Find your tribe: The importance of community for your mental (and physical) health

Defined as ‘a friendship between different people or groups’, community has helped shape human life since the beginning of time.

But if connection is so deeply rooted in who we are, why does finding the right community feel harder than ever today?

As social beings, we are hardwired to connect, yet loneliness is becoming a growing public health issue.

In 2024, an estimated 3.1 million people in the UK reported feeling often or always lonely.

The effects of this disconnection can quietly erode our wellbeing, impacting not just our mental health, but our physical health too.

Research shows that meaningful social connections can even help us maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI), lower the risk of depression and heart disease.

They can – quite literally – add years to your life.

That feel-good factor

Forming social bonds triggers a cascade of feel-good brain chemicals.

It releases the so-called ‘bonding hormone’ oxytocin, which helps calm the nervous system and build trust.

Meanwhile, hormones dopamine and serotonin - two key mood regulators - are released when we engage in positive interactions and laugh with others.

These aren’t just fleeting feel-good moments of joy and stability, they’re also vital to our long-term mental health.

“A sense of community is the reassuring feeling of belonging, connection and mutual support that arises when people come together in a meaningful way,” says Antigone Lanitis, Clinical Lead for Adult Mental Health Services at Vitality partner, Mindler.

“When we feel a strong sense of community, we are significantly less likely to experience symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress,” she adds.

But connection doesn’t always need to be deep or intense to make a difference.

It can help us recover from life’s heavier moments and make us feel more secure in ourselves.

Even simple, everyday interactions like a chat with a colleague, small talk with your neighbour, or a shared smile with a stranger, can remind us that we're not alone.

While community doesn’t erase mental health challenges, it acts as a way to feel supported and accepted.

And who knows, you might find yourself feeling inspired to open up, seek help and begin to heal.

Community keeps you moving

What’s happening in our minds also plays out in our bodies.

Experiencing feelings of isolation raises our stress response, which can increase inflammation in the body.

So much so, it can raise the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues and even metabolic imbalances over time, studies show.

Having a supportive network has even been found to encourage positive behaviour change and help us build healthy habits, such as moving our bodies more regularly, recover more quickly from illness or injury and live longer.

In fact, research suggests that having close relationships could be as important to longevity as giving up smoking and other risk factors, including obesity and physical inactivity.

Largely this is due to fact that we’re more likely to go to our local parkrun if our friend is there, for example, or you’ll cook a more wholesome meal because you’re sharing it with someone you love.

Want to try out parkrun? You can get started here and follow the instructions to link your Vitality accounts.

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