
Things a partner should do:
- Communicate with their partner about their illness.
- Read up on your partner’s mental or chronic illness.
- Make sure that your partner and yourself set boundaries and take care of yourselves.
Things a partner with a mental illness may think:

- I just want you to listen.
- Just tell me that everything is going to be okay.
- Don’t tell me to just get over it.
- You can tell me what I want to hear, but it won’t make my mental illness magically go away.
- Sometimes anxiety just happens and I can’t explain why.
- My depression has nothing to do with your strength as a partner.
- I need you to challenge me to challenge myself.
- Don’t assume I’m as strong as I appear.
- It takes time to heal.
- I need to work on me before bringing someone into this mess.
- Ask questions with an open mind.
- My stress evaporates once there is time to relax.
- You might never understand exactly what I’m going through.
- Not getting a text back from you makes me spiral.
- It’s part of who I am.
- It’s not often about you.
- Don’t assume that if I’m upset, it’s all because I’m crazy.
- It can be challenging dealing with the real world and my own world.
- Don’t assume you know or understand. You don’t have to pretend to have all the answers.
- Don’t add to the problem.
- Most importantly know that you should have your own social life outside of this relationship. Don’t forget to practice self-care. It’s important to have boundaries and so should I.
Thank you for being with me. Let us rebuild a healthy state of mind.
Sending you Angel love and Blessings.
Love, Francesca.