F- Family Awareness & Support #MentalHealthAwareness

She was aware of her mental health condition, she wanted to see a therapist, but her family deterred it, was she mad they asked? Family Support and Awareness?

Being diagnosed with a serious mental illness can be a shock — both for the person diagnosed and for his or her family and friends. Mental illnesses are disorders that affect a person’s mood, thoughts or behaviors. Although new forms of therapy, medications and community services have enabled many individuals to lead full, independent lives, support from family, friends and peers remains an essential element in the recovery process.

Individuals diagnosed with these diseases can live full, rewarding lives, especially if they seek treatment as needed. By learning more about the illness, you can support your loved one through diagnosis and beyond.

There are many ways you can help someone with a mental illness navigate the treatment system and work towards recovery. As in any relationship, emotional and practical support is always needed. Occasionally, family and friends participate in someone's recovery by offering transportation, financial and housing assistance. Whatever form it takes, your support, compassion and respect matter.

Some ways for supporting someone close to you:

• ·         Educate yourself about the illness and mental health in general
• ·         Express your concern and support
• ·         Recognize that that the survivor may be scared and confused
• ·         Listen carefully and with empathy
• ·         Encourage them to be active in their recovery process
• ·         Recognize that treatment and recovery takes time, be patient
• ·         Help them get self-esteem, social support and feeling of worthiness
• ·         Assist in visits and interactions with social workers, counselors, or other professionals.
• ·         Always respect the individual's need for and right to privacy. 

A few effective ways to talk about Mental Health

It isn’t easy to start a conversation about mental health often. Try leading with these questions and ensure you actively listen to the survivor's response.

• ·         I've been worried about you. Can we talk about what you are experiencing?
• ·         Can I help you to talk about your mental health issues with someone you are comfortable with?
• ·         What else can I help you with?
• ·         How you are feeling?
• ·         It seems like you are going through a difficult time. Can I help you to find any assistance?
• ·         I'm concerned about your safety. Do you think about self-harm or harming others?

Seek immediate assistance if you think your friend or family member is in danger of harming themselves.

When families are accepted as partners in care and do receive training and support, there is strong evidence that this leads to better outcomes for everyone involved. Families are often the main support for people affected by mental illness, and have a right to be treated as ‘partners in care’.

These networks can be made up of parents, children, siblings, spouses or partners, extended families, close friends and others who care about us like neighbours, co-workers, coaches and teachers.

It’s also important to look after yourself as a caregiver, too. Supporting someone who experiences mental illness isn't easy – it’s often physically and emotionally draining, which can affect your health and well being. So emphasis must also be in self-care.

DISCLAIMER: All the information being provided her has been sourced from the internet and books and some also via personal experiences. It has no medical authentication per se so suggestions if followed must be done in consultation with a trained mental health professional.

Refrences:

https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/improving-care

This post is a part of April Blogging from A To Z Challenge

You can find all my posts here.

Nothing is Forever

This story was first published as a winning post in Muse of the Month August, 2016 here at Women's Web.

Image Courtesy : Women's Web

Tashi Chodron was a symbol of peaceful resistance, women’s empowerment and brilliant literature from conflict.

She was born in McLeodganj, her parents had moved there from Tibet a few years ago. Her father started a school and provided her and her siblings good education and a comfortable life. As soon as she was in high school, proposals for marriage came pouring in and like all traditional parents the best prospect was soon arranged for her.

The first few months were stuff that dreams were made of. He was an upcoming writer, traveled a lot, was used to fans and publicity, but soon she realized he was also used to something else - violence. It was the kind of vicious violence that happened in the closed confines of bedrooms. The scars of which are too personal to reveal and too hurtful to ignore.

Still she carried on for three long years because “abandoned” women were not honorable in their culture. It was another “episode” as he would call them later, when he pushed her so forcefully against the wooden railing that she knew he had killed their third baby instantly. She walked out, blood running down her cotton trousers, straight to the police station.

