Relationships- Mental Health Awareness Week
Today marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Week from the 16th to 20th May 2016. Relationships is the theme for this year’s awareness week. I know from experience it is a very apt theme for mental health awareness.
I think it is relationships that ultimately pulled me out of the mental health system. Relationships is a continuing and never ending thread in our lives that can make or mar us. Loneliness is a mark of the absence of meaningful relationships. Feeling able to talk things gives confidence. The feedback you potentially get from it can set you on the road to recovery and progress.
If you do not have purpose in your relationships they can spiral out of control. My relationship with Zoe was a catalyst to effectively building my other relationships. The focus on directing my thoughts solely towards developing the right attitudes gave me uncommon purpose.
I was dealing with a lot of the fallout of disorganised thoughts at the start of our marriage. This resulted in Zoe becoming a trusted check for me. She was always calling to check at every possible moment that I was on the course we planned for the day. It was a bit like the relationship between a pilot and the control tower. It does take trust and humility for this type of relationship to work.
It is easy to disrespect people that you feel are humble. Zoe never for once took advantage of the nature the relationship. Neither did any form of disrespect enter our relationship. This is key both for recovery from mental illness and maintaining good mental health.
The integrity that developed in our relationship spread to other aspects of my life. My commitment to contributing to the growth of my local church assembly became even stronger. As we formed an effective team with a possibility minded approach our communication skills became even more honed. My faith life developed as I exercised my faith to succeed in areas of past failures.
Zoe no longer carries out the checks on my activities as she did at the beginning of our relationship. However, our mutual accountability has not changed. The one person that is most likely to know where I am and what I am doing at any given point in time is Zoe, and vice versa.
I attended an event recently where the speaker revealed that the largest increase in cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Nederlands following some forms being legalised was of people with mental illness. It speaks volumes of the despair associated with mental illness.
No life should be more valued by another. Unfortunately the nature of relationships in the world today result in some being more valued than others. Today, I am more productive than before I went into the mental health system. Thanks to effective relationship building.
Can you think of how relationships have impacted your mental health or that of those close to you? Please comment and share on social media
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