You can not deny the connection between relationships and mental health. It is easy to feel overwhelmed when you identify and understand mental health dynamics in your relationship. If one or both partners suffer from faltering mental health, it is tough enough to navigate relationships. When your mental health is in good shape, you can devote time and energy to ensuring healthy relationships. You can focus on spending time with loved ones, nourishing your partnership, and avoiding toxic relationships.
This will result in a better quality of life. However, poor mental health can take a toll on many things, from your physical health and work performance to romantic relationships and other bonds. Mindfulness skills and strategies can help improve things and bring awareness to your actions and the actions of others. Many couples therapists or individual counsellors encourage couples to practise skills and strategies to improve accountability, growth, and continued self-development.
Learn more below about how to support your or your loved ones’ mental health needs, whether you have been diagnosed with a mental health issue or have just noticed that your emotional health isn’t what it should be. This will help you understand how mental illnesses impact your relationships and may inspire you to stay healthy.
How Can Mental Health Affect Your Relationship?
If you have a mental health condition, it can impact all aspects of your life, including your relationships. From isolating yourself from your social networks to making once-positive relationships feel more challenging, mental illnesses impact relationships in various ways. People with mental health issues can isolate themselves and be unable to talk openly how they feel. They feel emotionally distant from their partner, which causes stress and misunderstandings. This can lead to more frequent arguments.
Partners cannot understand each other’s needs and feelings, leading to misunderstandings and resentment. This lack of understanding can cause stress, anxiety, or depression in the other partner, which will further strain the relationship. So, recognizing mental health issues and their impacts is the first step in addressing them and working towards a healthier connection, not a toxic relationship. Different types of relationships may be impacted by your poor mental health.
Romantic Relationships
Mental health issues can make romantic relationships feel more challenging. A study published in 2017 found that individuals who are officially married were more likely to get a divorce after getting common mental illnesses (such as depression and anxiety). Whether you are in a long-term relationship or officially married, you feel shame about your mental illness, so you try to hide it. Your partner may feel frustrated that you don’t seek help. This can cause bitterness to build on both sides.
Poor mental health can also decrease libido. It will impact your sexual life, and your partner might feel ignored or unwanted. People with mental health issues also struggle to get into a relationship. If you are depressed, symptoms (such as sadness, low energy, pessimism and worthlessness) can make it difficult to want to go out on dates. Social anxiety disorder is another example that may make you want to avoid being in a social setting.
People with social anxiety disorder feel anxious in social situations, like one-on-one interactions, large crowds or public speaking. This condition will make you fear going out on a date with someone new. Because of this fear, you may start to think the impact of loneliness is better than forcing yourself to date. In the end, you will be left alone and live life without making a bond with someone.
Familial Bonds
If any family member has mental health issues, parents, siblings, children, or cousins, all of these relationships may be affected. Research shows that children of parents with poor mental health may be more likely to have poor health or deal with mental or emotional disorders themselves. As a parent, you may feel guilty for affecting your children’s health. But it does not end here; being a parent with mental health issues, you may face other challenges, too.
Mental health symptoms can also make it hard to nurture familial relationships or may exacerbate dysfunction that already exists. Symptoms like irritability and fatigue are more common in people with anxiety. For example, if you have anxiety, you already have a tendency to get irritated with your mom or another family member. As for fatigue, you feel so tired or don’t have the energy to spend time keeping your familial bonds strong.
Friendships
A close friendship is always good for relationships and mental health. Friends can provide a much-needed support system and give you a place to discuss your feelings. Mental health symptoms can also affect your social relationships. You need to spend time together to keep your friendship strong and healthy. But if you have major depression, you start isolating and spend less and less time with friends. You lose touch with friends, which may cause bonds to break. This will lead to increased loneliness, which can amplify your depression.
3 Ways Mental Health Affects Relationships
Loving someone with a mental illness is not always challenging. It is important to remember that both you and your partner are doing the best you can under challenging circumstances. Various factors may help to know how mental health can hurt your bonds.
You may spend less time together.
People with major depression spend lots of time alone. Also, certain anxiety disorders (like social anxiety disorder) may cause you to avoid social relationships or settings. This will result in avoiding hanging out with loved ones. But to have a healthy bond with someone, you have to spend time together.
Pessimistic feelings may develop.
As we mentioned above, certain mental health issues can make you feel down or pessimistic. You may have difficulty looking on the bright side or thinking the worst of others. In relationships, these mental health symptoms can make you see things negatively. For example, you may be tempted to think the worst for your mom if she does something you don’t love. You do not give her a pass because you are mad and may avoid spending time with your family. Or maybe you are dating and meeting someone you think you may like. Your brain may make you think about the worst-case scenarios, so you refuse to meet them and cut things off before they start.
Your loved ones may walk on eggshells around you.
When exhibiting mental health symptoms, the person’s behaviour isn’t the only thing that may change. The family and friends are not mental health professionals, and they may not know how to react to your mental health symptoms. Your partner may feel confused about your symptoms. They may also be hurt or sad to see you struggling with mental health issues. It is similar in the case of your family members or friends. They may avoid you or stop sharing their thoughts because they fear upsetting or hurting you. It can hurt the bond if people are not truthful or fully themselves in relationships.
Ways To Strengthen Your Relationships
Many strategies can help you support your partner’s mental health. An open and honest conversation with your partner about how they feel is one of the best ways to receive feedback. You can go for couples counselling to address mental health issues and improve relationships. Therapists can provide education and guidance on mental health issues, fostering understanding and empathy between partners. They can teach strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression that can affect relationships.
Interpersonal Therapy(IPT)
It was developed in 1969 and was first used as a treatment for major depression. IPT suggests that our interpersonal relationships can help with mood issues. It lasts for about 12 to 16 weeks and helps to lower depressive symptoms. The person can easily face and function in social situations. You work with a mental health professional to examine your relationships and how you approach intimate connections. Then, you focus on improving your relationships.
Family Therapy
Mostly, IPT is done solo, but when you want to be in a relationship with someone you love, this therapy will help you. Family therapy includes marriage therapy, which focuses on helping people address psychological issues that affect relationships, marriage problems or even child-parent relationships. Both parties must be willing to go to work on this therapy. Mental health professionals will assist you in learning to navigate issues together and communicate better.
Quality Time
Mental health issues can make a person isolated and spark loneliness. It will make you isolate yourself from loved ones. Loneliness can make you feel even worse and negatively affect your health. Try to tap into your social networks and connect with the people you care for most.
Sometimes, strengthening your bonds is as simple as spending time together. It can also help to be upfront about what you are going through.
Letting your friends and family know you are struggling allows them to step up and support you. Speaking to a healthcare provider if your emotional health is affecting your relationships is a good idea. They will help you navigate how you are feeling and may be able to give tips on getting your relationships back on track.