Four days later as she lay in the hospital, she saw her mother sitting by her bedside. She knew the same rehearsed lines would now pour at her about tradition, marriage, and hope. Her father and brothers were waiting for her to gain consciousness so that she could withdraw her complaint and not ‘disgrace ‘the family. She didn’t. Hers became the first case from their community about marital rape and violence in Himachal Pradesh High Court.

The most expensive case for her, it took away everything- her home, her marriage, her social status and most importantly her family. She was disowned and all ties were severed, so much so that even relatives or former friends looked away when they saw her somewhere in the town.

Tashi took refuge in books. She read Buddhist literature and every book she could lay her hands on. In the next three years she survived on charity by tourists and odd jobs but completed her graduation and teacher’s training via correspondence courses.

She stared writing a blog and small assignments for local magazines and newspapers. A year later she was teaching in a monastery’s school and also working with an NGO for women. She now realized she had to let go of her family and unborn children to find a much larger family of distressed like herself.

Today the auditorium was bustling with literature enthusiasts, critics and Buddhist monks. One of their own would be here later for an event for her much-acclaimed poetry book.

Tashi walked onto the podium to read her favorite piece. Her voice faltered a little in the beginning, as she remembered the “no” that she could never say to her father when she was married off young, or the ‘enough’ she should have said to her husband.

She read:

Look out

At the cages

Ties of blood and race

Family and society

And then look in

Towards freedom

Find the peaceful place

That says and repeats

‘Nothing is permanent’

Be your own Buddha.

Amidst applause Tashi saw faces of women from her NGO, her students, and in the last row her ex-husband holding a copy of her book. The dedication of that book read – To Buddha, who said “nothing is forever.”

Feet of Clay - (in the memory of my late father)

F

 

Blogging from A to Z Challenge [April 2015]

 

 

Had long ago read a poem

about Ozymandias

"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies..."*

 

As I grew year by year

The halos of my parents

did gradually disappear

 

I now saw them whole

as humans with their flaws

their feet of clay**

and all the faux pas

 

Now as a parent

I have to come to terms

with life's full cycle

when my little one

turns around

 

and sees me

as a regular woman

who has her flaws and

is less divine more human

 

 

I forgive you Papa

as you had once said

- "because none of us is perfect

what matters

where we are

we give it our best."

 

* Lines from the poem OZYMANDIAS by Shelley

**Feet of clay is a reference to the interpretation of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, by the prophet Daniel as recounted in the Book of Daniel.The analogy is now commonly used to refer to a weakness or character flaw, especially in people of prominence

 



Some F words

It all started casually on a random day ,but the past one week I have been obsessed with F-words of all variety.No,not the obvious one but the ones that we overlook all the time,the ones that actually influence a lot of all our lives.They are numerous ,jumping at me from all corners ,here I start with only ten.

It started with the new word in my life-frenemy.People who are friends and adversaries rolled into one.I am sure at some stage of life we all encounter one- the bitter-sweet types, the ones we endure but can't do away with.They are everywhere,and come in all shapes and sizes, moms , kids ,colleagues bosses,neighbours and the list is endless.

Friends and family the two important f's for all of us,the two pillars of support,the sunshine when the weather of life is nasty and the shade which we all seek when the sun is too strong.Faith,food and fun are the ties that bind us to our friends and family.The faith of being there always for each other,the joy of shared meals and tastes and the fun that originates from being witness to mutual happiness and success.
Face and facebook-the two profile badges we all carry.once upon a time we all had a face,the physical identity of our being,the one we all carried around,had to there was hardly a choice.And then came the facebook,the alternate,the omnipresent self,the one with the wall,the status and the friend list,only it was after all virtual.
My personal favourites are fear and failure.The two faces of life that we all must see and experience.Failure so that we know the importance of success,so that we know who are the friends from the foes.Fear so that we know always what is at stake and learn to prioritise,so that we know the anatomy of courage.

so what are your favourite f -words?think and share...