Figure out what your friend needs from you But you’re probably going to need to find some new strategies for staying close, rather than relying on what keeps you close with friends who live nearby. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that long-distance friendships can’t work. “And one around the corner is more valuable than one 100 miles away.” “Close friendships are one’s ‘shoulders to cry on,’” he says. Interactions with others is what creates intimacy, along with how many cultural dimensions you share, adds Robin Dunbar, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at University of Oxford, who studies the behavioral, cognitive and neuroendocrinological mechanisms of social bonding. “And retelling after the fact rarely captures the intensity of emotions that individuals experience in the moment.” “You don’t know exactly how your friend reacted,” Hojjat explains. Virtual lines of communication - the telephone, FaceTime, Facebook - all help keep us connected in those moments when we can’t be together, but they’re usually not the same as physically being there. But it narrows what would have been an opportunity to share in our friend’s experience, Hojjat tells NBC News BETTER. Missing those events doesn’t mean you don’t care.

When one of us moves away, both being in one another’s lives and being able to be there for one another becomes more difficult in a lot of ways because of that lack of proximity - whether it’s being there to celebrate your friend’s birthday, going to hear a band you both love, or watching his dog when he needs to leave town unexpectedly.

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