We all need friends. Friendships make us healthier and help us live longer, but the older you get the harder they are to come by.
That‘s what a survey by Evite found in asking 2,000 adults.
Roughly half of all adults say they haven’t made a new friend in the past five years, and Houston psychotherapist Dr. Lawrence Abrams says the reasons given are all excuses. “Everybody has anxiety about anything new. So what we have in all these answers about why don’t make friends are excuses for what we feel are our inadequacies.”
Shyness is at the top of the list. (42%%) One third say it’s because other people already have a circle of friends and they don’t want to be an interloper. One third say it’s because they don’t go to bars. Evidently that’s where they think friends come from.
29% adopt the excuse of family commitments, 28% say their hobbies are solo ventures, and 21% say they’ve just moved to a new city.
“I think you have to learn other people have the same problems. You have to believe that to understand other people are just like you,” says Dr. Lawrence.
The average adult has 16 current, active friendships. Three of those tend to be lifelong friends.