Coping with Mental Illness in the Family Having someone in the family with a chronic physical illness can be hard to cope with - but it can be even worse for families living with a relative who is, not physically, but mentally ill. Although mental illness is so common that it affects one in four people in Australia from all cultural backgrounds, it's still misunderstood. One fear for instance, is that people who are mentally ill are violent - yet most people with a mental illness aren't violent. Another problem is that a lot of people feel very uneasy or embarrassed if a mentally ill person behaves in an unusual or different way. Attitudes like these make life hard for families living with a mentally ill relative.
Some families feel they have to hide their relative's illness from the rest of the world.
Or they may feel isolated, either because it's difficult to invite people home, or because they may be shunned by other people - including other members of their family who avoid visiting them. It's important that families in this situation don't try to cope with the problem alone. Like any illness, mental illness can be treated more easily if it's detected early. Sometimes families ignore the symptoms of mental illness, hoping things will get better. But the chances are things will get worse and the person may need to be hospitalised when they could have been treated at home if they'd been diagnosed earlier.