Family, friends and acquaintances are important parts of a fulfilling life. Especially, if you are unwell.
My family are pivotal to my recovery from depression and anxiety, without them I wouldn’t be here. Dysfunctional family ties often contribute to depression and far too many suicides.
Friends are also important as they build your social circle beyond family and make a community.
Acquaintances are the last circle of human interaction. Acquaintances take you beyond family and friends into the wider world.
All three groups have a role to play in your life, with family being the closest and most important group. Dysfunctional families impact on the wider community. The more dysfunctional families there are the greater the impact on the community. There is no doubt in my mind that families must get their houses in order before they can effectively function in a community.
Families are particularly important to a person with a mental illness because they provide unconditional love and support within easy reach. In other words they are the first base people with mental illness reach out for. Too many suicides are direct result of a break in family ties and a feeling of hopelessness. A feeling of isolation, being unloved and substance abuse usually dominates the thinking of a person with no strong family ties.
Friends support families and are the second base that unwell people seek if there is no family to belong to. Friends are an important link to the wider world. They introduce us to ideas and a way of living beyond the family.
Acquaintances are people we meet who usually have little attachment to your family. They are more often than not the people you interact with as you go about your daily life. Acquaintances provide us with the help we cannot get from our family and friends.
A typical symptom of depression and anxiety is to withdraw from the world. Often I would think “stop the world I want to get off!” It is this very act of withdrawal that isolates the mentally ill. The isolation increases the effects of depression and anxiety which in turn feed the feeling of hopelessness.
If you are depressed and feeling alone reach out to family, friends and acquaintances. If you know someone with a mental illness try not to isolate them, rather bring them into your circle and show them you care. Depression need not be a desperately lonely experience if you make the effort to connect to all three groups. All of them are vital to your recovery.
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