Parents: Improve Your Mental Health With These Strategies
Parents manage everybody’s health, and unfortunately, may let their own languish. This is especially true when it comes to mental health. The daily stressors of work, parenting, and running the family can be too much. Follow these tips to find balance.
Find Child-Specific Support
If you have more than one child, you know how wonderfully unique each one is. Their growth, development, and differences cannot be more apparent within some families. That is okay. Celebrating differences is what life is all about.
That being said, sometimes, one or more of your children may require extra care, time, and interventions that the others do not need. When that happens, it is essential to find the appropriate support and services to ensure your child is being cared for according to the best practices for their diagnosis and situation. After all, you don’t know until you know, and the specialists already know, so it makes sense to tap into their years of collective education, training, and lived experiences.
Ask for Help
Raising a child, regardless of whether or not they have a specific medical or mental health diagnosis, is a job in and of itself. It is difficult to do everything on your own. Whether you have a job beyond parenting, work full-time, part-time, out of the home, or remotely from your home, you still have a lot of responsibilities every single day.
It can be hard for many people to ask for help. If this resonates, know that you probably have many people in your life who are more than ready and willing to help you. You would likely return the favor in a heartbeat without giving it a second thought. Asking for help can be a big step, but it is worth it. You receive the assistance you need, and others connect with you and your children. It is a win for everyone involved.
Watch this video for tips on how to ask for help and receive a positive response.
Take Me Time
If time to yourself sounds like a mythical unicorn, you are not alone. It is difficult for parents to make time for themselves, especially when their child has special needs. However, it is integral to your mental health to give yourself this gift. Whether you are grocery shopping alone with a podcast playing in your ear, taking a solo walk around the block, or going to the bathroom with the door closed without anyone impatiently waiting outside, you deserve that time. You truly deserve a lot more, but sometimes, that is hard to come by.
Talk with your family about privacy needs and requirements for alone time. Work together to be respectful and helpful. If you have small children who do not yet understand the concept of time, set a timer for them to deter them from checking on you while you are in the bathroom, on the phone, or just taking a few moments to read a chapter of the latest book in your room.
Be your best self and the best parent you can be by finding necessary support and asking for help when you need it. Remember that you need to recharge to help your family, so it is important to take care of yourself, too.
