How To Help A Friend Struggling With Their Mental Health

When a loved one is struggling it can be a time of readjustment for everyone. Being there and wanting to help already means you are helping. Sometimes just knowing that you’re not alone can help somebody with mental illness immensely.

If you are desperate to help but unsure where to begin here are some useful tips on things you could try and do.

Are you not fully informed on mental illness and what it means for your friend? A really great first step in helping your friend is to find out more about it. Having a better understanding of mental illness will help you better understand what they’re going through. 

The best way to understand a subject is to research it and ask a lot of questions. With depression and anxiety, asking questions is critical because each person’s experience is so different. Chances are that your friend is not going to voluntarily cough up the information that you need, because they feel too ashamed of the symptoms and afraid they will be judged.

Some questions to consider:

You know your sister, friend, brother, or father better than most mental health professionals, so help them solve the riddle of their symptoms. Together consider what could be at the root of it: physiologically, emotionally, or spiritually. Where is the disconnect?

If your friend feels like talking, ask them how they’re doing. Try asking questions like, “What can I do to help?” and “What do you find helpful?” When you want to bring up a sensitive issue with a friend, try to choose a time and place when you’re both comfortable and relaxed. It’s a good idea to avoid talking to them about it if they’re upset.

If someone is suffering from a mental illness, it isn’t possible for them just to ‘snap out of it’, ‘cheer up’ or ‘forget about it’. When you listen to them and validate their feelings by saying things like ‘That must be really hard’ or ‘I’m here when you want to talk’, they’ll know you’re taking their feelings seriously. 

It doesn’t matter what the illness is, a person needs support in her or his life to fully recover: people with whom they can vent and swap horror stories, people who are going through something similar and can remind them that they are not alone even though their symptoms make them feel that way.

Research shows that support groups aid the recovery of a person struggling with depression and decrease chances of relapse

“You won’t always feel this way.” A simple statement of truth that holds the most powerful healing element of all, hope. As a friend or family member, your hardest job is to get your friend or brother or dad or sister to have hope again: to believe that they will get better. Once their heart is there, their mind and body will follow shortly.

It can be incredibly frustrating, exhausting and upsetting to deal with someone who is experiencing mental illness. You can only be there to support someone if you look after yourself first. Remember to do the following to make sure your own wellbeing is looked after.