Supporting a friend with mental illness
Some of the most common concerns teen patients have when discussing going back to school and reconnecting with their friends are often surrounded around their social relationships. Things such as, what will my friends think? What will my friends say? What will my friends do? In our clinical service, we spend a lot of time helping young people determine the best way to mention their living with a mental illness to their friends, teachers and other social networks. As much as we try to help, the transition can sometimes not go as smooth as planned. Sometimes friends won’t fully understand. One thing that we often tend to not pay enough attention to is helping people understand what they can do to be supportive. It now occurs to me that some of the people we complained about not being helpful and supportive may actually have wanted to be, but didn’t know how. Maybe it wasn't always the friends avoidance or apprehensive behaviour that was the result of stigma. Maybe some of that could...