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The mentally strong survive and do very well on their own - happy with themselves.
Not everyone is "mentally strong", though.
In my post (couple pages ago) I stipulated
that some people are more in need/want of relationship(s),
and that some people are less in need/want of relationship(s).
It's nice to know you are handling solitude well, better than some of us folks.
However, a goodly number of people (including myself) don't cope well at all with isolation.
My only point is that it (how much contact one desires/requires "to feel okay") is different for everyone.
I'm not sure about the lack of a romantic relationship and the effects on ones mental health status but I do know when a romantic relationship heads south it has a dramatic effect on a persons mental status. I would say its a case by case basis. I know 2 people one a guy in his 40s and a woman in her 70s that have never had a SO and they are not asexual but live a normal happy life.
This is true. When cheating is added to the equation, it can cause one's self-esteem to plummet.
I know that humans are social animals but how necessary are or how do intimate relations supplement the mental well being of a person? Are non-intimate relations enough, or is there a real detriment to the physiology of the brain due to a lack of intimacy?
Are the wants and desires of lonely people legitimate or are they due to social conditioning ?
All human beings have a fundamental, natural, innate need to love and be loved IMO, and both romantically and non-romantically. Also, romantic love itself is not necessarily so much about the intimacy alone, but more (at least for me individually anyway) the *feeling* of actually being loved, by another, having their heart, love, and affection, and knowing that they truly care about and have feelings of real tenderness, for me.
Even the strongest non-romantic, biological and familial love cannot replace a genuine romantic love...
I think relationships are necessary, though not necessarily romantic ones. Even in the church with Catholic priests there are interpersonal relationships among the congregants with the priests and among the clerics themselves. And a person can have intimate relationships with others (think of what a confessor hears or most persons in the helping professions) without being physically connected with another. Bottom line, I don't think romantic relationships are necessary, but a relationship at most any level (as opposed to living as an automaton or in solitude) is necessary for mental health. No person is an island.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orangeapple
I think for some people it's necessary to be truly happy. I don't think it's necessary for psychological health though. Individual needs vary, and some are content without romantic intimacy.
I think it's become something of a taboo to admit you NEED love & other people, which is sad to me. It's as if people who are healthy should be above love & relationships, as if a detached self-fulfillment is somehow the mark of a healthy person. I find that warped. There is no shame in needing love & other people, be it friendship or romance.
Personally, I am not as happy or healthy when single. I have a need for the emotional, mental & physical intimacy that only a romantic relationship can fill.
But a BAD relationship can possibly be much more worse than lack of one, as far as healthiness & happiness goes.
I agree.
I think that if you look at one psychologically healthy person, during a year when they are in a relationship and during another year when they are not, you will probably find them, in the case of most people, just as healthy both times. (Or maybe worse off when in or recently out of a bad relationship.) I think for most people it's not a major influence on their emotional health.
But I think that going through a lifetime and never having a serious relationship -- that is a problem. Maybe not for your individual health, but it's a barrier to understanding and connecting with your fellow human beings.
Of course some people might say this is true for those of us who don't have kids, too .
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