Medical Doctor and Relationship Coach, Dr. Isaac Newman Arthur, has revealed how difficult it is for men to make and maintain friends.

According to him, it all depends on the extent to which the goals are achieved, how close the friends are and the kind of friendship they share.

In an interview with Nana Yaw Odame on etv Ghana’s Men’s Lounge show, he said, “So there are three levels of relationships and it cuts across. The first is what we call the crowd, they are the people who know you to some extent but there’s not much going on between you two. They just know you by name and don’t have any significant role or interaction with you.”

Secondly, he mentioned that there are acquaintances who are a bit closer to you than the crowd because they know you, have some level of relationship with you but it’s more like an official relationship and you only meet once a while and it ends there.

“The other closer relationship is the friend. You spend a bit more time with them, interact with them more, understand them, they understand you, you share something a bit deeper with them,” he disclosed.

Moving on, he added that there is also the innermost circle of your relationship and those are called the intimates.

“These are the besties, the very close friends who know virtually everything about you. Including your weaknesses, strengths everything. People like that are there just because it’s you not what you’ve done or what you’ll do it’s just you. For men to get to that level of friendship it takes a lot of time,” he emphasized.

He explained that this is because men are thoughtful of who they let into their circle because they really don’t open up easily.

“If a man opens up to you it means he’s really evaluated you for a long time and knows that whatever vulnerability is being exposed will actually be more beneficial than what is exposed. It takes a while to get there as a man and for our hearts to follow someone as a man is difficult,” he revealed.