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It's not unusual...

Nearly 47% of New Zealanders experience mental illness at some stage in their lives. When ongoing stress leads to an experience of mental illness, the ability of both ourselves and others to recognise the signs and symptoms early ensures the appropriate support can be offered.

Mental distress can present itself in many different ways, including in physical, spiritual, behavioural or emotional dimensions. The symptoms will be different according to the type of illness, but the most important thing to remember is that mental illness has equal capacity to either enhance or disturb people's lives.

With the right support from friends, family and colleagues, the amount of disturbance can be minimised. On the other hand, the courage, hope and strength that living with mental illness requires often enhances the ability of people to live well and hold valued roles within their whanau and communities.

Being able to recognise good mental health and what we can do to maintain it is important to everyone.

Stand in their shoes...

The ability to relate to people experiencing mental distress or mental illness is paramount if you are going to respond appropriately. Knowing how your reactions can impact on the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of others can make all the difference.

We all have individual beliefs and thoughts about situations we are faced with. Often these are automatic and occur before we've even had time to process them. It's important that we learn how to take the time to stop and think about how these thoughts and feelings may impact on another person. Doing this also gives us time to appreciate what might be going on for the other person.

Relating to the experience of mental illness often means standing in the shoes of another and empathising with their experience. Acknowledging the person as an individual who, despite a change in behaviours and thoughts, is still the same person in the first step to maintaining a relationship with them.

To read more about the experiences of those affected by mentall illness check out these stories on Like Minds, Like Mine and The Lowdown.

Your response counts

Be professional. Be polite. Tell the truth.

When people are experiencing distress, more often than not, it's the simple things that you can do that make a difference. If someone needs help and you're not sure what to do, just ask. Here are some ways of 'being':

• be genuine
• be compassionate
• be respectful
• be kind
• be gentle
• be a friend.

Sometimes things like making a cup of tea, offering to put on a load of washing, helping a colleague finish a large report or babysitting your brother's kids for the night can make the difference. Other ways of helping could include finding an understanding GP or giving an obviously stressed client help to fill in some forms. Just taking the time to provide some help and support shows someone they're not alone. If you need more help, you can also seek a professional response.