News & Tips

Dealing with the mental landscape

Many of those who suffer from mental illnesses also deal with discrimination, prejudice, ridicule and pity. An all too common misconception is that those who suffer from mental illnesses can not be functional, working, self sufficient, and overall successful in life. The support and attitudes of family and friends of those who suffer from mental illnesses is key for those fortunate outcomes.

Awareness of this issue is growing in our society, but it is important that family and friends become a source of support, since the mindshare still so often embraces negative attitudes toward the mentally ill. Click below for some resources that may help.

Drugs and abuse

The drive for abusive relationships is insecurity fed by fear. An abuser is highly insecure, having little sense of their own social value, trying to gain or regain that value through forced control. The victim is also greatly insecure, and for surprisingly similar reasons, sharing an anemic sense of their own social value, and a willingness to accept the imbalance of the abuser's attention for the sake of being loved. The dynamics here appear simple, but belie complexity.

Alcoholism or drug abuse and mental illness also interact in a deceptively complex way. One appears to increase the risk for the other an vice-versa. Further, alcoholism and drug abuse can lead to significant anxiety and depression that may appear indistinguishable from a mental illness. Finally, these addictions and other psychiatric disorders often occur at the same time despite being distinct disorders that must be treated as such.

The following speaks further and provides tips on dealing with these topics.