I often wonder how people who are sentenced to prison manage to deal with social relationships. In a situation like that, I would imagine people try to create social relationships with whoever is around. Even if the people they have a chance to speak to are, let's say, unsavory.
When covid started, it started to become difficult to maintain social relationships with those who were more acquaintances and less so friends. I have someone I would call a best friend though, who I've known since 11th grade, and we've maintained talking to each other a few times a week usually.
I think polarization of ideas has become a problem for everyone since covid. Or maybe since Trump. I'm not really sure. It seems like everyone wants to fight for a team, and I guess that is part of what comprises a human being. I get it, I like to play fighting games, which is by nature, zero sum.
I think the question is how does one stay sane given the nature of society with covid. Given the climate, it's hard to say anyone behaves in a sane manner anymore. I feel like playing into the zero sum game has become some sort of addiction, one that isn't quite fully understood yet.
I've always thought that the internet was some sort of new addiction that hasn't had any research into it. I remember AOL and I would be online for long periods of time, preventing my parents from using the phone since it was a 56k modem. And later in life when I had my issues with alcohol and marijuana, I saw strong parallels with my behavior with the internet.
I suppose this has gone on a tangent, but I think it's very relevant to mental health. Social contact is just a single aspect of mental health, and I think it's less necessary than one might presume. At least from my perspective, I feel like I behave saner than others who may be addicted to the internet, or god knows what.
In my opinion, I think to maintain mental health, one must practice brutal honesty, give others the benefit of the doubt, or at least a chance to correct their thinking which could be influenced by various gods that the machine creates. All of us are only human, myself included.
You sleep on an idea, really think about how involved you are in the lives of your peers, and what role you are assuming and what role you really have. And try to correct that cognitive dissonance that seems all too rampant these days.
It doesn't hurt to be optimistic about the future either. Pessimism is bad for the soul in my personal opinion, though it seems to be quite the addiction these days.