Social support and mental health

What is social support, and what role does it play in shaping our mental health and well-being?

During their interactions with clients, psychologists often try to build a clear understanding of the protective and risk factors contributing to the psychological health of the individuals, what may have caused the development of dysfunction, what might be maintaining the difficulties and what could be standing in the way of progress. Social support has been found to be one such protective factor, while social isolation has been linked with several psychological difficulties and disturbances.

What is social support, and how does it impact mental health?

Social support is essentially about having people to turn to in times of stress or as the need arises. It involves looking at our own repository and trying to understand what resources may be available. Are we feeling integrated into our social support systems? Are we feeling supported? Are we able to reach out to people for the kind of emotional, material, social, financial, tangible or informational needs we may be having at the time? And if we do reach out, what are the benefits of the same?

Benefits of social support

• It helps us cope with stress
• Increased sense of belonging and greater feelings of safety
• Increased resilience
• Better self-esteem and positive self-image
• Overall physical and mental wellness

While these may be the benefits, we are also aware that social support isn’t essentially something that becomes available overnight with no effort from one's end. It is something that builds over time and has an inter-dependency factor to it. Apart from depending on others, we also let others depend on us.

Now the question becomes how can I build this support system? One key step could be to make consistent efforts and pay attention to and prioritize the relationships we find important and meaningful in our lives. Another could even be trying to find people with similar interests by involving in volunteer activities, hobby groups etc. Making new friends can seem more challenging in adulthood as we are meeting fewer new people. Hence, it becomes essential to identify key steps one can take to increase chances of meeting new people and forming new friendships. During times of stress, one could also seek professional help and join support groups. This helps tackle specific problems you may be dealing with and feel less alone in your experience.

Another aspect that often gets overlooked is our perception of social support. Sometimes a certain level of social support is already present in our lives, and our job as a therapist is to help change the task is to work on our perception towards social support in a way that helps us be more receptive towards the same. Studies have shown that the perception of social support depends on a number of factors, including personality traits, attachment styles (secure/ insecure), similarity in the background between the helper and recipient and so on.

Challenges of social support interventions

However, the implementation of bringing social support into a person’s life is not quite that plain and easy or black and white. Understanding the contextual elements becomes important. Are they under circumstances where social support comes with a price- that diminishes the good it is offering in the first place? For, eg, tolerating a relationship that also induces a lot of stress. Or another instance could be- while moving in with family would offer financial support, it might also mean lesser freedom and increased involvement from family members in terms of the decisions one makes. Assessing the stress that this may induce and factoring the same also becomes important. Hence, in conclusion, understanding these contextual elements and thoughtful incorporation of social support into the recipient’s life becomes of greater prominence.