Mental Illnesses We Support
On the road to recovery...
Do you or a loved one have a specific psychosocial disability? We assist with many types of psychosocial illnesses. Below is a list of the most common mental illnesses and how we can help you with them. Start taking steps towards recovery so you can have a more fulfilled life.
Table of Contents
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar is a severe mood disorder that is associated with major depressive lows and intense manic highs. The exact cause of bipolar is unknown, but it’s suggested that genetics and altered body and brain chemistry may be a contributing factor.
Symptoms of bipolar disorder include:
- Difficulty concentrating or making life decisions
- Feelings of extreme sadness and hopelessness
- Losing motivation and interest
- Getting too much or too little sleep
- Feelings of low self-worth
- Thoughts of self harm
- Delusions
- Extreme lethargy
With extreme manic highs, a person with bipolar may feel more angry and frustrated than usual. Additionally, a person with bipolar tends to take more extreme risks, such as taking more drugs and spending more money.
How Can We Help?
A person with bipolar disorder needs guidance from a recovery coach to help them build up their self-awareness. This way, you’re able to detect what triggers your emotions and how to handle them better.
Like a therapist, a recovery coach personally assists participants with bipolar to attain personal growth and improve their well-being. Behavioural changes can start with the help of a recovery coach. You may get the support you need from a coach who cares about you and encourages you to keep going and never give up on yourself or your life goals.
Severe Depression
Depression has similar symptoms to bipolar disorder because you may experience feelings of extreme sadness and hopelessness. The main difference between depression and bipolar is that there are no elevated or manic phases when feeling depressed. This means that depression is unipolar.
People with depression experience mood swings and panic that last longer than usual. Extreme tiredness, feelings of guilt and low self-esteem are other severe symptoms of depression.
Depression can cause you to feel less motivated, so you may neglect personal hygiene or eat more or less than usual. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, you may need a psychosocial recovery coach to assist you.
How Can We Help?
In the worst cases, some people who suffer from depression can commit suicide or neglect their well-being to such an extent that they develop other psychosocial illnesses.
People who suffer from extreme depression need a recovery coach who shares their experiences. That’s why at Recovery Supports Australia, we provide recovery coaches that know what you’re going through because they have lived experiences.
Many benefits come with mental coaching, and in modern practices, recovery coaches include physical activity to improve a participant’s mood.
Here is how a recovery coach can help you:
Effective recovery coaching can help you detect what triggers your anxiety and why it makes you feel depressed. By identifying why you feel anxious, you’ll know how to fix the problem.
A recovery coach’s primary goal is to improve your mental wellbeing, so you feel happier and more content with life and yourself. Through a series of constructive activities, you may feel more confident in your abilities, motivating you and elevating your mood.
With the guidance of a recovery coach, you may begin to see your self-worth again, which will immediately boost your self-esteem. You can regain your confidence to complete your goals and make better choices for your life.
People often feel like they’ve lost control of their life when they feel depressed. A recovery coach may be able to help you regain control to improve your way of living. The advantage of a life coach is that you’re never told what to do. Instead, you have the freedom to make your own choices, provided they’re beneficial to you.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a psychosocial disorder that affects a person’s ability to think and behave rationally. Symptoms include severe delusions and the sense of being out of touch with reality.
A person with schizophrenia may experience the following:
- Hearing sounds such as whispers or talking that only they can hear
- Seeing or experiencing things that no one else does
- Delusions or beliefs that seem far fetched
- Lack of emotion
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Lack of self care especially with personal hygiene
To assist you in the best way possible, you need a series of mental treatments that will help you ease your symptoms. These treatments don’t include harmful medication but a series of positive mental coaching exercises to improve your way of living.
How Can We Help?
One of the ways recovery coaches help schizophrenic participants is with social skills training. This type of training has been proven to increase their social participation and improve their independence.
With the assistance of a recovery coach, you may experience the following benefits:
- You have the opportunity to have more control over your life
- The ability to handle more complex challenges
- Interacting with a coach that has lived experiences with schizophrenia
- Having a coach you can fully trust
- You may have the ability to take part in your community again
- The opportunity to have more independence
Recovery coaches understand the needs of schizophrenia participants and what exercises they need to live a life they can lead on their own.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD is a mental disorder that’s marked by a pattern of unstable moods, behaviour and self-image. People living with BPD will have changes in values and interests, and they tend to view their relationships and the world in extremes, whether it’s good or bad.
Here are a few symptoms of BPD:
- Feelings of emptiness
- Difficultly trusting others
- Self harming such as cutting of the skin
- Problems controlling anger
- Fear of abandonment
- Intense angry outbursts
How Can We Help?
Oftentimes people with BPD feel misunderstood, which can amplify their symptoms. Family members and friends may not understand what it’s like living with BPD. A recovery coach can assist those with BPD to help them feel safe in the world again.
Here’s how a recovery coach can help you:
- Through a series of coaching exercises you may learn to trust the right people again
- With the help of a recovery coach you can learn what triggers your moods
- You may be able to identify what makes you feel fearful
- Your coach will guide you so you can learn to control your anger
- A recovery coach can help you make the right decisions for your life
If you want to take control of your life, you’ll need the proper guidance. A recovery coach is certified and knows how to comfort and help those living with BPD.
