How to Handle Challenging Life Changes

Participation in several social groups was once thought to just complicated our lives and cause stress. But new research proves that being part of social networks actually enhances our mental and physical resilience, enabling us to=> better handle challenging life changes. 

And it even seems that memberships in social groups also increases our physical well-being. There is even evidence that membership in multiple social groups and networks are a predictor of well-being equal to that of diet and exercise.

A study of 655 stroke patients by Bernadette Boden-Albala, professor of sociomedical sciences and neurology at Columbia University, found that patients who were socially isolated are twice as likely to have another stroke within five years, compared to those with meaningful social relationships.  Being cut off from others seems to increase the risk of another stroke even more than being physically inactive, which increases the likelihood of a second stroke by about 30 percent.

Such effects are not restricted to those who have a significant health problem. In a 2008 study epidemiologists and health researchers Karen Ertel, Maria Glymour and Lisa Berkman of the Harvard School of Public Health tracked 16,638 elderly Americans over a period of six years. The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, revealed significantly less memory loss in those who were more socially integrated and active.

An earlier study by psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University demonstrated that a diverse social network even makes people less susceptible to the common cold. Their work, published in Psychological Science, reported  that the least sociable people in their sample were twice as likely to get colds as those who were the most sociable, even though the more sociable people were likely exposed to more germs.

Such discoveries take us beyond the old debate about body-mind dualism, which explores the nature of the link between physical and mental health. There is now compelling evidence that the health risk of social isolation is equal to the risks of smoking, high blood pressure and obesity.

Hermits beward. To handle both mental and physical serious life changes such as illness, financial loss, or even loss of a mate, it seems one of the best answers is to build a broad social support network.