Talking to Your Loved Ones About Mental Health

You deserve to have the support you need for your mental health. Speaking with loved ones can be a good first step. Use this worksheet to help you talk to your family about mental health.

This worksheet is an excerpt from Mental Health America’s 2022 BIPOC Mental Health Month Toolkit.

Here’s a web-friendly version of the questions from the worksheet:

Give yourself the space to feel first.

Then move toward finding a way to express your feelings.

• What feelings and thoughts are coming to mind for you right now?
• Name at least one important fact that you want someone in your life to know about your situation.

How do you best communicate?

• Verbally: in person, through a phone call, through voice messages, or through a video chat?
• Artistically: through drawings, paintings, dance, or music?
• In writing: through text, a letter, or poetry?

Understand who you are most comfortable with.

Consider which loved one you spend time with the most and who understands you when you need to be real.

Name at least one person who has been supportive in your life in some manner and may be available in the near future to chat. Ask yourself some questions to set yourself up for a positive experience:

• What’s one reason you want to have this conversation?
• When this conversation is done, what do you want out of the situation?
• What are some questions that might come up for you or the other person during this conversation?
• What might this person need more information about? (For example: mental health, how I’m feeling, how this affects us, what to do next, or how to respond)
• How do you think this person will respond?

If you feel that heightened emotions may get in the way of your discussion, consider writing out what you want to say ahead of time and giving it to the person you want to talk to.

Finding common ground can be a good way to help someone else feel more at ease when talking. What are some ways you can connect this information to the person you’re talking to?

• Connect back to their faith
• Connect back to their community
• Connect back to their values
• Connect back to their care and love for me

Putting it all together

Look at your answers above and write out a script for what you want to say.

Use “I feel…” statements to help you get your point across better.

Remember, it’s okay to not know how to act or what to say. Learn to be okay with saying “I don’t have all the words yet …”