The importance of social interaction

It is okay to have depression, it is okay to have anxiety, and it is okay to have an adjustment disorder. We need to improve the conversation. We all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health.

Prince Harry

So, last week’s tongue in cheek article caused a bit of a storm! I like getting feedback, I like constructive criticism, genuinely I do so, thank you to everyone that got in touch and a sincere apology to all those I offended by outing their sexual ineptitude 😊

This week I thought I’d stick to something tongue out of cheek. I found an interesting article in a magazine I was reading about mental health, something that has become increasingly pertinent to me over the last twelve months.

For a long time now there been concern about the effect of social isolation and loneliness on mental health. These fears have intensified as we approach a full year of COVID-19 related social distancing regulations which have fundamentally changed the social lives of many people globally. It has been a unique period of enforced isolation from which many may have suffered, but we have also turned to new technologies, (if you’ve been following the blog, you’ll know I turned to something called “Youper” something I’ve found particularly helpful!), and new ways of keeping in contact with others to cushion the effect of this isolation.

In a recent study published on the Cambridge Core platform, researchers wanted to test whether both the quality and quantity of social relationships during the first UK lockdown affected mental health. They aimed to examine whether keeping in contact with others virtually by phone and video calls had helped, and whether particular groups had suffered from the effects of the disruption to our relationships. This caught my eye as, having bought a couple of elderly relatives tablets last summer, then spending hours getting them set up and using things like Zoom, I was keen to see if the time taken to set them up had been valuable in any way.

They used the information gathered by the Covid-19 Social Study for which over 70,000 UK adults completed weekly questionnaires between March and August 2020 – many continue to reply to these on a now monthly basis. These questionnaires asked about their changing daily lives, including social, financial, emotional and health circumstances.

They found that people who reported having good quality supportive relationships with others had a hugely reduced risk of reporting major symptoms of depression. The most supported had 85%(!!) lower chance of depression than the least supported, even taking into account the amount of time those different groups actually spent with people. This suggests that the quality of relationships may make a huge difference.

The amount of time spent in social contact with others was important, but less so. Having daily face-to-face contact between March and August 2020 gave a 29% lower depression risk than those who had no face-to-face contact. Phone and video calls also seemed to help, with daily virtual conversations giving a 18% lower depression risk, even in the absence of face-to-face interaction. Finally, when they checked if particular groups were at high risk, we found that those who had previously been more socially active and those with a greater tendency towards empathy were the most hard-hit by social isolation.

Their findings reinforce the mental health benefits of frequent and good quality social contact with others. This adds to the evidence that there are physical health benefits and even lower dementia risk from spending time with others. From what I see at work, and I type this with crossed fingers but with optimism in my heart, things are getting easier however, clearly we still face several more months of social restrictions and sticking to this is clearly essential to save lives and bring an end to the pandemic. However, there may be things we can do to help our and others’ mental health over the coming months. The Cambridge study suggests that the quality of our relationships may matter more than the quantity, so building supportive relationships may be possible despite the need to keep physical distance. Phone calls and even Zoom quizzes may help to maintain mental health in the absence of spending time face-to-face with others. These are measures we can take now to reduce the risk of a double pandemic arising from social isolation, and are lessons we can take forward to the post-COVID society.

I was delighted to read this and thinking about it, the quality of the relationships I have with my aunty Mary and Auntie Anne Marie has certainly improved so, the time taken to get them set up has not only benefited their mental health, it’s benefited mine also – Time well spent then!

What’s on this week?