I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.  ~Edward Everett Hale

Did you know that you can make a difference to someone with a mental illness?  Did you know that you can do this without having the best education, the most money, or even the most confidence?

Stop!

I know what you were getting ready to do.  You were about to pull out one of your handy excuses as to why you cannot help someone, especially someone with a mental illness.

Now, if you truly believe that you have nothing of benefit to offer to someone with a mental health issue – and I mean absolutely nothing – then you should stop reading this blog post.  I mean it. If you do not stop now you might find out that you actually have the power to make a difference in someone else’s life.  Once you know that you can make a difference, you are going to have a bunch of wasted excuses laying around.  That would be bad, after all, an excuse is a terrible thing to waste.

We Are Valuable!

I believe that everyone of us has something valuable to offer those around us.  The problem is that so many of us fail to recognize that.  I think we often overlook our value because we lack self confidence and/or self worth.  When we look at ourselves we see our weaknesses, not our strengths. We focus more on what we cannot do, and pay no attention to the things we can do. I know – in the past –  I have had a habit of looking at all the wonderful, big things other people can do.  I would think to myself that there was no way I could do anything that compared to what they did, or even come as close to making the same impact on someone’s life that they did. So I did nothing. We often just do nothing.

We are wrong when we do that.  We are wrong when we feel so overwhelmed by our perceived lack of value that it propels us to take no action. We are wrong when we do nothing. We are wrong, because even the littlest action we take has the potential to effect great change in someone’s life.

I believe that those of us who have a Mental Illness have been given unique gifts. I believe this is true no matter what mental health issue we have and no matter how far along we are in our treatment process.  Our experiences with suicide attempts, medications, therapy, and even our own emotional battle wounds are just some of those valuable gifts. These gifts give us the opportunity to empathize with people who are in a similar set of circumstances to what we have experienced. They give us a special insight as to what might be going on in someone’s head when they are in a time of pain or crisis.

Little Things Do Make a Difference

Do you know how to say “Hi” to someone?  How about “You look nice today”? Or even “Nice to see/talk to you today”? Sometimes that is all that needs to be done to create a remarkable change in someone’s mind set. Other times sharing a bit of your story and what you did to combat that particular challenge makes a difference.  For me – on the day that I wrote this -, a difficult emotional day, what I needed was for someone to take the initiative and hold a figurative mirror up to my face and remind me of my own words. Someone did.

What I want to say, what I need to say, is that I know we all will encounter someone whose pain seems more than they can bear.  I know that we will question whether anything we could do would actually make a difference.  I want you to remember, that it does.  If all you know to do at the time is to simply say “Hi”, do it.  If all you know how to do that the time is tell a joke, do it.  If all you know at the time is to repeat to them some encouraging words you have heard/seen them use, do it. Often the best source of encouragement for a hurting person is to just know that there is someone out there listening.

Let me say it again….Little Things Do Make A Difference!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Melissa Mashburnrove © 2010 Melissa Mashburn