When a spouse struggles with a mental health disorder like anxiety or depression, it can have a toll on the entire family. Knowing how to help a spouse might seem overwhelming at first but there are several things you can do to support yourself and your spouse no matter the situation.
How to Help Your Spouse with Anxiety and Depression
There are several ways that you can learn how to help your spouse with anxiety or depression and it starts with understanding the conditions yourself. From there, you can learn how best to communicate, things to avoid and things to do.
Tip #1: Avoid Blame or Solutions
Sometimes the worst thing you can do for someone struggling with anxiety or depression is to blame it on them or offer endless “solutions” to their problems, for example:
- “Have you tried just not being sad?”
- “Maybe you shouldn’t think about your anxiety so much.”
- “I don’t let those things get to me; you shouldn’t either.”
When a spouse is struggling with anxiety or depression it is best that you keep open communication and that you create a supportive home environment for them where they feel safe sharing how they feel.
You might not realize how your comments can be hurtful instead of constructive even if you are well intentioned.
Tip #2: Offer Support
Instead one of the things that you can do is to offer support with open communication. This includes things like:
- Offering to do certain activities with them like journaling before bed or meditating
- Asking how your spouse feels and actively listening instead of providing solutions
- Stating that you want to support them
- Offering to research things for them or attend group meetings with them
In some cases, this will be highly personalized. If, for example, you have a spouse who is very stubborn and you have noticed the symptoms of anxiety or depression in them but they don’t actively want your help and instead just want to talk about how they feel, you might have to cater the way you offer support. For example:
Instead of offering to do certain activities with them like journaling or meditating, start doing those things yourself and invite them to join you whenever you do. Sometimes, for certain people, when you ask them to do activities with them, it gives them empowerment and a sense of control in a world where they might otherwise feel overwhelmed and out of control.
It also takes away any pressure to schedule certain things or commit to things like journaling on a nightly basis or meditating every morning.
Tip #3: Educate Yourself
A big part of offering the right support and avoiding the wrong comments comes from educating yourself about the conditions.
This extends to taking the time to learn about the conditions, access online videos and even attend support groups yourself. There are ample support groups for individuals who have a spouse with either condition or both conditions and in these situations you might learn more measures that you can employ at home based on your spouse’s personality or circumstances.
The nice thing about getting help for yourself and finding support groups or therapy is that you can use tactics that you know are most efficacious even if your spouse isn’t ready to get help for themselves.
How to Help Your Spouse with Anxiety and Depression: Professional Treatment
No matter how effectively you implement each of these strategies, there may come a time when the help that your spouse needs is beyond what you can offer.
In these cases, legitimate anxiety or depression conditions need professional help. Here the best way that you can figure out how to help your spouse with anxiety and depression is to guide them toward appropriate treatment with Multi Concept Recovery.
We are not a typical addiction treatment center. We believe in a customized approach to depression treatment by giving clients the power to choose. With our individualized, evidence-based treatment programs, our goal is to offer clients the tools they need to sustain recovery.
This might mean getting treatment for addiction and anxiety and depression at the same time or mental health treatment with guidance on managing symptoms of depression or anxiety, recognizing triggers, and learning how to cope more effectively.
To achieve these ends we treat the entire person:
- Mentally
- Physically
- Emotionally
- Spiritually
When you reach out for help for yourself or a spouse, we will assess each client to determine what it is that they need most, and what combination of therapy and medication might serve to help manage an anxiety or depression diagnosis.
We understand that mental health disorders don’t discriminate but there are multiple paths to recovery. Call today to find yours: 1-866-957-3859.
