friends because of this. There’s a certain helplessness of being an adult and realising that you need friends, which is likely why it carries the stigma that it does, but speaking with the Wall Street Journal, clinical professor of psychiatry Irene S. Levine points out just how normal it is:
How do you make a friend now? Dr. Levine says the first step is to get over the stigma that something is wrong with you if you don’t have enough friends or are looking to make more. “As an adult, we think that everyone has their friends and we are the only ones seeking them,” she says. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Obviously, the actual act of meeting new people and making friends is a complicated one, but once you get over the stigma that there’s something wrong with you because you don’t have a ton of friends it becomes a lot easier. If you’re looking for a few more direct ideas on how to facilitate friendships when you meet new people, head over to The Wall Street Journal.
The Science of Making Friends [The Wall Street Journal]
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