Mental Health Problems: How to Socialize with People Having Episodes

Mental health problems are related to excessive stress in our daily lives. Most of the time, we all induce all the things that are happening around us. And those negative situations are the ones sticking in our mind at the end of the day.

Mental health issues can be prevented to be a severe medical condition. Once it turned out to be serious, your ability to cope with life’s ordinary demands and routines will be hard.

Nowadays, there are cases recorded with people who are suffering from mental health issues. But with proper care and treatment, these individuals learn to adapt, adjust and recover from their conditions. So what are the things we need to know when we are dealing with people with mental health conditions?

How to Identify Mental Illness

To deal with people with an issue on mental health, here are the signs and symptoms that you need to pay consideration to. You must be paying attention to people with mental health issues. Why? Because how you treated them is crucial.

For young adults, adults and adolescents, signs and symptoms include confused thinking, sadness or irritability which results to depression, excessive anxieties, social withdrawal, and dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits, delusions, anger, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, unexplained physical ailments and uses of some prohibited substances.

For children, some symptoms for mental health issues are caused by social groups they belonged. Therefore, some signs that you may notice in your children are the inability to socialize, use of prohibited substances, changes in sleeping or eating habits, too much complaint of physical ailments, and failure to manage responsibilities at home or school. Some signs and symptoms are defiances in authority truancy, theft, vandalism, intense fear and anger. If the worst scenarios can happen, you may observe a prolonged negative mood with reduced appetite and suicidal thoughts.

Mental health issues signs and symptoms don’t stop between adults and children. In some cases, younger children can develop mental health issues which affect the child’s performance in school, poor grades despite intense efforts, poor sleeping and eating habits, refusing to go to bed or school, hyperactivity, nightmares, aggression and temper tantrums.

How to Deal with Mental Health Issues

Knowing the signs and symptoms of mental health issues, you will know how to deal with someone having this medical condition. Remember that mental illness does not only affect the person who has it. But it also affects the members of society.

If you encounter people with mental illness, you have to watch out for common signs like anxiety, anger, shame and sadness. These signs are in connection with emotions. Also, being helpless is one of the situations with people of mental health issues.

The first persons who are affected if there is someone in the family with mental health conditions are the head of the family. Most likely, the parents may feel some sense of guilt if they know that their child has an illness. Family members may also wonder if this medical condition is hereditary or they will be eager to understand the causes.

So, aside from thinking what is the root cause of mental health issues, better to know how to approach and interact with people with this condition. Of course, these reactions are normal.

However, those people having this illness may find themselves more distress and the situation will be critical. In this case, our advice below shows how to interact with people having mental health conditions.

Step 1: Read some materials and be informed to have a better understanding.

To fully understand the situation of a person with mental health conditions, you can read books, papers, or some articles about the experiences of people with this health condition. You can also watch the documentary and inspired shows about this topic. There are some conferences, training and seminars that teach the family of peers on how to cope with the member with mental illness.

Step 2: Learn the right way to approach a person who is suffering.

Simple kind gestures can change a person’s personality. Imagine how it will affect those with mental health conditions.

By showing them and let them feel that they are appreciated can give them a positive outlook towards life. Preaching and dictating them after harmful incidents can worsen their mental health conditions.

When recovering from a particular situation, people with this mental condition should give more patients to improve though the process may be long and complicated, at the end of everything. Things will be brighter.

Step 3: Think Positive, Say Positive.

Thinking positive pours positive energy to people surrounding you. If you feel positive, speak about your emotion and let the people know your true feelings. When consoling someone with mental health issues, use the first person in speaking rather than the second person. In this way, you are helping them think that they have someone caring and thinking about them.

Step 4: Speak to encourage, not discouraging.

People with mental health conditions need encouraging words to do well in everything. They want someone to help them and be their support foundation.

If you try to converse with them, there will be a tendency for them to refuse. So be patient and keep listening to understand their reasoning for refusal. Encourage them as much as they want to hear it from you. Offer them your companionship to help them make up their mind.

Step 5: Thing goes haywire.

People with mental health are not stable. This is a fact. So even when people around them try to understand what is happening, they will give up eventually if no improvement happens.

For instance, you will notice that the person is acting strange, and their reactions to things around them are abnormal. So this could be a sign that they need to consult a doctor.

Some of the signs include an increase in isolating themselves from people, troubled in sleeping or eating, using of a prohibited substance, looking in an empty gaze far away, claiming to be a victim without proof, and hallucinations.

What can we say?

Mental health is a sensitive issue among us, especially when you know someone or you are living with some of such condition. So, the first thing you will need to do is express your feelings. Find someone, maybe your friend, who is ready to listen to your feelings without restraint or guilt.

Don’t forget your physical and mental wellbeing, especially when you are living with someone.  Being healthy helps you to stay focus and cope with the person suffering from mental illness.

And when the time comes that a problem arises, you have to solve one problem at a time. When the conflicts involve interpersonal, you will need to avoid addressing the issue by yourself and at the same time. Instead, find the perfect time and solution for each before dealing with the conflicts.