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A Multidimensional Approach to Mental Health: Integrating Care and Support

#MentalHealthAwareness #CopingStrategies #EmotionalHealth #Therapy #SupportSystems #HealingJourney #FamilyTherapy #MentalIllness #Resilience #Psychiatry #CognitiveBehavioralTherapy #InterpersonalRelationships #MentalHealthSupport #UnderstandingMentalHealth #HopeAndHealing

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Over the weekend, I got to hang out with one of the people who matter immensely to me. We took a smooth ride to NYC for the purpose of growing our careers, and we had hearty and honest conversations throughout the trip. After we returned to base, we went to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. As an African, Hispanic and Italian cuisine always gets it right with my taste buds!

There, we breached the subject of missing the life at home and a whole lot of other things including the people at home. There was a moment of fleeting sadness when we were talking about this subject. What caused this sadness was the unavoidable fact that going home meant meeting with people who still hold the picture of an outdated version of who we once were, and would expect us to respond to them in a way that they’ve always been familiar with.

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In that moment, we acknowledged how much immigration changes people, and how being in a career akin to military indoctrination further alters a person.

One of the things I admire about the people in my inner circle is usually their ability to seamlessly untie a conceptual knot. It was the case that we acknowledged that we didn’t just change, but we had grown. So the conversation shifted to growth pains of lost interpersonal relationships.

Indeed growth is an overall good thing, but growth is not without griefs. You lose all of the necessary time, efforts and dragging weights, but you also lose people, some of whom you actually truly care about.

The aspect of losing people in the process of growth especially over nothing else than just growth is one that we are not socially prepared for most times. We either don’t recognize, honor, or accept the fact that we have outgrown certain relationships, or we go about addressing them in a maladaptive way that leaves a negative wake in our trail.

I’m not an expert on these things, but as someone who is actively going through various changes in life towards reestablishing myself, there are a few lessons that I’ve learned about growth-induced transitioning of interpersonal relationships that I’m going to share here:

Recognize that you are growing, and that growth is changing you both in specific and nonspecific ways. Recognizing growth in ourselves can be more challenging than it sounds. When the growth occurs in spurts, it is easy to recognize but when it is occurring in minuscule ways that are gradually adding up, then we may miss the changes that are occurring alongside. It is of particular importance that we learn to recognize growth as it happens because not everything that comes with growth is positive; some of the changes can cause an actual damage. Always remember that you owe yourself the responsibility of sounding your growth as it occurs.
Revisit values that are important to you to see if they still hold same or if they need to change. As a dynamic being, your values will often change from time to time and this doesn’t make you an unstable person. You don’t have to hang on to values that don’t align with your growth requirements, but you have to fight for the values that allow you to retain basic humanness toward people. If friends and family are of importance to you, then you may want to actively create a way of upholding them as you progress.
Reach out to the friends who matter to you regularly. By continued communication with your friends and family, you will be told if and how you have changed; changes that you would not have identified on your own. Also, by communicating frequently with the people who matter to you, you’ll also learn how they have grown, and all parties will be able to subtly establish new ways of relating with each other in a way that is not disruptive. Abruptly communicating new preferences and expecting people to immediately get in line and act along your preferences is how you destroy important relationships.
Willingly acknowledge and accept the ways that yourself and your loved ones have changed or remained same during your growth journeys, and make the necessary adjustments to accommodate the renewed relationship that you need to reestablish with them. If it is a nickname that you think that you’ve outgrown, let your loved ones know in a gentle and firm manner. Remind them as often as reasonably possible of your preferences, but don’t nag if they don’t make the changes…
Review the pros and cons of continued interactions with people who won’t honor your growth and renewed life preferences. Perhaps, the greatest indicator that a friendship cannot continue is when friends are unable or deliberately unwilling to accept your growth and preferences for continued interaction after a reasonable period of continuing to alert each other of it. If that be the case, then you may have to sever the relationship or reduce interactions to the barest minimum. But do it in a cordial way. While they may not yet catch up to your frequency at the moment, you must not assume that they will not eventually. So let the accompanying actions be cordial.

Like I often say, there’s no one size fits all with life, but we can always borrow from other people’s experiences and perspectives. The goal is to keep a wholesome existence even as you continue to grow.

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Remember that you don’t owe anyone sameness in the event that they fail to honor your growth and insist that you must relate with them as the older version of you had been doing. They also don’t owe you space to accommodate your growth. It is a game of choices, and you must choose what supports maximizing your potentials in life. Growth is necessary, and it comes with its demands.

If you enjoyed reading this article, like and follow us to continue to see contents like this. Share this with your circle to create awareness of how we change as we grow and increase the likelihood that you will remain friends even as you continue to grow through life.

https://sanetimental.net/2024/08/26/balancing-growth-and-interpersonal-relationships-key-strategies/

#cognition #InterpersonalRelationships #personalgrowth

person s left hand holding green leaf plant

The biggest reasons I have left my interpersonal relationships is because either my personal autonomy was threatened, there was abuse, there was little to no consideration for my needs & boundaries, the relationship was closely connected to other past relationships/ situations I didn't want to be part of anymore or the relationship made me feel drained... I'm a gentle dreamer with a fire in her belly who needs her space but loves a good, solid, loving community. 💖

#InterpersonalRelationships