Author: Rich Gorecki

In my last post on the epidemic of loneliness having an impact our health and development of deeper friendships, you should know that stress also affects our relationships, especially those with our guy friends. But how? First, some brain-science Our internal social support system is based on a balance of hormones including oxytocin, which decreases anxiety levels and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system calming down responses. Oxytocin also stimulates our desire to seek out social contact and increases our sense of attachment to people who are important to us. Proper levels of oxytocin also help balance out another stress hormone called vasopressin, which is associated with fight-or-flight behaviors such as enhanced arousal, focused attention, and increased aggressive behavior. Under stress, people generate inadequate levels of oxytocin, which is needed to balance their output of vasopressin. This imbalance leads to feelings of anxiousness and loss of confidence in an ability to

In my opening post, I stated men need better friendships or what I call a “God Buddy”. This is an authentic and genuine friendship with two or three guys who can help you become a better man. So how did I lose the good friends of my younger days? Our Childhood Friends As kids, we had multiple childhood friends with whom we played baseball, and kick-the-can, and did just about everything together. We then went to middle school and on to high school with some of the same guys, likely pursuing the same girls, competing with each other, and basically getting into trouble together. Our College Buddies After high school, we went on to college where we learned some new things (both good and bad!). We made some new and different friends.  We graduated, tried to keep in contact with our fraternity brothers, and may have made a few superficial softball, bowling,