What is the most effective way in dealing with someone that has a mental illness?
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Communicating with a Loved One Who Has a Mental Illness Show
Communicating with a Loved One Who Has a Mental Illness2022-09-23T09:29:49-04:00 Communicating with a Loved One Who Has a Mental
Illness[1],[2] Summary Communication is a two-way process. – Why and How to Listen Well Expressing Yourself Effectively Our emotions affect how we communicate. LEAP = Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner Additional Resources in Section V I. Communication is a two-way process. – Why and How to Listen WellSuccessful communication begins with good listening. Over time, good listening will allow you to:
Guidelines for Listening to Someone Who Has a Mental Illness
Focus your attention on understanding your loved one and put all your other agenda items aside for the time being. Although you are eager to accomplish helpful changes for your loved one, you will be more effective in helping her if you postpone any advice or suggestions until she feels heard and understood and asks for your opinion. Even if you disagree with his interpretations of reality, try to understand his experiences, point of view, hopes, fears, and beliefs about himself and his situation. Your goal is to understand his reality from his point of view even if he is psychotic (out of touch with reality). Remember that a mentally ill person may have anosognosia (the inability to perceive his/her mental illness) and/or delusions (fixed beliefs that do not change in response to evidence to the contrary). Anosognosia and delusions are part of the person’s mental illness, so arguing about what is real will not be useful. Avoid reactive listening. Listen to understand, instead of thinking about how you can argue back or convince the person to change her wrong beliefs. Avoid interrupting or criticizing. Even if she criticizes you, don’t argue. Recognize that criticisms and blame generally come from the illness and typically have little to do with you personally. You may need to set limits on when, where and how long you can listen. Try to choose a time and place when your loved one wants to talk and you will be able to focus your attention on listening well. When you need a break from listening, say something like “I’m sorry. I know you probably have more to say, but I need to take a break now.” This type of limit setting helps to make it safe for you and your loved one, and will help you to remain calm as you listen. These guidelines provide helpful general advice, but individuals and situations differ, so you will need to learn what works best in your situation and develop approaches that work well for you and your loved one. Some Suggested Responses to Use During Reflective Listening
or Can you tell me more about that?
or I can understand why you feel/want … You can use nonverbal responses (e.g. nodding your head). You will need to figure out which responses work best in which situations. For example, sometimes your loved one may appreciate eye contact and other times eye contact may make your loved one uncomfortable. Additional Advice If your loved one doesn’t want to talk to you, you may find that he/she is more willing to talk if you can reduce the intensity of the interaction (e.g. by talking while engaged in a joint activity), or your loved one may be more willing to talk with someone else (e.g. another family member or friend). II. Expressing Yourself EffectivelySometimes the primary goal of a conversation with your loved one will be to help him get through a difficult time. This is best accomplished by reflective listening and empathy, as described in the previous section. It is also important to explicitly recognize your loved one’s positive qualities and behaviors. A person who has a mental illness often hears lots of negative comments, both from other people and sometimes from the voices he hears. Many people with mental illness feel bad about themselves. It can be very helpful to hear praise for his positive qualities and behaviors. Give reassurance and hope. At other times, you may want to address a challenging topic and try to solve a problem. You may need to postpone this type of conversation until you have established a relationship of trust, so your loved one is willing to listen to you. Try to choose a time when you are both calm. Think about what would be the best setting for a conversation with your loved one; in some cases, it will be best to choose a time and place where you will not be interrupted, but in other cases your conversation may be more successful in a semipublic venue like a restaurant. When you speak:
Be thoughtful about how you describe a problem. Aim to present a problem in a way that won’t trigger emotional reactions that preclude reasonable discussion.
