In the past several decades, Americans have
increasingly relied on their romantic partners to fulfill their intimate
needs.
We’ve turned to our partners for
economic survival needs, emotional support and connection, and for facilitating
our personal growth.
We expect all of
this to come from
one person.
This intense reliance on just one other person can be problematic. Most likely, our romantic partner can meet some of our expectations, but not all. In addition, more and more Americans don’t live with a partner or a spouse for large portions of their lives. People marry later and many divorce or separate. In fact, according to a recent Pew Research Center report, 42 percent of American adults are unpartnered. This can pose a dilemma. Society has encouraged us to depend on our romantic partners to meet our intimate needs, but many of us are without a partner, meaning we often have no one to turn to. Indeed, there is a worrying increase in loneliness amongst adults in this country, enough that the Surgeon General has called it a public-health crisis. And the coronavirus pandemic has only made matters worse. Over the past year, levels of depression and anxiety have risen dramatically. Social isolation is a big causative factor. Friendships can serve as an antidote to this growing crisis.