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In a crisis, nothing's better than a girlfriend. I'm lifting this quote from Marin Magazine, because it makes the point perfectly..
Much research has been done on the effects of friendship on happiness and even lifespan. For instance, researchers at UCLA found that unlike men, when women experience stress, they go into a 'tend and befriend' mode. As one of the researchers put it, "It seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the fight or flight response and encourages her to tend to children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect.”
Interestingly, the researcher also points out that this calming response does not occur in men, because testosterone – which men produce in high levels when they are under stress – seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen seems to enhance it.
