While mental health has been under the radar for so many until Covid-19. For some families this is nothing new. The impact of genes on our mental health and why some problems run in families. Often these are seen as family quirks, outsiders do not understand. In reality, a state of denial often leads families to ignore issues that they should address and seek guidance from mental health professionals or charities such as Mind.
My experiences have luckily have not been in my own blood family, but part of my wider friends, family and colleagues.
Working daily with people who have issues that cause them to struggle can be challenging. I found that keeping colleagues busy was key to helping both get the best out of them and to keep a close eye on their moods and tell tale signs they needed assistance in some way.
Being able to help someone manage their condition, especially in the work place, is about understanding what a) they have signed up to contractually b) what they are capable of under most circumstances and c) what they can do when conditions are not ideal.
I have studied next to someone with a severe form of dyslexia, unable to use a computer and being highly intelligent made matters worse for her when the university did not support her as I felt it should have done.
I have also worked with bi-polar and those suffering from chronic depression. Great when they take their medications and a serious concern when they don’t or when they reduce their dosage.
Being around people with schizophrenia, has different challenges. Knowing which personality you are talking to and understanding that one personality may not know what you told another can be very unnerving and upsetting. Both for you and them. I am sure I told you… yes you did … but it was the other personality that heard it. One person had 6 distinct personalities and could change between them in a second. Keeping track of which personality and how you understand which personality you are dealing with in the current moment is tiring and frustrating but not impossible. Luckily for that individual, you could ask for each personality and often that personality would return. They often had emotions like anxiety in one personality, childlike in another and angry in another. While we all are capable of all the emotions, and often choose not to exhibit some of them, schizophrenics face the world through different lenses. Dealing with some people of this type on a friendly level can be quite charming depending on the personalities involved. Unfortunately, they can also be quite clingy as they try to hold onto people in their life. The book the Death of the Family, if you ignore its socialist leanings from the era in which it was written provides a key to these types of people. The three year old that lets go of Mum’s hand to skip down the street on her own is never going to be schizophrenic. But the child that is still at home and embedded in the family may require deeper scrutiny. And that has nothing to do with current levels of house prices.
The emotions of the autistic person are often controlled - they can appear to show most emotions - especially in the less severe cases, but in reality some emotions they mimic, rather than feel. The ability to love is often outside their capacity. They may say the right things, the things they have been told are appropriate in that instance, but the true feelings are just not there. The reality is a coldness, at their heart, that is often hidden by very gregarious natures and outgoing personalities. Learning what is within their grasp emotionally can take a long time to know in reality, especially if they have been taught well.
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