In our hectic daily life , stress in inevitable. But a healthy and happy family can play a major role in reducing the stress significantly.
The family is today recognized as a system, coming around and reacting to a change in one part ( i.e the illness of one member) in ways which either add to or ameliorate the problem.
A change in any one family member affects all other members of the family.
Deal with stress as soon as possible
Stress has many faces, and creeps into our lives from many directions. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working.Family gives us a purpose of life which directs our decisions on a daily basis. Kids are source of happiness in the family. We are physically more active in the family with various activities like cooking, playing with kids.
To effectively deal with stress, it’s important, to act together and promptly.
Role of Family as risk factor ( in causation) for mental illness
A) Faulty Parent-Child Relationships— certain parent child relationship patterns engender children with emotional disturbances.These includes:
Rejection: physical neglect, denying love and affection, disinterest in the activities and achievements of the child, failing to devote time to the child and showing lack of respect for the rights and feelings of the child.
Over-protection and restrictiveness: Parental over-protection restricts the child’s exposure to opportunities for growth, reality testing and competency development. A rigid enforcement of roles and standards deprives the child of the autonomy required to grow into a unique individual.
Over-permissiveness and over- indulgence: children of overly indulgent parents with high permissiveness and low discipline levels, exhibit egocentricity, antisocial, aggressive and exploitative behavior.
Unrealistic demands: when a child is given unrealistically high standards to live up to failure is often the only realistic outcome, giving rise to pain, frustration and lower self- worth.
B) Maladaptive Family Structures—the family also functions as the first and most important environment for a growing child, a source of safety, emotional warmth and social skills. Certain kinds of family environments have been seen to increase vulnerability for mental illness.
The inadequate family: a family with basic physical and psychological resource deficit, ex: a large family with poverty.
The disturbed family: ongoing parental conflict and inclusion of the child into the conflict , leaving the child deprived of love and nurturing.
The antisocial family: characterized by parental behavior violating the acceptable societal standards.
The disrupted family: an incomplete family as a consequence of death, divorce or some other event like a major illness.
The discordant family: characterized by one or both of the parents harboring a deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the family makeup, usually manifested in passive aggressive actions and communications.
Role of Family in maintaining mental illness
Family relationship variables like Expressed Emotion (EE) play pivotal roles in the course of major psychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia and others.
What is Expressed Emotion (EE)?
EE refers to care giver’s attitude towards a person with a mental disorder as reflected by comments about the patient made to an interviewer.
EE is considered to be an adverse family environment, which includes the quality of interaction patterns and nature of family relationships among the family caregivers and patients of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. It has been found to predict symptom relapse in a wide range of mental disorters.
EE comprises of following behavioral patterns
Hostility: A negative attitude towards the patient because the family believes his/her illness is “ controllable“ and patient is making a deliberate choice not to get better.
Emotional over-involvement: demonstrations of over-protectiveness or self-sacrifice, using exaggerated statements of attitude and preconceptions.
Critical comments: here, family members appreciate that both internal and external factors contribute to mental illness, yet criticism takes place.
Positive remarks: statements demonstrating an appreciation or support for a patient’s behavior and a verbal/ nonverbal reinforcement of his actions.
Emotional warmth: Warmth is a defining characteristic of the low EE family. It is demonstrated by an appreciable kindness, concern, and empathy when the caregiver talks about the patient.
Role of Family in Treatment & Rehabilitation
Family can take on a therapeutic role by adopting corrective family dynamic re-calibrations such as:
A sensitivity toward and an ability to fulfill the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of its members.
Effective communication and flexibility in the performance of family roles.
Balancing security and encouragement with a family member’s individuality and autonomy.
Facilitating formation of constructive relationships within and outside the family.
The ability to turn a crisis or potentially injurious experience into an opportunity for growth.
A collective regard for family unity, loyalty and inter-family cooperation.
Rehabilitation aims to enable an individual with mental illness to live the most rewarding and meaningful life possible. The family is the first and most immediate psycho-social environment, and bringing about positive changes in family dynamics thereby contribute to a major chunk of the rehabilitation work. Simple acts like encouraging a patient to participate in domestic work or engage in social occasions, can be important steps towards rehabilitation.
To conclude, Family plays numerous generative and mediating roles in the mental health of the individual.
God bless you with a happy and healthy family.
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