Young adults who are living with mental health issues aren’t the only ones struggling with the effects and symptoms of these conditions. Parents of young adults diagnosed with mental health conditions may find it difficult to navigate their lives, help their young adult loved ones, or find help for themselves in order to be the support their young adult loved ones need. Fortunately, there is help available for parents of young adults living with mental health issues. And, things that parents of young adults can do to look out for these conditions in their young adult loved one’s lives.

What do Symptoms of Mental Health Issues in Young Adults Look Like?

Before young adults and their parents can get help for mental health conditions, it can be helpful to identify symptoms of these conditions. Some of the most common symptoms of mental health issues in young adults can include:

• feeling sad and feelings of despair for long periods of time
• trouble focusing and concentrating on tasks
• suicidal thoughts and self-harm behaviors
• substance abuse
• trouble managing moods like anger and irritability
• experiencing hallucinations
• inability to manage feelings of anxiety and stress
• unexplained physical ailments and chronic pain

If your young adult child is experiencing some of these symptoms, it may be time to look into getting professional help through treatment as they may be living with an undiagnosed mental health condition. After diagnosis, treatment planning can begin to design a treatment program that is specific to your child’s needs and goals for recovery.

How Parents Can Help

Undoubtedly, parents of young adults living with mental health issues want to help their loved one as much as they can. Fortunately, there are things that parents can do to help and support including:

Being Non-Judgmental and Supportive: It’s imperative that, if parents want to support their young adult loved one throughout their mental healing, they need to be able to offer non-judgmental support. This can involve offering a listening ear without giving your own advice. And, telling your loved one that you are there for them if they need to express their thoughts and concerns when they need you. Finally, it means being able to listen to them while also validating their feelings. When young adults can come to their parents without fear of judgment, they will likely build trust within this relationship which is vital to the support they need during treatment and beyond.

Boundary Setting: As a parent, you’ll need to learn how to set boundaries for the optimal support you can give your young adult loved one. Healthy boundaries mean not enabling them to utilize unhealthy coping mechanisms like substance use. It can also mean not encouraging unhealthy communication like being yelled at or cursed at. To set these types of boundaries, allow yourself space and time to come up with good, boundary-setting responses like “I care about you, but I will not be enabling these types of behaviors”.

Giving Them Resources for Help: Another thing parents of young adults who are struggling with mental health issues can do is offer resources to get help. You can start by providing your young adult loved one with information regarding the fact that treatment is effective. Then, once your young adult loved one is receptive to getting help, assist them with researching and finding the right treatment for them. For example, a treatment center that is focused on the specific needs of young adults, like Yellowbrick.

Help for Parents of Young Adults

While young adults living with mental health issues need help, so may their parents. It’s not easy witnessing your child struggle and the effects of mental health issues may have even put a strain on your relationship and other aspects of your life. So, it’s important that you don’t disown your own mental health. It may be beneficial to utilize the services of treatment yourself, so choosing a treatment facility that offers family care can be beneficial.

Here at Yellowbrick, we offer family services so that not only young adults who are struggling with mental health issues get access to care, but so do their families and parents. Find out more about our family services from our website.