{"id":21174,"date":"2018-08-22T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T18:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/gisele\/"},"modified":"2021-03-18T10:14:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T14:14:59","slug":"taking-care-of-yourself-to-care-for-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/taking-care-of-yourself-to-care-for-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking care of yourself to care for others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cOnce you feel better, you can help others.\u201d<\/p>After I found mental health support for my daughter, I had some time to look for support for myself at a Centraide agency. <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShortly after my daughter started her PhD in psychology in 2001, I noticed that she had become very anxious all the time, and was getting worse. I remember one incident in particular when she called me, paralyzed with panic, and I had to go pick her up. She was hospitalized, and after months of tests, we got the diagnosis: bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was shocked and in disbelief. I had no idea what to do. When my daughter was in a manic state, she wouldn’t sleep. She walked around constantly and lost weight. As a health care professional\u2014I\u2019m a retired speech-language pathologist\u2014I knew I needed to ask for help right away. But when it comes to your own child, you feel completely powerless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I looked for help mainly for my daughter. After I found support for her, I had the time to look for support for myself. I went to an agency supported by Centraide that helps families and friends of people with mental illness. I attended 10 group sessions, where I learned a lot about mental health. I gained a better understanding of what people with a mental illness are feeling. That helped me put myself in my daughter\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also learned how to let go. This doesn\u2019t mean you are giving up, but rather that you accept the situation. I learned how to tell my daughter that I was exhausted and that I couldn\u2019t always be strong. She then started paying attention to me, just like I paid attention to her. Our relationship has always been good, but this helped us communicate and work together even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, my daughter is doing much better. Bipolar disorder will always be part of our lives, but now we know how to live with it. I have been on the agency’s board for six years. After hearing the stories of the families of people with mental illnesses, I see how invaluable this assistance is for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a parent, you wonder if your child\u2019s problems are your fault, but you have to let go of the guilt and ask for help. Once you feel better, you can help others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Gis\u00e8le<\/p>\n\n\n

\n \n
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<\/div>\n <\/i>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ab Lorsqu\u2019on se sent mieux, on est capable d\u2019aider les autres sans s\u2019\u00e9puiser. \u00bb <\/p>\n

Gis\u00e8le a appris \u00e0 affronter le trouble bipolaire de sa fille gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 l\u2019appui d\u2019un organisme soutenu par Centraide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"5939,504,6160,6181,6205,6279","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[679],"content-type":[709],"sector":[],"class_list":["post-21174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mental-health","tag-mental-health","content-type-testimonials"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 12:19:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23841,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21174\/revisions\/23841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21174"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=21174"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=21174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}