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Is your family member suffering from a chronic physical or mental health illness? If so, do you feel stressed or burdened by it? If so, then this blog may be useful for you!
When one family member is diagnosed with a chronic illness, the illness has a prism effects on the entire family. Chronic illnesses could be Physical Health problems, such as Heart Disease, Genetic Disease, and Cancer, or Mental Health problems such as Depression, Bipolar disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Anorexia Nervosa.
On a cold winter night, feeling somewhat full and bloated from dinner, Ritu gets out of bed to make a cup of green tea to push the food down and soothe herself. She goes into the kitchen, puts on the stove and puts the water to boil. She opens a cupboard in the kitchen to pull out a tea bag, while closing it she sneaks a glance and spots the 'chips and namkeen' kept on the other shelves. She impulsively wants to eat one, resolutely tries to ignore it, she pours the water into her cup, dips the tea bag, goes back to her room and gets into the covers.
Everyone knows that each child deserves his/her own place in the family and, as a parent, maintaining balance is imperative. Identifying and acknowledging individual positive traits in each child is a good parenting style, and ensures that all feel safe and loved. However, often in my line of work as a psychologist, I have observed families in which one child has been singled out as the favourite or “perfect” child, and the other child is always subjected to continuous unfavourable comparison. I have seen this 'perfect child syndrome' single-handedly ruin an entire family. Favouring one child leads to unsaid rules for the other child - including ‘don’t create afuss about things’ or ‘learn to overlook things’ adages like ‘silence is golden’. However, I believe that most of the times such ‘silence is violence’.
A healthy relationship is characterised by love, intimacy, physical attraction, mutual respect, honesty, trust, compassion, optimum space, individuation, care, security and commitment. The initial phase of the relationship contains most of these facets, if not all of them. Yet, as we embark upon the journey of a relationship, we are met with many turns, hairpin bends, stop signs, roadblocks and speed breakers. Have you ever wondered how one ensures smooth cruising despite these vicissitudes?