The Positive Effects of Love on Mental Health: 5 Ways Your Relationship Can Aid in the Treatment Process

Love isn’t a cure-all for mental illness, but it is true that being in love and having a supportive spouse and a healthy intimate relationship promotes happiness. A happy, stable relationship, whether with a spouse or partner, is connected to better mental health, lower levels of stress, and less depression, according to research.

On the other hand, being in a bad relationship can worsen mental health. An unstable or unhealthy relationship with your partner can increase your stress, anxiety, and depression, and even thoughts of suicide. This fact further supports the benefits of a good relationship. Being in love and being happy in your relationship is automatically supportive of better mental health.

If one of you struggles with mental illness, know that your ongoing healthy relationship is helpful. It may not always seem that way, especially during a difficult episode, but maintaining a strong, loving relationship will aid and support healing and recovery from mental illness.

Everyone should be able to find their own worth outside of relationships and other people. But, being loved does add to a sense of self-worth. Knowing that someone loves you means that you matter, that you have value, and that someone would be devastated if you were gone.

In the depths of a mental illness, it can be impossible to see your value, especially in the despair of depression or suicidal thoughts. In these terrible moments, having someone who loves you can be the lifeline you need. It may be what gets you into treatment when you otherwise would not bother.

The benefits of relationships are not restricted to romantic connections. Social support in any form has been proven over and over again to be good for mental health. Studies show that quality of social support is much more important than quantity. In other words, it’s better to have one or two strong social connections than a large network of acquaintances.

Research shows that a good social support network benefits mental health in several ways:

• Increased resilience in the face of stress
• Healthier lifestyle choices
• Better lifelong mental health
• Improved self-esteem
• Fewer negative effects of stress

Most importantly for someone needing care for mental illness, a strong social support group improves adherence to treatment plans. You’re more likely to stick with treatment for mental illness if you have one or more healthy relationships backing you.

A healthy relationship and good support network correlate with adherence to mental health treatment, which indicates a bigger trend: a positive relationship with your partner supports all kinds of healthy habits.

If you are in a healthy and happy intimate relationship, you are more likely to adopt and stick with healthy lifestyle choices. These include eating well, exercising, and avoiding substance abuse. All of these physical health habits promote good mental health. Your relationship may even encourage you to engage in more positive mental health habits, like opening up about your feelings and engaging in productive conflict resolution.

Focus on encouraging healthy habits in each other for good mental health. Find areas in which you can both improve, such as drinking less or getting adequate sleep. Work on improving those habits together and you will see improvements in mental health as well.

Mental illness is not a one-person issue. If you have a mental illness, it impacts the people close to you. Your relationships also impact your mental health. Everything is connected. This means that the people you love, particularly your spouse or partner, can and should be involved in treatment.

A good treatment facility involves loved ones for support of the resident and for support of the family as a whole. When your partner is involved in treatment, it strengthens your relationship and your mental health.

Being active in treatment doesn’t look the same for everyone. For some couples, it’s useful to engage in regular relationship therapy. For others, support groups or group therapy sessions are more helpful. Still others may benefit more from simply visiting on family days and showing their love and support by taking an interest in their partner’s treatment process.

It’s important to understand that all these benefits—these ways that a relationship can support mental health and treatment—only apply to healthy relationships. This may seem obvious, but when in a bad relationship it can be hard to see the issues. These are the signs of a healthy relationship:

• You trust each other
• You are both able to share your feelings and thoughts without fear of ridicule
• You respect each other
• Each partner in the relationship values it and makes time for each other
• You listen to each other and are able to compromise when disagreements arise
• Neither person is wholly dependent on the other
• You have boundaries
• You can argue or disagree without threats of violence
• There is no abuse, physical, emotional, or otherwise