It's Important to Have Friends

Reflections in adulthood on being a friend.

The Frontier Psychiatrists is a daily health-themed newsletter. It's written by Owen Scott Muir, M.D., a child and adult psychiatrist. He works on this Substack, RAMHT2024, at Fermata and Acacia Clinics as well as iRxReminder, and has some good consulting gigs with friends at Magnus Medical, Outro Health, and others. This column isn’t about work; it’s about friends.

When you're a kid, and I have two of them, friends are part of the landscape. You go to school, and you learn things, but most of what you think about is your friendships. Kids have a best friend, often. A lot of energy goes into deciding who your best friend is if you're lucky. When I say if you're lucky, it's because if you have a difficult decision about who your best friend is, it means you have more than one. Friends are a part of the landscape through grade school, high school, and college, because there are people around that you can bump into. Some of them? You're going to like. Some of them are going t…