Mental illness and the strain on the family
Monday, September 21st, 2009In Australia another politician has taken time out from his political duties to cope with depression. That is the fourth in recent times.
Depression is becoming a widely recognised problem and in fact on the news the other day it was stated that 1 in every 5 Australians will suffer from depression at some time in their life. Depression is often brought on by a catastrophic event in a person’s life and what can happen from there is that the depression goes away after a time or it might have started a new cycle in the persons life. One where they are having to deal with clinical depression.
I had my daughter comment the other day that in the small group of new mums where she was there were only two who were not taking an antidepressant since the birth of their child. The good part is that they are coping better but it does make you wonder about the stressful society that we live in.
Have we set oursel
ves up for a fall with the stress to own this and that, go here and go there and be all things to all people?
The freedom with which drugs are available has escalated the numbers who suffer from mental illness and it is not only the those with the illness that suffer either. The parents, who are often the carers, have their lives turned upside down as well. It can often take several years to come to terms with caring for a person with a mental illness. It is a matter of first understanding what you are dealing with and then understanding and implimenting strategies for coping with the situation.
The ebook Managing Mental Illness – Coping Strategies for the Carer covers many strategies for a carer to recognize what they are dealing with, analyze it and set up a strategy to cope.






