Relationships Can Positively Affect Mental Illness.
Mental health is not only the core of human existence, but it also helps individuals thrive in the face of adversity. A lot of factors are affecting relationships positively or negatively, and it has an impact on mental health.
It is a well-known fact that one’s mental health has the potential of affecting relationships they have with the people around them. But, the inverse is also true. Whether the relations you’re in are the result of finding love on the best dating sites, working connections, or family ties, the people you spend the most time with have a prominent effect on your perceptions.
Most people only think about combative relations and their effect on mental health. But, according to scientists, positive relations can greatly impact one’s physical and mental health. Relationships affecting health positively include mutual respect, honesty, good communication, compromise, and the presence of more happiness than unhappiness.
While there are many cases of past abuse affecting current relationships, your new relations can change the state of your mental health. Rather than having a general overview of the issue, let’s take a close look at the different aspects of relationships affecting mental health positively.
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Relationships Help To Combat Loneliness
While we may all feel lonely at some point in our lives, loneliness isn’t the same thing as being alone. Loneliness is the feeling you get when your need for social relations and contact isn’t met. Even though some people are ok without other people’s company for long periods, not everyone can handle it.
Loneliness is a burdensome feeling that may affect your mental health if you’ve experienced it for a long time. Some research links loneliness to depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. Loneliness may begin affecting family relationships where one doesn’t feel cared for or understood by the people around them.
Problems affecting relationships as a result of loneliness need not be permanent. To tackle loneliness, you first have to take stock of your relations and envision the ones you desire. It would be best to try and make new friendships or strengthen your existing ones.
When you surround yourself with positive relationships, you strengthen the social connections you’re part of and gain from the support you experience. When you have strong social connections, you feel a sense of belonging that helps you beat loneliness and its mental health effects.
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Promote Positive Well Being And Better Self Care
There’s evidence of past relationships affecting current ones. If you’ve been in a past abusive relationship, there’s a probability that you’ve experienced low self-esteem that led to inadequate self-care. But, when you have great relationships, they push you to commit to better self-care and take exceptional care of your mental and physical health.
The support you get from these relationships will also equip you with a better connection to your family and friends, leading to a cycle of never-ending support that builds your confidence. Such relationships affecting self-esteem positively will lead to engaging in self-care acts such as healthy eating, regular exercise, consistent sleep, and doing activities you enjoy that will lead to an improvement of your mental health.
Well-meaning relationships will enable you to embrace opportunities that allow you to broaden your perspectives and pool your resources together to achieve a sense of meaning and purpose in life. The support you are provided allows you to grow through different opportunities that you encounter.
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Affecting Relationships Positively By Buffering Stress
One of the aspects affecting relationships negatively is stress. But, great support from a positive relationship will help you buffer from the negative effects of stress and allow you to thrive despite the situations you find yourself in. Meaningful support in relationships can help you overcome different circumstances and promote growth.
Relationships are essential for any individual to gain stability in the face of stress and help one build their mental strength when dealing with issues. They are, therefore, a core support function when it comes to mental health. It must be provided to allow the person who needs it to feel cared for, understood, and validated.
Conclusion
Relationships are not only the core of human existence, but they provide invaluable insights as to how individuals can avoid mental health issues and grow through adversity. Do you think relationships affect mental health? Other than positive, have you experienced negative ones? We’d love to know in the comments below.
Author’s bio:
Miranda Davis is a freelance writer in the relation and psychology area. Miranda is interested in such topics as building healthy relationships between people, love/sex compatibility, and how to find the right balance in life in general. She is currently doing specific research on the topic. Miranda loves cooking and long-distance walking.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
