The reason people suffering with a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, PTSD or addiction become isolated from those around them is mostly due to lack of communication. Many people make assumptions about others based on their behavior that don’t take into account the person is being influenced by their mental health condition.

Negative behaviors such as extreme mood swings, abusing substances, risk-taking or illegal activity or lack of accountability can all contribute to destroying relationships as a result of mental illness. This is often difficult not only for others to understand but importantly, the person with mental health issues themselves. Individual counseling starts the process of unraveling the effects of mental illness and identifying its root causes.

Mental health conditions don’t develop overnight and so it takes time in individual counseling to address the issues driving them. Some people develop mental health problems in response to a traumatic event such as PTSD and others develop the symptoms of depression as a result of substance abuse. Getting to the reasons behind mental illness is the best way of making positive lifestyle changes to help people cope in recovery.