TORONTO -- After more than 1.5 years of isolation, some people are starting to reconnect with friends they haven鈥檛 seen in a long time.
That pandemic pause may have put friendships under strain, but there are healthy ways to press reset, Montreal-based clinical psychologist Anna Maria Tosco told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Wednesday.
鈥淎 lot of us feel quite distant from our friends and a little bit detached,鈥 said Tosco, a psychologist with the Montreal Center for Anxiety and Depression. 鈥淐OVID has been so hard, but in truth it鈥檚 also provided us with a moment for reflection.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e ready for re-entry into the social world right now, if you鈥檙e good to go out and see friends, please do so,鈥 she said. 鈥淒on鈥檛 feel guilty about minimal contact or lack of contact during COVID.鈥
And if you don鈥檛 want to see friends, that鈥檚 OK too, she said, just don鈥檛 ghost them. It鈥檚 better to decline invitations, or limit your time with those people.
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Good friendships are based on reciprocity, conflict resolution and flexibility, she said.
鈥淎 lot of us like the status quo, but people change,鈥 Tosco said. 鈥淧eople move, people change jobs, people get remarried. So we want someone who can walk beside us during these times and not hold us back, or feel angry, or bitter that things are changing.鈥
And if you have friends who really resonate with you, those are the ones you want to keep close, Tosco said.
