As people, we often find those that we care about dealing with different kinds of difficult situations. When our friends or partners are going through a rough time, knowing how to deal with it is definitely a part of growing up. Although not easy, having a basic understanding can go a long way for your friend in need.
Firstly, hearing your friend or partner out is key. Let them open up to you and fulling explain the situation so that you aren’t jumping to conclusions and giving them unhelpful advice.
Secondly, the difficult situations your friends are going through may be really personal and emotionally triggering. With that, listening to your friend and consoling them, especially initially, is very important in providing emotional stability and strength.
Further, there is a learning curve to knowing when to be that shoulder to cry on and when to actively give your friend advice. Sometimes your friend may just need emotional support and in those times giving advice may not be the best way to go about interacting with them. Instead just let them know that you are there to talk anything out and to just give them a hug or make them feel better, if that’s what they need.
However, if they are seeking your input about the situation directly, that would be a good indication to go ahead and provide them what you think the best thing to do in the situation is. Seeing that you are the friend who is helping, it is important to know that sometimes your friend or partner will go with what you say and sometimes they may do the exact opposite. I say this to emphasis that often as friends we may feel like the advice we give is never considered and although in your situations that very may be the case, we must to come to terms with the fact that the problem is our friends and not ours to have full control over.
Going off of that, sometimes as friends or significant others, we are not exactly the support that our friends and partners need. Sometimes, the people that we love in life need more support and professional help and recognizing that is key if you are the one who is trying to help someone in your life Giving them the option to speak to someone professionally or to seek additional help is another part of helping those we care about because in all reality as much as we want to always be of help and service, we may not be the best option for assistance.
In conclusion, helping someone else can often be shown off as a very simple thing to do and in all reality, it is quite a complicated process depending on the relationship you have with the person you are helping and the type of situation they are dealing with. I can promise you that I have not covered all the aspects of helping people within this article, but hopefully understanding the basics can provide you the confidence you need to make a difference in someone’s life.
