Social Relationships, Health, and Happiness
My two lessons (1) Not all relationships are good. A 2008 study in Social Science & Medicine that she co-authored found that people with chronic illnesses actually had a lower mortality rate if they had negative—or at least more demanding—relationships with family members (2) Continuums rock! The decades of research that Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues examined showed that in fact social support and survival operate on a continuum: “The greater the extent of the relationships, the lower the risk,” she says.