Trauma Related Illnesses
Post-traumatic stress (PTSD) is a serious psychosocial illness developed after witnessing or living through a traumatic experience. A participant living with PTSD may get triggered by specific sounds or images that cause flashbacks of the traumatic event.
Symptoms include:
- Nightmares
- Memory loss
- Panic attacks
- Negative thoughts about the world
- Lack of motivation
- Intrusive thoughts
- Anger and irritability
Severe PTSD can result in not wanting to engage with people, sleeping more often than usual and not wanting to go outside.
How Can We Help?
It’s essential for anyone living with PTSD to trust their care team so they can feel safe and secure in their environment. Recovery coaches spend time with their participants to build rapport and trust.
Our coaches know what it feels like living with PTSD, so they may be able to help you with the following:
- Build your trust towards others again
- Boost your confidence so you can have the motivation to do the things you love
- Teach you about self awareness and how to control negative emotions
- Help you identify and rid your mind of intrusive thoughts
- Guide you so you know what to do when you get triggered
Anxiety Disorder
Everyone feels anxious every now and then. But an anxiety disorder is when someone has constant overwhelming fear. This excessive anxiety can cause panic attacks, muscle tension and insomnia. Anxiety disorder can also lead to other psychosocial illnesses such as agoraphobia (the fear of going outside).
Here is a list of symptoms:
- Uneasiness
- Unable to stay calm or still
- Tense muscles
- Diziness
- Lack of concentration
- Intensely avoiding feared places or objects
- Feelings of panic or danger
There are different types of anxiety disorders such as social anxiety or panic disorder. With that being said, some symptoms may be more severe than others depending on the kind of anxiety one has.
How Can We Help?
Recovery coaches know how difficult it can be to go out into the world when you feel intense fear all the time. It would help if you had someone you can rely on to talk to about your anxiety disorder so that you never feel patronized or like your fears are trivial.
Here’s how recovery can help you if you have an anxiety disorder:
- Help you identify what’s triggering your anxiety
- Provide the tools you need to overcome your fears
- Talk to you when you’re feeling overwhelmed
- Guide you through a series of tasks so you can learn to communicate with your peers again
- Provide a series of exercises to help keep you calm during difficult times
- Help you improve your mental wellbeing
Autism
Autism refers to a broad range of conditions because there are many subtypes to it. This type of illness impairs the ability to interact and communicate effectively. The severity and degree of autism can vary from person to person.
Several factors can influence the onset of autism such as:
- Seizures
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Sleep disorders
Additionally, people with autism can experience the following symptoms:
- Cognitive: Problems paying attention, difficulty learning and communicating or obsessive interests in certain activities.
- Developmental: Delayed language or movement skills.
- Psychological: Intense or lack of fear, anxiety or excessive worry, trouble understanding the feelings of others.
- Behavioural: Compulsive and impulsive behaviour, persistent repetition of words, self harm, inappropriate social interactions, and lack of eye contact when communicating with others.
Other symptoms include sensitivity to sound or having a tic. It’s important to note that people living with autism have strengths and weaknesses like everybody else. But they’ll need more assistance developing their strengths.
How Can We Help?
The purpose of a recovery coach is to build up the strength of someone living with autism to interact with others and potentially make friends. Autism can be challenging for the person living with it, and that’s why you’ll want assistance from someone who can understand autism.
A recovery coach is qualified to assist people living with autism and create a program to help them develop social skills and potentially decrease negative behavioural patterns. With a strong support program, a recovery coach can increase the participant’s interest in positive and constructive activities to boost the participant’s confidence.
Benefits may include:
- Improved attention
- An increase in language and communication skills
- The ability to be independent
- Improved focus and memory
Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental health disorder that is characterised by a combination of symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder. People with schizoaffective disorder experience both psychotic symptoms such as:
- delusions
- hallucinations
- disordered thinking
- mood-related symptoms (such as mania or depression)
- for a significant portion of time during a continuous period of at least two weeks.
The symptoms of schizoaffective disorder can vary widely and can include a variety of symptoms from both schizophrenia and mood disorders, making it a complex and challenging diagnosis to make. Treatment typically involves a combination of medication, therapy, and support services, and the goal of treatment is to help individuals manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
How Can We Help?
The treatment for schizoaffective disorder typically involves a combination of medication, therapy, and support services.
Antipsychotic and mood stabilising medication is typically prescribed to help manage the psychotic symptoms of schizoaffective disorder
Coaching can help individuals with schizoaffective disorder better understand their symptoms, cope with stressors, and improve their interpersonal relationships. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and family therapy are commonly used for schizoaffective disorder.
Vocational rehabilitation, housing assistance, and case management can help individuals with schizoaffective disorder live independently and achieve their goals.
We Offer Tailored Packages to Suit Your Needs
It should be noted that not everyone will need the same treatment for their mental disorder. That’s why we tailor your treatment to meet your specific needs. Whether you want to build up your mental strength, improve your quality of life or become independent, a recovery coach is here to guide you.
Do you feel like you’re doing the same thing without getting the desired result? Sometimes all we need is a slight nudge in the right direction and some motivation to keep you focused. We are here to help build you up so you can live an enriched life. Call us today and set up a free appointment with one of our recovery coaches to determine if they are a good fit for you.
Ready to begin your journey towards recovery?
Taking the first step is often the most difficult, yet it’s necessary to begin your journey towards recovery. The sooner you take it, though, the sooner your progress towards a more independent and fulfilling life begins.
