We have all missed spending time with our friends and family during this past year, as we now come out of lockdown and can see those we love again there are also scientific reasons why we need these people in our lives, especially at a time when our anxiety has been heightened by the pandemic.

We have all been in a state of high alert since the pandemic struck, even if we are not aware of it our brain, specifically the amygdala, has been responding to the ever changing information about how worrying the threat is and how best to ensure our survival. How we process this information is made more difficult if we are already in an anxious state. 

A study in 2017 found that time spent with friends and family reduced amygdala activity, resulting in a more realistic, logical appraisal of health messages that were designed to trigger an anxiety response.

All of the participants who spent time with their ‘tribe’ were able to make a proper evaluation of the situation based on the information available to them.

When provided with deliberately negative health messages, they did not invoke the fight or flight or freeze response when they viewed them when they were with their family. 

Seeing friends and family on a video screen has helped us to stay connected but something more happens when we are in the close physical space with those we share experiences with. When we can again go to a music festival or stand in a line to go into the cinema we are well within each other’s social space and as such each person can feel the human connection in a positive and safe, unconscious way. 

We are seeking not only interaction with others but with other like-minded people. 

We are hardwired as humans to react to those nearby. We have mirror neurons that are a group of cells that are activated not only when we perform an action but also fire when we observe somebody else performing the same action. 

For example when those around us are happy and smiling, our unconscious brain tells us we’re happy and we often smile too. Evolution gave us this function for our brains to cope with the world around us, we can’t switch it off and so we can embrace how this helps us to enjoy the company of others. 

Some of us may be feeling apprehensive about socialising again as we have got out of the habit and our brains have told us that staying indoors is what has kept us safe. However, if we can remind ourselves that for evolutionary purposes our survival also requires us to interact with like minded people to help us make better assessments of situations and life circumstances, producing chemicals that make us feel good then going to the pub, garden, musical event with friends is a small step to helping us to feel more human again.