Why old friends are often the best kind of friends
There’s just something about the friends we may have from childhood. They were the people who were there as we progressed through our school years, adolescence and into becoming young (and then older) adults. They’ve seen us navigate the minefield of teenage-hood and new relationships, watched as we’ve developed a career path and cheered us on as we set and then achieve our goals. Now research has backed up the idea that our long-term friendships actually carry different psychological significance to other types of friendship.
Researchers at The Cleveland Clinic in the US have been studying different forms of friendship and their impact on our psychological health and wellbeing and have found that strong social connectedness with the friends we have from our childhood could potentially lead to more happiness and increased wellbeing as adults.
There are a variety of other reasons why our childhood friendships are so meaningful. Here are 5 things only our childhood friends can understand and how they shaped us into who we are today.
- Childhood friends teach us about trust – Our younger friendships create our friendship habits this includes learning what it means to trust and be trusted, something that doesn’t always come easily as adults.
- They intimately know our strengths and weaknesses – Our childhood friends understand our likes and dislikes and personality quirks because they were around when we started developing those qualities. Most importantly, they accept us regardless.
- They push us out of a comfort zone – Whether it’s taking off training wheels or applying for an MBA, no one pushes us outside our comfort zone like our oldest friends and we are all the better for it.
- They know our family dynamics – Childhood friends have a unique insight into our family relationships and it’s this knowledge that can make these bonds both strong and unique.
- Bonding experiences were different – When it all boils down, there’s a different kind of friendship that forms when you navigate all that ‘growing up’ entails together. We share our developmental experience and that helps create strongly binding memories for the long term.
Have you remained friends with those you grew up with?
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