Issues in Life - The Importance of Relationships.

Isn’t it funny how people often refer to ‘the good old days’ as if in some way life back then was easier and less complicated? The truth is that life is what it is; chock-full of both the good and the not so good times.

The last year or two hasn’t helped of course with money issues back to the top of our worry list - worries that can have a seriously bad effect on our mental and physical health and on the relationships we rely on to get us through. It’s when these relationships begin to suffer that we start to feel alone with our problems, angry and depressed and unable to see a way through. It’s also the time when we tend to stop communicating – making the situation worse. No matter how much we don’t feel like talking to our partner, friends, family members or colleagues, this is the very time we should be sharing our feelings and worries openly and honestly - using our people network to lighten the load.

We are, all of us, a mix of experiences and emotions, a complex amalgam of feelings and ways of seeing the world. But by forming new perspectives on our world it’s possible to see things more clearly and tackle problems differently. By keeping feelings ‘bottled up’ we run the risk of falling further and reaching for quick fixes that mask rather than address the problem. We risk breaking the relationship chains that bind us leading to feelings of failure and betrayal. At times like this many turn to antidepressants and anxiety relieving medication and for some that may be fine. But recent health service reports suggest that we may be becoming overly dependent on drug related treatments for psychological and behavioral conditions. Prescriptions for antidepressants have increased four fold in the last 15 years.

Didn’t they used to say that “It’s good to talk”? Or was that just in the good old days?