Coming to terms with the fact you’re suffering with a mental health issue is a difficult time for anyone. There are so many questions flying around your head, along with all the other thoughts and feelings that may be weighing you down, many of which you won’t understand especially at the start of your journey. It’s so difficult to understand why we feel the way we do and what’s going on inside our heads so inevitably other people are going to struggle to understand too. When people try and help but get completely the wrong idea it feels like they are doing the complete opposite of helping.

Whether it be family members, friends or mental health professionals i’ve found that a lot of my behaviours have been taken for something they definitely aren’t which can be so frustrating, especially when you aren’t feeling great as it is. Me being quiet doesn’t mean I dislike you, me not meeting deadlines doesn’t mean I’ve been lazy, I’ve noticed that so much is assumed by people and not asked for whatever reason. I’ve been lucky to have so much support from family and friends as well as professionals, but even with the support I’ve felt so alone. Only me seemed to think how I do and other people couldn’t really grasp it, or maybe thought they could when really they were a mile off.

Most often though these people are just looking out for you and although they may not get it initially their support is still a huge factor in your recovery from what you’re going through. To get the most out of their support it’s important to keep those you trust informed on how you’re feeling and to communicate with them regularly to help give them the best chance of understanding what’s going on and allowing them to do their best to help you out. Although someone may not ever be able to fully understand what goes through your head if they can begin to see your viewpoint even in only a few situations you really start to feel like someone is seeing it the way you see it for once. The more this happens from different perspectives the better you will be able to view and perceive the situations you find yourself in to make healthier decisions for yourself. The advice they start to give will seem much more relevant to you and they’ll feel like they’re getting somewhere too.

Getting the best out of the help that is available to us all can be as easy as a simple conversation to explain your viewpoint and when a coping method is this simple it’s always worth a try. Remember, there is something out there for all of us that works, we just can’t give up before we find it.