Finding mental illness support by creating a group of friends who will support you can make your journey easier. Even if you’ve consciously chosen your inner circle and they've accepted the invitation to support you, however, your work likely isn’t done. Often, friends and family can offer what they think is supportive behavior but it isn’t really supportive for you. Sometimes these people are unintentionally harmful.
Relationship
How should you respond when a friend talks to you about his mental health support needs? Those who receive this invitation may feel some mixed emotions, so I'd like to address those feelings. You can handle requests for the mental health support needs of your friends in different ways.
I recently described the mental health benefits of surrounding yourself with a tribe of friends. However, how do we know who belongs in that tribe? Sometimes the people around us can be toxic or perhaps just not supportive. I’ve taken years to carefully craft my circle, so I wanted to share some of the criteria I use.
Loneliness and isolation can tear apart your happiness, but you can prevent it. I work as a peer specialist and I often hear people concerned about feeling lonely or isolated (Mental Illness Is an Isolating and Lonely Disease). Today, I want to share three tips that have helped prevent loneliness and isolation in my life.
A mother’s life can be full of bliss. All mothers share many of the same events in life. The difference, for some, is the attitude in which motherhood is approached. For some, the sound of a baby's cry, a toddler's whining or a teenager's grumbling is difficult and frustrating. But for others, the baby's cry is a sign they need you, the toddler's whine is a sign of growth and the teenager's grumbling is a time to teach. You can find bliss in your life as a mother by learning from each of these five stages of your child's life.
Do you wonder if you suffer codependency? Are you dependent on someone or something else that is undependable? Are your identity, value and purpose dependent on the approval someone else? If so, you qualify as codependent. The good news is that you can lose codependence and win your independence.
A toxic relationship can be defined in many ways. In essence, it is a form of emotional abuse played out by someone with whom you are in a relationship. As result of being subjected to this behavior, it may trigger fear, uneasiness, unhappiness, depression, or even posttraumatic stress disorder. Being in a toxic relationship is unhealthy, a leech on your spirit and in every way an obstacle to living a blissful life.
What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting? ~ George Eliot, Adam Bede
Happiest Places
On the backdrop of the beautiful Caribbean ocean, I want to share a reflection on relationships. The popularized tagline of Disneyland is "The Happiest Place On Earth." For many Disneyland may very well be, but, consider something much deeper like the space between you and another, especially close relationships. Eric Weiner, the author of the book The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, observed, “the happiest places on earth are not internal ones. They are not geographical ones. It’s the places between us and the closer they are the more at ease we are the happier they tend to be.”
In the garden of friendship is where we cultivate love. Choose your friends wisely and the love that grows will be a blessing. ~Unknown
Choosing Friends: Friends Affect Your Life
What affect have your friends had on your life? Does your attitude improve when you are with them? Do they reinforce your goals? Are you inspired by the lives they lead?
Do you feel accepted by others? Are those in your life supportive? Do you have a strong inner circle of friends? When life has you down, do those you thought would have your back come through? Do you have an authentic sense of belonging?