How to Open Up About Your Mental Health to Your Spouse

Every relationship may come with sudden challenges, potentially contributing to a stronger bond and overall growth as a couple. Communicating mental health in a relationship is one of the top factors in staying happily committed. When life changes, it is important to stay open with one another for an easy transition together. It is important for an individual to accept healthy changes and connect with their spouse. This can make it easier for the couple to cope with certain issues. 

Choosing the right environment for privacy at the appropriate time is crucial to open up about one’s mental health to their significant other. Some couples may struggle with simply opening up due to fears of judgment. Family therapy can be an effective treatment option to participate in together. This can be especially helpful for couples with children as their families may be growing. 

Connecting With Your Spouse

Learning to accept support from a loved one can greatly increase and establish emotional security and mental stability within the relationship. When a partner provides support for their spouse, this can make it easier for the individual to overcome the effects of mental health disorders and addiction and make for balanced relationships outside of their partnership. According to New York State, a healthy relationship comes from the foundation of trust, honesty, and respect. A partner should feel safe to open up about their mental health and share emotions while feeling heard. 

Taking the time to confide or open up can bring great relief and potentially make the relationship stronger. When an individual makes the wise choice to open up to their partner regarding their mental health, this promotes a healthy routine. Choosing to communicate can help the other party better cope with certain hardships. 

Keeping secrets can often cause confusion, arguments, and feelings of blame or helplessness. Lack of communication can lead to poor outcomes and potential separation. Choosing to keep things bottled up can also create bad exposure for the couple’s children as well. Therefore, discussing mental health is crucial for everyone in the family’s well-being. 

Challenges That Contribute to a Decline in Mental Health

It may not be easy to open up about personal mental health challenges that one may be facing. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia are just a few co-occurring mental illnesses that individuals may face today. Specific outside stressors can contribute to these mental health problems by exacerbating symptoms.

Outside stressors may include: 

• Financial issues
• Addiction
• Relationship problems with family and friends
• Self-image issues
• Patience problems with parenting
• Chronic health problems

Choosing the Right Environment at the Appropriate Time

Planning the right time and place to open up can make sharing personal problems regarding one’s mental health much easier. This can also provide the privacy needed to safely share specific issues. For example, staying patient and choosing to discuss certain challenges with mental health after work can be a comfortable time to open up. 

Choosing to discuss personal problems through text or written messages may present the wrong tone and be less intimate. This can make the message seem unclear, all the while causing unneeded confusion and additional stress. If the individual opens up about their mental health on the weekend, this can give each partner time to heal and process thoughts before the week starts. Talking before bed may be a good choice. This may provide a quiet, more private environment away from the kids, as young children or adolescents do not have adult perceptions. 

Self-Help Strategies to Better Manage Stress and Mental Health

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), it can be extremely difficult for one to manage stress. Stress is an accumulation of many uncompleted tasks at once. As stated previously, life changes can be so stressful it can be a challenge for an individual to make time to focus on their mental health. Managing addiction or a mental illness and communicating these symptoms to a loved one can also be very stressful for many individuals. Learning and practicing different self-help strategies can make communicating thoughts a smoother process. 

A few examples of relaxation techniques to ease symptoms of stress may consist of:

• Deep breathing
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Mindfulness and mediation
• Yoga
• Guided imagery

How Can Avalon Malibu Help Couples Discuss Addiction and Co-Occurring Mental Health Problems?

When an individual is in a relationship, it is important to be completely transparent with their loved one to preserve the partnership. Opening up about mental health can be very uncomfortable for some people. Once a reasonable time and comfortable place for conversation are well established, it may be difficult to process how to get started. 

Discussing when a decline in mental health started can help give the other party more of a background. Next, it can be helpful for the individual to explain how they have been feeling. Sharing how communicating these feelings makes one feel can make it easier to connect. It can be especially helpful for the individual to inform their loved one of the areas they have been mentally struggling with. When an individual explains their intention for opening up about their mental health, this can potentially create a stronger bond. Setting goals and searching for a mental health facility together can keep each person committed to psychological treatment. 

For example, Avalon Malibu delivers luxury mental health treatment to aid couples and families who struggle mentally. Family and couples therapy assists individuals to better adapt and transition through life changes together. This can range from discussing mental health or learning to overcome certain obstacles addiction may present. Therapy can offer new skills to individuals to better communicate challenges and promote a fulfilling quality of life. 

It can be nerve-racking to open up to your spouse about your mental health. Facing addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders can be overwhelming. At Avalon Malibu, we are one of the only residential treatment centers in California qualified to treat mental health and psychiatric illnesses where these concerns are the primary diagnosis. The residential program at Avalon Malibu utilizes a combination of evidence-based therapies to create a comprehensive custom treatment plan for every client. Couples and family therapy are a couple of modalities used in our residential program. If you are struggling to communicate your mental health to your loved ones, Avalon Malibu can help. We focus on potential, not pathology. Call Avalon Malibu at (844) 857-5992.