What they need:
- A shoulder to cry on
- A person to lean on
- A person(s) to listen to them
- Words of encouragement
- Support when seeking professional help
- Advice and kind guidance
- Understanding and empathy
- Support when taking medication
- Patience and compassion
- Information, tips and tricks for helping themselves cope
- A friend they know is there – a call or text or visit away when they’re overwhelmed
- Education (for them and for others to understand them better)
- Therapy options that aren’t limited
- Support groups for likeminded people
- To be told they’re ill, they have an illness, but they are NOT their illness
- Given alternative/ holistic healing methods to try for themselves – yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, acupuncture, massage, etc.
- A self care routine that’s there for them, a people to support them with this routine – reading, walking outside, baths, time out, naps, body care, decluttering, exercise, etc.
- Given a potential way out, and given reminders that help is there, coping is possible, and life can be lived
What they don’t need:
- “You’ll be fine.”
- “Are you trying to get better?”
- “It’s just in your head.”
- “You’re being weak and dramatic.”
- To be told they’re seeking attention
- To be told to get over it
- To be called crazy
- To be shunned
- For friends to forget about them
- For people to baby them and patronise them
- “You need to be on meds.”
- “You shouldn’t take medication.”
- Your judgment
- Your ridicule
- For you to add to their suffering
- Impatience and frustration
- Misunderstanding, ignorance, and assumptions
- You to be afraid of them
- “You’re too emotional”
- “You’re insane. You should be hospitalised.”
- To be told they’re not ill. That it’s not a real illness or problem.
If you need any help in bettering your mental health, or better coping with anxiety, depression, and stress, then my book “You’re As Mad As I Am” may be for you. Check it out here, and download a free sample to see what it’s all about.
If you want to hire me to write about mental health (or other), then don’t hesitate to get in touch!
S. R. Crawford 