Women’s friendships can strengthen mental health, psychologist says

By Ahmet Taş | Wise News Press

ISTANBUL, Türkiye — Friendships built on trust, empathy and mutual emotional support can help women cope with stress and loneliness, while critical or demeaning relationships may instead increase psychological strain, a clinical psychologist says.

Clinical Psychologist Ipek Erol of Üsküdar University NPİSTANBUL Hospital said friendships can become an important source of social support in adulthood, particularly when people feel safe enough to discuss difficult experiences and emotions.

Erol also stressed that friendship should not be treated as a substitute for professional mental health care. Persistent anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms or a marked decline in daily functioning may require support from a qualified mental health professional.

Friendships can meet important emotional needs in adulthood

Human beings begin developing their sense of trust, belonging and emotional regulation through relationships from the earliest stages of life, Erol said.

While these processes initially develop through relationships with caregivers, adulthood brings a wider network of emotional connections. Friendships can become one of the relationships through which people seek understanding, belonging and emotional security.

For women in particular, friendships that allow feelings to be expressed openly can play an important role during periods of stress, major life changes or personal difficulties.

Talking through an experience with someone trusted may help a person organize repetitive thoughts, regulate emotions and view a situation from a more balanced perspective.

The value of the friendship, however, comes not simply from having someone available to talk to, but from feeling heard, respected and emotionally safe within the relationship.

Trusted friends may make stress easier to manage

Psychological resilience does not depend only on individual personality traits, according to Erol. The quality of a person’s social support network can also influence how they respond to difficult periods.

Empathic listening, emotional sharing and the feeling of being accepted are common features of supportive friendships and may provide a protective function during periods of intense stress.

“Social support is considered one of the important protective factors in relation to depression and anxiety,” Erol said.

Having a trusted friend can make it easier to share an emotional burden and may also reduce the perception of being alone with a problem.

Erol noted that safe social interactions may have physiological effects as well, including processes associated with stress regulation and feelings of safety.

Still, these benefits cannot be assumed in every friendship. The presence of a relationship alone does not necessarily mean that it is psychologically healthy.

Not every friendship supports mental health

The quality of a friendship is as important as its existence, Erol said.

Relationships characterized by constant criticism, belittling, comparison or repeated feelings of worthlessness may increase psychological pressure rather than provide emotional protection.

A healthy friendship allows both people to feel respected and accepted without having to constantly prove their value.

Friendships may also become harder to establish in adulthood.

During childhood, relationships can form naturally through school, neighborhoods, games and shared activities. Adults often have less time and fewer opportunities to meet new people because of work, family responsibilities and daily obligations.

Previous disappointments or breaches of trust may also make people more cautious when building new relationships.

At the same time, friendships developed later in life can sometimes become deeper and more enduring because people approach relationships more selectively and with a clearer understanding of their own needs and boundaries.

Social media can intensify comparison between women

Social media adds another dimension to friendship and self-esteem.

Erol referred to Social Comparison Theory, which describes people’s natural tendency to evaluate themselves in relation to others.

Comparison itself is not necessarily harmful. It can become more psychologically difficult when a person’s sense of self-worth depends heavily on outside approval.

Women may face social expectations related to appearance, youth, motherhood, career success, romantic relationships and caregiving roles. When these standards are presented competitively, women may feel that they are being measured against one another.

Social media can intensify the effect by repeatedly displaying highly selected versions of other people’s lives — professional achievements, relationships, travel, family moments or idealized appearances.

When another person’s success begins to feel threatening, Erol said, the underlying issue may be less about the other person and more about how someone experiences their own self-worth.

Healthy friendships can counter that competitive dynamic by making room for cooperation, mutual encouragement and the ability to celebrate each other’s progress.

Healthy friendships also require boundaries

Being able to turn to a close friend during a difficult period can provide valuable emotional support, but no friendship has unlimited capacity to carry another person’s emotional burden.

If conversations repeatedly revolve around the same problem or one person is consistently expected to absorb the other’s distress, the balance of the relationship can begin to deteriorate.

Healthy friendships therefore require boundaries as well as support.

Friends should be able to communicate when they are tired, need personal space or do not currently have the emotional capacity for a difficult conversation.

Such boundaries should not automatically be interpreted as rejection. In many cases, they can help preserve a relationship by ensuring that care remains mutual rather than becoming emotionally one-sided.

Erol said empathy, reciprocity and the ability to grow together without constant competition are among the strongest qualities of supportive friendships.

Friendship and psychotherapy serve different purposes

Close friendships can be an important part of emotional well-being, but Erol emphasized that friendship and psychotherapy have fundamentally different roles.

A friend shares daily life, offers companionship and can listen during difficult moments. A psychologist or psychotherapist works within a professional framework informed by scientific knowledge, clinical training and ethical standards.

“A friend is someone who walks beside you in life; a psychologist accompanies psychological processes within scientific and ethical boundaries,” Erol said.

Professional support becomes particularly important when anxiety becomes severe, depressive symptoms persist, trauma symptoms emerge or emotional difficulties begin to significantly interfere with work, education, family life or other daily activities.

Likewise, thoughts of self-harm or suicide should not be managed solely through informal support from friends and require urgent professional assessment and appropriate care.

The distinction does not diminish the importance of friendship. Instead, it highlights that different relationships meet different emotional and psychological needs.

The quality of connection matters more than the number of friends

The positive effects associated with women’s friendships do not depend simply on having a large social circle or meeting frequently.

Trust, empathy, reciprocity, emotional safety and respect for personal boundaries appear to be more meaningful indicators of whether a friendship provides support.

A person may have a small number of close friends and still experience a strong sense of belonging, while another person may have a large social network but continue to feel isolated or emotionally unsupported.

For women navigating work pressures, family responsibilities, changing relationships and social expectations, reliable friendships can provide an important space for being heard without judgment.

At the same time, recognizing unhealthy patterns, reducing constant comparison and respecting emotional boundaries can help prevent friendships from becoming an additional source of stress.

Ultimately, supportive friendship can be an important part of mental well-being — not because friends are expected to solve each other’s problems, but because trusted relationships can give people a safer place to share, reflect and feel less alone.

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