A supportive family is a helpful resource for any person to have, but it’s especially valuable for a person with a mental health condition. At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, in Charleston, West Virginia, we try to include families in our patients’ treatment plan whenever it is possible and productive to do so.
Your Family Knows You
Unless you were raised outside your family, your family has probably known you for a long time. Their familiarity with how you were and how you are now can be a key piece in recognizing the symptoms of a mental health disorder.
Some of those early signs can include:
- Changes in sleeping habits, appetite, or appearance
- Frequent pain with no medical cause
- Worrying more
- Really big or numbed emotions
- Avoidance
- Increased use of substances
- Ideas that don’t line up with reality
- Thoughts about death, dying, or wanting to die
- Irritability or aggression
- Intense sensitivity to stimulus
- Trouble focusing, remembering things, or making decisions
Your family may also know about experiences you have had that could trigger a mental health condition, such as:
- Trauma
- Stress
- Substance use
- Medical conditions or infections
- Brain injuries
They may also help remember what medications, therapies, and other treatments have already been tried, to address your concerns, so that you don’t have to keep trying something that has already failed to work for you.
You Know Your Family
This familiarity with each other can also speak to many years spent building respect, love, and trust for each other, whereas the professionals who enter your life later are people you may need time to get to know before you’re comfortable talking to them about the things that are bothering you. Having a family member who can advocate on your behalf if you become overwhelmed can bring important peace of mind during a time of crisis.
Your Family Knows Each Other
There is a hereditary component to many mental health disorders, so if you start to feel like something is a bit “off” for you, then having an accurate family history can make it easier for your clinicians to hone in on an accurate diagnosis faster. If the people in your family are used to seeing how these diagnoses are presented in people you both know, they might also be able to recognize when other relatives begin to exhibit similar symptoms.
Finding the right diagnosis more quickly also means that you are likely to experience a more rapid and more complete recovery. That relative who knows everyone’s ailments for the past three generations can become a very important family historian.
Some mental health conditions that are known to have genetic components include:
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar disorder
- Depression
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Becoming the Family Medical Historian
If there does not seem to be anyone in your family who is tracking medical history, you may need to step into that role to get information you and your children might one day need. The information most relevant to your own health will be conditions that your first-degree relatives have.
First-degree relatives are:
- Parents
- Siblings
- Children
Though you have less chance of sharing the same disorders, it can also be helpful to have information from second-degree relatives, including:
- Half-siblings
- Nieces/nephews
- Grandparents
- Aunts/uncles
Once you obtain the health information, it’s a good idea to document it, whether you do this in a simple word processing file, a notebook, or an online tool.
Sharing Your Family Health History
Once you know which family members have a history of what conditions, it is a good idea to share this with your medical and mental health providers. They may also be able to answer questions you have about these disorders and learn more from a knowledgeable relative, if you choose to bring one to your appointment with you.
You might also choose to share the information you obtain with other family members, so that they will know what the family history includes and so that you can keep each other up to date, if there are new diagnoses that emerge over time.
At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, we recognize the value of family, not just as a database of inheritable mental health disorders, but also as a steadying force for people whose mental health has become problematic. The love, empathy, and compassion we receive from our loved ones are powerful tools for healing.
