Navigating Parenthood with a Mental Health Condition

Parenting is a rewarding journey filled with many different emotions and challenges. It is common to experience feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed or anxious as a parent. These feelings can often be amplified for parents when they are also managing some sort of mental illness. 

Challenges Faced by Parents with Mental Health Conditions

  • Managing Symptoms: Balancing the demands of parenting while managing symptoms of your mental health condition can be overwhelming and difficult to handle. 
  • Stigma and Judgement: Fear of judgement or the stigma surrounding mental health from others can create additional stress and anxiety for parents with mental health conditions. 
  • Self-Care: Prioritizing self-care while caring for your children can feel like a constant juggling act, making it difficult to maintain an overall wellness for yourself. 
  • Parenting Guilt: Feeling guilty about the impact of your mental health condition on your children or worrying about passing on a genetic predisposition to mental illness can weigh heavily on parents. 

Supporting Yourself 

  • Take Care of Your Mental Health: This could mean eating well, making time for exercise, getting better sleep, taking time to practice self-care, or talking to someone about how you are feeling.
      1. Self-Care Practices: Be sure to prioritize your self-care activities that nourish your mind, body and soul. 
  • Build a Strong Support Network: Surround yourself with people you can rely on for practical and emotional support. Be sure you can tell them when things are starting to get difficult and how you need help. 
  • Set Realistic Expectations and Boundaries: Recognize that parenting with a mental illness may require certain adjustments, boundaries and flexibility. Ensure that you are setting realistic expectations for yourself and your children and are setting boundaries when needed. Do not hesitate to ask for help when you need it. 
  • Seek Professional Help: Don’t hesitate to reach out and seek professional help if parenting with your mental health condition becomes too much for you to handle on your own. A therapist can help you to overcome any challenges you may be facing and help you come up with strategies on how you can cope. 

How Children Can Be Affected

Many children with a parent who has a mental health condition do not experience any sort of negative side effects. But some children can be affected if they do not receive any support. They might:

  • Worry about their parent
  • Experience confusion or anxiety 
  • Take on a caring role to their other siblings or to their parent
  • Have negative feelings about their parent’s mental health condition
  • Keep their worries to themselves and feel like they can’t share with a trusted adult 
  • Experience changes in their everyday routine
  • Find it hard to make friends or experience bullying

Supporting Your Child 

  • Communicate Openly: Be honest with your children about your mental health condition in an age-appropriate manner. Open communication can help to foster understanding and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health within the family. 
  • Create Stability: Work to establish consistent routines and rules that can help create a sense of stability and security for your children, even during difficult periods. 
  • Foster Resilience: Help your children to be able to develop coping skills and resilience by modelling healthy ways of managing stress and emotions. 
  • Normalize Seeking Help: Demonstrate to your children that seeking help for mental health challenges is a sign of strength and self-care. Encourage your children to express their feelings and seek additional support from therapists if needed. 

How Can We Help?

1) Counselling 

Counselling can play a pivotal role for both parents navigating parenthood with a mental illness and the children who have a parent facing such challenges. 

For parents, therapy offers a place to unpack the complexities of balancing their mental health needs with the responsibilities of being a parent. Therapists will help to provide a safe and supportive environment for parents to explore their emotions, learn strategies and build resilience. Through, counselling parents can help to address their feelings of guilt, shame, or inadequacy of being a parent and gain insight and valuable skills into how they can best navigate the ups and downs of parenting with their mental illness.

Similarly, for children therapy helps to provide a safe space to express their emotions, ask questions, and receive age-appropriate education about mental illness. Therapists can help children develop coping skills, foster resilience, and navigate the unique stressors and challenges associated with having a parent with a mental illness. 

2) Massage Therapy

For parents, regular massage sessions help to provide a sanctuary for relaxation and stress relief, essential for helping to manage the daily challenges of parenting while coping with mental health issues. It can help to promote deep relaxation, reduce muscle tension, and release endorphins which can help to alleviate symptoms. Massage therapists can help to create a soothing environment where parents can unwind, recharge and cultivate a sense of well-being amidst the demands of parenting with a mental illness. 

For children who have a parent with a mental illness, massage therapy can provide a safe and comforting space to unwind, destress, and process any emotions they may have. Massage therapy can help to promote a sense of security and connection, helping children to feel supported and validated in their experiences. 

3) Osteopathy (Coming Soon)

Osteopathy can offer a multifaceted approach to support both parents navigating parenthood with a mental illness and children affected by their parent’s condition. For parents, osteopathic treatment addresses the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and soul by aiming to restore balance and optimize overall health. Osteopaths focus on gentle manual techniques to release tension, improve circulation, and enhance the body’s ability to self-heal. By helping to address physical discomfort and promote relaxation, osteopathy can alleviate symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, helping parents better cope with the demands of parenting while managing their mental health. 

For children, osteopathy can help offer a supportive space to address any physical or emotional imbalances that may arise from the family’s dynamic.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help!