thelittlekneesofbees:

midnight—chronicles:

• Don’t ask them “So, what did you do all day?” It sounds patronizing and makes them look lazy and like this is their fault. They don’t need that, and it might exacerbate whatever guilt they already feel for having a mental illness.
• Don’t tell them however they choose to cope [sitting in their room, writing, reading, sleeping, etc] is wrong.
• Give them space; they don’t always want to be around people during difficult times.
• Offer to do anything you can to take the stress off them [help clean, take them grocery shopping, drive them to doctor’s appointments, etc]
• Understand that how they feel has nothing to do with you.
• Don’t ask them “Don’t you take pills for that?” They might be working out the right treatment plan of medications that will help them on the path to getting better. I’m on 4 medications right now to treat my mental illnesses.
• Understand that there is no one pill that will automatically make them better. I personally have had many medication changes due to them simply not helping and not working out.
• Try to act calm if this person is having a panic attack or an episode of another mental illness. Being agitated will not help the person going through a hard time.
• Don’t try to force someone with an eating disorder to eat or someone with a binge eating problem to stop eating. Eating disorder recovery takes time, patience, and healing.
• Don’t try to act like a doctor because you are not.
• Do encourage the person to contact their psychiatrist and/or therapist if they are in crisis or having problems.
• Don’t tell a depressed person to “come on, smile.”, a person with anxiety to “stop panicking”, a person with bipolar to control their mood swings, etc. It doesn’t help.
• Do be supportive and encouraging.
• Sometimes, no words need to be said. Hold the person’s hand while watching TV together. Hug the person. You have no idea how much they need it.

(via thishateis-selfinflikted)