Psychology for Everyone

Helping a loved one with mental illness – family and relationships

How to listen, what to say and what not to say, supporting a family member through mental illness, and looking after yourself as a carer.

Chapters on this topic

Chapter 17: Helping a Family Member

Love without police energy : Food, a booked OPD, and one person who also sleeps. Two carers beat one hero.

Chapter 34: Relationships and Communication

Listening, speaking and staying connected

Stories from real life (11)

  • The Door That Stayed Closed – Fatima, 15, in Lucknow, has started spending evenings in her room with the door shut. She skips meals, her marks have fallen and she…
  • Appa in the Village – Mr Gowda, 76, lives in a village near Mysuru with his son's family. For months he has been quiet, forgets where he put things,…
  • Brother, Bottle and Blame – Imran, 35, in Kolkata, drinks every evening and more on weekends. He has missed work, lost his temper with his wife and borrowed money.…
  • The Daughter Who Held Everything Together – Lakshmi, 40, in Hyderabad, looks after her mother who has schizophrenia, her two children, and works part-time. She gives medicines on time, goes to…
  • Five Steps for Anil – Anil, 29, in Delhi, has been unusually quiet, has missed work and says little at family dinners. His older sister Rekha feels something is…
  • Suresh And Meena – For weeks, Meena seemed to be slipping away. She became completely withdrawn, often tearful, and highly irritable. She stopped cooking, began missing days at…
  • Three Hundred Contacts and Nobody to Call – Lena, twenty-six, moved to Toronto for a software job. She had hundreds of contacts on her phone and two video calls a week with…
  • Three Words He Always Said – Carla and Diego, married eleven years in Mexico City, had the same argument most nights. She would say, 'You never help. You are just…
  • I Am Happy to Talk, But Not Like This – Thabo, thirty-three, from Johannesburg, said yes to everything. He covered shifts for colleagues, lent money to his cousin who never returned it, and answered…
  • She Stopped Seeing Her Friends – Ruth, twenty-eight, from Glasgow, met Callum at a party, and he was charming. After a year she noticed small changes. He checked her phone,…
  • Left on Read – Tariq, nineteen, from Dhaka, sent a message to his best friend Rafi and watched the screen. Seen, but no reply. By evening he was…

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