Coping With Mental Health

Mental Health is a topic that has affected me personally as a partner to my Wife who has suffered with Mental health issues for a few years now. There are ways to cope and deal with mental health issues and they range from drugs and counselling to other therapies which help to relieve the stress and frustration with being afflicted with a mental health problem.

For the most part though the person suffering from mental health problems feel isolated as my Wife has often said in the past that no one believes her about the things she hears or has heard and this problem can get worse over time without the intervention of Drugs to balance out the complex chemically unbalanced structure of the human brain and also without counselling through a managed support network that is ongoing then mental health problems do and will reoccur or resurface.

Coping strategies for people with Mental Health Issues

Your Doctor or GP should be the first point of contact and recognizing that there is a problem is the first step in the coping process as no one knows that whatever mental illness they have is going to be long or short term it's best to be prepared for a more long term coping structure of medication combined with counselling and even peer group support that could be meeting others who are going through or have gone through the same mental health problems and how they coped with it in their life.

Your Doctor may refer you to a Psychologist who will make a diagnosis of the mental condition whether it's a temporary form of Psychosis or a more long term illness like Schizophrenia. As well as having professional medical support it is good to have Family support too, in the case of my Wife I took over everything, taking the kids to School, picking them up, Shopping etc and I also made sure I picked up her medication perscriptions from the Pharmacy too which were little things that helped her not have to deal with and plus, she didn't feel like going outside for a few months anyway due to her ongoing mental health condition.

 Understanding that you or a family member has a mental illness is the first step as you can then follow up on finding out the help and support that is out there that could help such as groups which consist of others who have gone through the same thing to also provide an outlet to discuss how they over came their condition or how they are living with it. Knowing that you are not alone can be a comforting way of trying to live a normal life through counselling and lots of other support structures.

 It's important to see your Doctor and make sure that any Psychosis or Psychotic episodes are treated with medication which usually helps balance the chemicals within the brain and often it takes a good amount of time until you will have to be reviewed to see if you are safe to come off your medication and that's why follow up appointments with your GP and any other department is so important as mental health problems can escalate if not treated. The person who is going through any mental health issue may not be in the right mind to make a firm decision so it will be up to a family member to seek help.

Anyone who is suffering with ill health in the mind need not be ashamed of it as it could happen to anyone and certain elements of mental health could be stress related so it makes sense to deal with matters as soon as possible.

Image Source - Mental Hospital