Shame, stigma, and stereotypes often get in the way of a family member, friend, or parent taking a necessary step toward helping their loved one. There are assumptions about a loved one’s behaviors, attitudes, and mental health instead of actual facts. Often, the symptoms of addiction, alcoholism, and other mental health disorders can be confused with negative traits like recklessness, disobedience, adolescence, attitude problems, or drama. Writing off symptoms is minimizing a greater power. If someone you love is acting out of the ordinary look into what you observe, not just past it. Knowledge is power when it comes to mental illness and recovery. Upon learning that your loved one might be struggling with a mental health disorder, it is imperative to become well versed in their mental illness and also what is required for recovery.
Mental health should be treated no differently than physical health, yet it mostly is. When someone is diagnosed with a serious physical illness, there is much research done. Expediently, family members find out the most effective form of treatment to rid their loved ones of their affliction as soon as possible. If the situation is life-threatening, everything stops to ensure their loved one’s survival. Addiction, alcoholism, and eating disorders can be fatal mental illnesses. Other mental illnesses can lead to a severely impaired quality of life, health complications, and an increased risk of suicide. Mental illness cannot be underestimated.
Recovering from a mental illness does not mean that your loved one is forever freed from the bondages which have hurt them for some time. Recovery means learning to live with their diagnosis, but not having to live as their diagnosis. There are rates of remission in which the symptoms are greatly reduced. However, with mental illness, there is always a chance of relapse. From addiction to depression, someone can fall back into the familiar behaviors their brains were trained to recognize as comfortable.
All the components of recovery, including developing a recovery lifestyle that supports sobriety, are meant to prevent relapse. It’s easy to scoff at massage therapy and yoga or meditation as treatments for mental health. Just like with a medical condition, anything that helps, helps.
Hired Power is here to help you and your family bring recovery home. Our recovery services are designed to take care of the details so you can focus on healing. For more information, call us today at 800.910.9299.