NEVER mind seven pints of lager or a couple of valium. The next time you feel the world is getting you down, go and see your best friend.

Research suggests that being in their company reduces stress levels.

Maybe this is why a survey says most adults have, on average, 26 close friends. Build up a huge friendship base and you might be never be depressed again.

But hang on. Twenty six close friends? Who actually has 26 close friends? Who qualifies to be in this elite but apparently ever expanding band of brothers and sisters?

A chum once said that a close friend was someone you would help under any circumstance without a second thought. He was right. Someone else said: “A friend in need is a flaming nuisance” and I wouldn’t want to be a close friend of his.

I have many acquaintances, quite a few friends but far fewer close friends. So where do people get 26 from? Facebook?

That’s the easiest way except, of course, it isn’t real. Just look at the way it works.

You start with a handful of contacts with whom you think it might be an easy way to stay in touch. You list Fred and, before you know it, Facebook sends you a list of Fred’s friends and suggests that, because you know him, you might want to be friends with them. Want to ask them?

The temptation is to click yes because there is the cache of having loads of Facebook chums.

“I have 723 friends on Facebook,” you might proudly boast.

“Really?” your one real friend might ask.

“Er. No, actually. They’re mainly virtual friends that I’ve never met. They are, in fact, friends of friends.”

This is like saying Barack Obama is my friend by virtue of the six degrees of separation. On the same basis, I could claim to know all six billion people in the world.

Don’t know about the six degrees of separation? This is the theory that everyone on the planet is only six introductions or less away from anyone else on the planet. Let me show you how it works: I know Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman (who happens to be a very nice bloke). He knows Tony Blair (no comment) who knows Barack Obama. Done it in three.

I’m also equally at home with the Beckhams. How? Through Jamie and Louise Redknapp, of course. I’m a chum of Examiner Sports Editor Mel Booth who knows Neil Warnock who knows Harry Redknapp who is the father and father-in-law of Jamie and Louise who are friends of Posh and Becks.

Me and Becks? Just like that. At five connections removed. But I wouldn’t exactly say we were best mates.

But close friends? They are a bit more special.

How many do you have?