Helping Those We Love With Mental Illness

I read for a lot of clients who have someone in their life dealing with some type of mental illness, whether temporary or permanent. While I am not a doctor, and always advise that my clients seek proper medical advice for both psychical and mental ailments. It can still be tough to deal with in the moment, and my clients come to me looking for some type of help and healing, so I want to be able to provide that.

Below are my suggestions for how to help and heal yourself and others while dealing with those close to you who are have or are going through mental illness.

You Can’t Control It – The emotions can feel really bad, and all you want to do to help them or fix it and make them happy and whole again. One thing you need to understand is you can only help so much and you can’t control everything. If the person refuses to go for help, or is taking actions that aren’t helpful and even hurting themselves and others you need to let go. When I read for clients, I usually can pick up on this theme if it is important to their reading, and I always note that the journey and situation is always about how my client can heal and learn. So first step is to accept you can’t control the outcome just your actions and reactions.

Not A Reflection On You – It can be particularly hurtful or painful when you see a parent go through a mentally trying time. Sometimes it has to do with older age other times it’s something they’ve been struggling with since you were a child. Sometimes their feelings and thoughts on a situation are projected onto you, where they can blame you or make you feel belittled or bad about certain things. This is a reaction to how they feel not how you actually are so you need to separate the two. When I read for my clients many times I can see how a parent’s mental illness can have a huge negative psychological affect on the child, even a grown up one who still struggles with self-love and confidence because of the past. One thing you can do to help heal yourself and the situation is to separate and create boundaries of thought. Be aware their reflection of you is not who you are, and challenge yourself when you hear statements that don’t ring true or feel good to how you see yourself.

Understanding and Compassion – It might be really tough but the most and true gift you can give anyone is compassion and understanding. If you can try to put yourself in their shoes it can sometimes make things make more sense. We’re not trying to justify someone’s behavior or excuse it even if there are mental issues at play, but it can make things easier to swallow and understand from a logical perspective.

Practice Peace, Love, and Forgiveness – As light beings on this planet, the best thing you can be and give to the world is peace and love. We forgive not for others but for ourselves and our development, so do what you can to get yourself to that place. Journal, do meditation exercises, or anything else to help you on your journey. Understanding mental illness is what someone has not who they are can help separate things and make it better and healthier for you as you continue to use and understand all experience are here for a reason and teach us a lesson we can learn from.