How To Be The Best Support Possible For A Partner with Mental Health Issues
When someone you care about is struggling with a mental illness, there is nothing more heartbreaking than watching them suffer alone in the darkness. Untreated mental health issues affect as many as 75% of people. Mental illness affects approximately one in four people. Therefore, when interacting with a person who is experiencing depression, anxiety, or a variety of other mental health issues, it is absolutely vital that you step up and become the person they require you to be. Here’s how to help someone special when they’re feeling down.
Take it seriously.
The worst thing you can do to someone with a mental health problem is to brush it off or tell them to cheer up. There is a significant gap between having a sense of despair within yourself and actually being depressed, and the reasons for depression are not always easy to pinpoint. So, don’t ask them why they are sad when everything seems to be going well in their lives, and don’t make them feel bad about how they feel. They do this already. Both depression and anxiety can have a variety of potential origins, including things that have happened to the person who suffers from them. Telling someone to “cheer up” when they are in pain is the last thing they need to hear.
Learn to recognize a call for help
Fear of being judged or questioned when they don’t want to talk about their mental health is a common reason why people with mental health issues keep it to themselves. Occasionally, they may act strangely, but this is usually an attempt to get your attention. It’s not uncommon for people who are being abused to try and cry for help. If this is the case here, encourage them to go to rehab centers like Alpine Academy Utah abuse.
There may be other signs of distress, such as self-harm, unusual behavior, personality shifts, or even the unexpected sale of a car or home. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, try to talk to them about their problems.
Encourage them to seek assistance.
If you want to help a friend or family member, you should insist that they visit their doctor. The response that people most frequently give is that they do not wish to take antidepressants and that this choice is entirely up to them. But just because a patient is depressed doesn’t mean that their doctor will give them a prescription for medicine and tell them to move on with their lives. In fact, just the opposite is true. Depression can be treated with more than just pills. There are also regular visits to the doctor, counselling, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and even making changes to their lifestyle to see if that helps. Having a basic understanding of how antidepressants work will be helpful as well. They help restore the chemical imbalance in your brain that is the root cause of your sadness and depression. They don’t ignore the issue, but instead focus on finding a solution. Find out as much as you can about all of the options so that you can try to convince your partner to go to the doctor.
