Let Your Friends Rant To You, Because Their Mental Health May Need It
Don't get angry when your friend chooses you to vent to.
It seems nowadays that the human body is expected to just magically handle whatever inhumane amounts of stress that are placed upon it. Studies even show that high school students have the same levels of stress and anxiety of psychiatric patients in the 1950's.
Anger, stress, and anxiety can build up and morph into mental illnesses and disorders when they aren't released. The common excuse is, "I don't have time for self-care or therapy, I have work to do." This unhealthy mindset lets pent up anger and anxiety fester and can ruin your relationships, your work ethic, and even your life.
When this stress and anger is added to a pre-existing layer of social anxiety, where people feel like they can't communicate in fear of judgment, or because they may not have the proper outlets to vent, it takes the anger and stress to another level where it now has no way of being released verbally.
Let your friends rant to you. You never know how much they may need it, or how much it might help them.
Personally, I am a very frustrated and vocal person. If I have an issue, whether it be with a certain topic or a person, I will say it. Not in a demeaning way, but the issue will be addressed if it means finding a peaceful outcome.
If my friend is in a sticky situation, I'm here to give them the rundown because I have hopes that talking to them will free them of their issues. If I have an issue with someone that I haven't tried to resolve with them, I'm either ignoring them for their own good or because I don't see a positive outcome in the future if the issue is addressed.
My mother always tells me "Not everybody wants to hear the daily rant, Joe" almost every time we are on our nightly two-hour phone calls (Italians can really talk, trust me).
It started to make me think, "Am I annoying people when I need to rant?" I'm sure people do get annoyed when I talk about the plight of the LGBT community and the struggles of college students all day, but sometimes it is my only way of decompressing.
Ranting to my friends is the one thing that I have that lets me take two minutes out of my day to let my voice be heard, to let the anger I have pent up inside of me out, and it helps my mental health more than my listeners realize. Everybody should take the time to listen to their friend's rant, even if you aren't in the mood to hear it, sometimes they need to let it out.
Check in on your friends and family, ask them how they have been doing mentally multiple times a day. Usually "I'm fine" is code for "I'm struggling on the inside but I won't get into it right now." Let them speak, let them yell, let them get the ball of anger that has been held inside of them out. Let them know you're there for them. They might need it more than you know.
