Supporting your loved ones

Watching your loved ones go through any kind of illness is hard to difficult and heartbreaking. You feel helpless in a situation that you only want to make better. What can you do to support your loved ones? Its a difficult question and I've been asked it a lot recently and to be honest there really isn't one direct answer to it. All I can do is explain what support helped me and how it helped. If you look at this picture, this is really what depression can look like. Smiles, laughs and apparent happiness. This was taken on a good weekend but one that was also fuelled with alcohol at night time and bad decisions. A common mistake I was and still am good at making. Alcohol consumption was one of my signs. I have spoken about that in a previous post but again it is to highlight that perhaps despite it being silly of me, it was almost self destruction. What advice I can give to you is that if you have a loved one going through any kind of mental health issue, the most important thing you can do is be there. Help them to be able to believe in themselves again, make sure they are getting up in the morning no matter how hard it is (at least that helped for me, perhaps not in all cases), encourage them to come out places, even wee public places to start with but most of all be there to listen to them, even if you have nothing to say back. Being there is one of the best medicines you can give to someone because it shows that you are believing in them. You are there for them and you can tell them during the bad days that 'you will get there, you are stronger and braver than you believe.' It's also important to remember that these things don't happen overnight, it can seem like it's taking forever but with your trust and belief in who they are as a person they will see it through. Sometimes providing them help and encouraging to call helplines or go to counselling is what people need. And the benefits they could perhaps find from it. I really believe that having a good support system is at the heart of recovery. I certainly wouldn't have seen this through without mine. No one should ever have to feel alone.