Every type of relationship brings something special to your life. You can make lasting memories with your family and friends. You can have companionship with your significant other; talking with your co-workers can provide an outlet for stress. Plus, these sentiments can often overlap into other types of relationships. Even so, relationships aren’t always easy. They can even become fractured and broken.

A broken relationship involves at least one other person. However, focusing on your own mental health can make a significant difference in repairing the bond. By taking an introspective look at your mental, emotional and behavioral patterns that may have contributed to the distress in the relationship, you can work on adjusting them for healthier connections.

Why your mental health is important for fixing broken relationships

When you consider your mental health, your own experience plays an integral role. It’s about your internal struggles, trauma, emotional responses and fears. However, the different contributing factors to your mental well-being can also lead to difficulty forming or maintaining relationships with others. 

The good news is that by prioritizing your mental health through treatments like self-care and therapy, you can address those factors to adjust your mindset and gain the tools needed to work on fixing a broken relationship.

How prioritizing your mental health can help your relationships

By understanding how your relationships can be improved by prioritizing your mental health, you’ll be able to better grasp how your thoughts, emotions and behaviors are affecting those around you.

Here are a few ways that improving your mental health can benefit your relationships, including working to fix broken ones:

• Being able to see different perspectives — It isn’t easy to get out of our own heads sometimes, especially when it comes to our opinions. However, being open-minded can help you in many ways, such as feeling motivated to try a new hobby or learning about a different culture. It’s especially important in relationships, as being open-minded can help you work through conflict. When you’re able to consider other viewpoints and approaches to a situation, you can have constructive conversations while increasing empathy.
• Understanding your boundaries — A large step in your mental health journey is learning and enforcing your boundaries. A boundary refers to a limit that you set between yourself and others to protect your mental, emotional or physical well-being. Boundaries can vary from person to person. For example, you might not feel comfortable being touched, so you don’t hug others. You may set aside certain time frames for alone time to avoid social burnout. In a relationship, it’s important that you set those boundaries, and that they are respected.
• Regulating your emotions — Emotional regulation is a skill that can take time and experience to develop. When you start to prioritize your mental health, especially through therapy, you can gain mindfulness about your emotions and recognize unhelpful thought patterns. You can also learn triggers that lead to negative emotional responses. When you’re able to regulate your emotions, you can become an active listener in a relationship and reduce the risk of escalating arguments.
• Improving problem-solving skills — If you’re experiencing mental health distress or challenges, it can make it difficult to use logic and reasoning when a problem arises in a relationship. You may focus too much on your emotions as opposed to the present issue. Perhaps you don’t have the patience to find a solution. Once you start to prioritize your mental health and learn how to manage the stress that comes from trying to solve problems, you can work with the other person to solve the issue at hand.

It’s also worth noting that not every broken relationship is worth fixing. Improving your mental health can often help you see the unfixable, toxic aspects of a relationship that shouldn’t be repaired. For example, it may not always be in the best interest of your mental health to try to reconcile with a cheating ex or a narcissistic best friend.

Lightfully can help you prioritize your mental health to improve your relationships

When you’re having mental health challenges or condition symptoms, it can affect every facet of your life, including your relationships with others. Some relationships may contribute to your mental health struggles and should be dissolved. Others are worth the effort. If you have a broken relationship with a person who brings value to your life, prioritizing your mental health can help. 

Self-care and regular therapy sessions can make a significant difference in moving you along your mental health journey. It’s also possible that your doctor will prescribe you medication for condition symptoms that aren’t responding to other treatments. However, if you need more intensive support, that’s OK. We’re here to help.

At Lightfully, we have four levels of care that can help you develop the skills you need to fix broken relationships and prioritize your mental well-being. We provide:

• Residential Treatment 
• Partial Hospitalization Program
• Intensive Outpatient Program
• Virtual Intensive Outpatient Program 

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.