Supporting your partner through a mental health challenge can be overwhelming, but you shouldn’t feel obligated to know all the answers. What matters more is showing your partner that you are there for them. Treat them with compassion, show understanding, and be patient. There’s a lot you can do without having to know the answer to every problem, so use these 15 points to help you support your partner through their mental health journey.
Listen Without Judging
There’s no need to always have something to say or fix everything that goes wrong. If you listen to your partner without interrupting and without offering to fix something straight away, it shows that you aren’t merely listening to their words but that you have empathy for what they’re going through. Sometimes, all your partner wants is for you to listen, not react.
Educate Yourself
You can’t win a war without understanding your enemy, and the same goes for battling mental health conditions. If you don’t take the time and effort to research what is affecting your partner, you won’t be able to help them appropriately. Take in as much information about their condition as possible and use it to stay informed and show them compassion.
Encourage Professional Help
Supporting your partner is wonderful, but you might not be able to provide the professional assistance they need. Therapists or other professionals have the experience and the knowledge to understand what will work best for your partner’s unique situation. However, don’t crudely bring up the option of professional help, be compassionate in your approach, and don’t make their struggles worse by forcing them or implying that they desperately “need” the help.
Be Understanding and Patient
We all want mental health issues to fade quickly, but in most cases, they take years, if not decades, to heal, and even then, they never heal completely. By being understanding and patient, you give your partner a safe space to change and grow without feeling pressured. Daily, subtle reassurance is a great way to reinforce positive growth.
Check In Regularly
Many individuals who struggle with mental health issues might become solitary or exclude themselves from social circles. Try to regularly check in with them, even if it’s simply asking if they’re okay or letting them know that you care about their struggles. Make sure they know you are there for them and that you care enough to make contact.
Help With Daily Responsibilities
When your thoughts are scrambled, it gets difficult to not only think but also act out daily responsibilities, which can lead to a deteriorated lifestyle if it continues. If you help with daily responsibilities like taking out the trash, cooking, cleaning, and other small errands, it gives your partner time to recoup and not get overwhelmed by everything that’s happening.
Create a Supportive and Safe Environment
Your home is the last place your partner wants or needs to feel overwhelmed, unsupported, or unloved. You need to make sure your home is an environment where your partner gets to feel secure and accepted. It needs to be different from the outside world and should be free of a lot of negative aspects like harsh criticism, disrespect, and bad communication.
Promote Healthy Habits and Routines
Mental health issues will badly affect your partner’s habits and routines, so you need to encourage or lead your partner down a road of self-care. Some ways to do that are by exercising together, maintaining a regular sleep schedule, or even just cooking a nutritious yet delicious meal and eating it with them. If they are struggling to get into good habits, offer to join them or at least support them in their journey.
Respect Boundaries
You cannot rush improvement, but you can delay it by not respecting your partner’s boundaries. If your partner asks you to give them space, be willing to step away – even if it hurts – and come back when they feel safe or ready to accept you. There’s no need for you to push them to talk about their difficulties if it’ll only worsen the situation. You need to build trust and make them feel secure with you.
Give Emotional Reassurance
When someone goes through mental health problems, their emotional state may take a dip, so you’ll need to understand that and be there to reassure them. Making your partner feel understood, valued, and loved will make a huge difference in how they carry themselves through the day and what they can expect to return to when they get home. It will give them hope that their day will improve once they see you again.
Enjoy Relaxing Activities Together
As you become overwhelmed by normal daily activities, you’ll find that added stress will eat away at your partner’s remaining hope and calmness. One way to alleviate their stress is to go on relaxing activities together. It can be as simple as eating ice cream in the park, going for a hike to see a beautiful pond, or taking the day to watch movies together.
Communicate Openly About Your Feelings
If your partner comes to you for help or simply wants to talk about their problems, make sure you don’t break them down emotionally. Create an environment where your partner knows they can come to you if they want to discuss anything bothering them. If you are communicating with your partner, make sure to do so with empathy and honesty so that you avoid any miscommunication that could lead to an argument.
Identify Coping Strategies and Triggers
We all struggle to cope at times or have specific triggers, but when you go through a mental health crisis, those triggers can make it easier to lash out or harder to cope. You should help your partner come up with strategies to cope with certain aspects of their life and to notice what triggers them and how they can avoid or lessen its effects.
Advocate for Them
Your partner’s self-confidence can take a massive knock when they are affected by mental health struggles. You will need to stand up for them when the time comes. That means it might be a good idea to accompany them on appointments, speak for them when they can’t find their own words, or help them access resources that their condition has made difficult to access.
Remind Them That It’s Okay To Struggle
For someone with mental health problems, struggling can look a lot like failing or losing. You need to remind them that struggling isn’t the same as failing and that you are there for them in their time of need. Make them feel reassured and help them to feel less alone in the vulnerable situation they find themselves in.
