Page 44 - Vision Manual

Building Social Support
Having people who care about you and that you can rely on for help and support is a very important aspect of recovery. Social support comes in a wide variety of different sorts of relationships, and at different levels of closeness. Social support can come from family, friends, people in your neighborhood, people you meet at a drop-in center, folks from church, or any other sort of relationship you might form that is meant to help. Research shows that the more different kinds of people that an individual has in their lives is directly linked to how long it takes a person to recover from mental health concerns, and how lasting that recovery is. Supportive relationships helps people to feel good about themselves, and can also help people reduce stress. This section will focus on teaching you ways to develop social support and build effective boundaries that maintain healthy relationships.
Questions: What does social support mean to you? What sorts of supports do you have in your life? What sorts of supports might you like to build into your life?
Increasing Social Support
The first step in increasing social support is to find places where people are that you would like to talk to and be with. In order to have more people who are supportive, you have to increase the number of people you have contact with, and build relationships with those people. This is challenging, as building new relationships can present a number of difficulties. Before we get to address this challenge, let’s first look at finding places to meet people.
You can meet people in all kinds of places. It can be helpful to be aware of new possibilities to meet people and have conversations wherever you are. This being said, there are places where people naturally gather to have fun, pursue interests, or otherwise be together. Some places that are generally open to newcomers include:
 Libraries – Often have classes, book groups, or activities.
 Community Centers – Community education classes can be taken at low
cost or for free with a scholarship.
 Drop-in centers – Sometimes called CSPs, larger cities have them and
they can provide a wide variety of activities, volunteering, case
management and other services.
 Support Groups – Check out the National Alliance for Mental Illness
(nami.org) for locations.
 Workplaces
 Spiritual centers (churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, etc)
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