For example, to improve your chance of having a useful conversation, say instead of “You made me so upset when you were gone all night and I didn’t know where you were. You are always so inconsiderate! You never think about my feelings.” If you want to propose a change:
It is important to recognize that most problems or issues are not resolved in a single conversation. Instead it usually takes a long series of conversations with reflective listening and empathy to accumulate the understanding and build up the trust needed to solve problems. Also, behavioral change usually takes time and occurs gradually. (Think about your own efforts to increase exercise, improve your diet, stop smoking, etc.) Before a person makes a significant change, there usually is a substantial period when her thinking is changing as she becomes more open to the possibility of change and begins to think about how she might change. Even after behavior begins to change, there will probably be relapses. It is often more effective to focus on creating a positive, supportive environment that prevents problems, instead of dealing with problems after they arise. III. Our emotions affect how we communicate.To listen and communicate well, you will need to be calm. You will probably find it challenging to cope with your loved one’s pain, anger, criticism and/or blame. You will be better able to help him if you can maintain some emotional distance so you do not drown in his pain. To stay calm, you may find it helpful to do deep breathing if you start to get upset while you are listening. Identify and deal with any anger or fears you may have about your loved one with mental illness. Even when you don’t talk about your negative emotions, your nonverbal expression of these emotions may upset your loved one, which may exacerbate her illness.
Take good care of yourself so you will be able to stay well and cope with the long-term stresses of having a loved one with severe mental illness. We encourage you to take advantage of the helpful programs offered by NAMI (https://namimainlinepa.org/support/; https://www.nami.org/Find-Support) and other similar organizations. IV. LEAP[4]LEAP is an effective method for communicating and collaborating with a mentally ill loved one to solve problems. LEAP includes the following sequence: Listen: Listen to try to understand what the person is telling you about himself and his experiences. Reflect back what you have heard, without your opinions and ideas. Empathize: Empathize with how the person feels about her experiences and symptoms (without necessarily agreeing with her view of reality; e.g. “That sounds scary. Do you feel frightened?”). Agree: Find areas of agreement, especially goals you both want (e.g. to stay out of the hospital) Partner: Collaborate to work toward agreed upon goals. During the listening phase:
The agree step should be based on understanding what your loved one wants and figuring out at least one goal that you both want. This does not mean pressuring your loved one to agree to what you want. In the partner step, you may want to work with your loved one to:
V. Additional ResourcesNAMI resources include:
LEAP resources are available at https://leapinstitute.org/home, including videos (https://leapinstitute.org/free-leap-vids) and I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help! by Xavier Amador (available in paperback for $22 or Kindle edition for $10).[5] Mental Health First Aid provides useful guidelines for helping someone with depression, panic, psychosis, problem substance use, etc. (https://mhfa.com.au/cms/guidelines). A Guide for Caregivers of People with Mental Illness is available at https://mhfa.com.au/sites/default/files/MHFA_carers_guidelinesA4.pdf. To sign up for an 8-hour Mental Health First Aid course, go to https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/take-a-course/ [1] Available at https://namimainlinepa.org/communicating-with-a-loved-one-who-has-a-mental-illness/ (updated September 2022) [2] If your loved one appears to be at risk for suicide, self-harm, or harming others, you should seek prompt professional help, e.g. by calling 988 or 911 if there is an immediate danger of physical harm (https://namimainlinepa.org/crisis-numbers/). [3] I am indebted to I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help! by Xavier Amador for some of the ideas in this presentation. I am grateful for helpful input and suggestions from Carolyn Ballinger, Ellen Berman, Katie Eyer, Bruce Fay, Sarah Freudberg, Judy Green, Loran Kundra, Michi Rose, and Aita Susi. [4] LEAP is a registered trademark®. LEAP was developed by Dr. Xavier Amador. Additional information is available in the recommended resources listed on the next page. [5] This book is very helpful, but you should be aware of the following caution. The examples given in the book generally include skillful professional interpretations and problem solving and appear to make significant progress in a short time. In our experience, we rarely replicate this type of success, but over time we can substantially help our loved ones with lay reflective listening and empathy skills. Page last updated in September 2022. Page load linkWhat is the most effective way to treat mental illness?Psychotherapy paired with medication is the most effective way to promote recovery. Examples include: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, etc.
What is the best way to effectively work with those who suffer from mental illness?What Is Mental Health?. Communicate their thoughts and feelings effectively.. Accept affection and love.. Give affection and love.. Accept and give compliments and praise.. Get along with and cooperate with others.. Listen to and respect those around them.. Control their impulses.. See consequences of actions.. |