Studies show that people who live alone are more prone to depression and other mental health issues than people who don’t. This, of course, includes all of us single mothers. No we don’t live along, we have plenty of company, but can you really work on your budget with a six year old? Or talk about how your boss treated you, or health worries you have, or really, anything significant? No, we can’t, our children are not our peers and should not be burdened with our worries.
So we internalize a lot of it and that can lead to depression. It’s much easier to push everything down and deal with the day to day issues with your child. All the worry is still there, you’re just not dealing with it. That is when it becomes a problem.
Most of us have friends we can talk to about things, but it’s really not the same. When I’m worried or stressed it would help to have someone who understands my stress, is living with the same financial problems that I am.
It’s so important as a single parent to try to keep things in perspective. Usually things are not as bad as we make them out to be, we just get overwhelmed and blow things out of proportion.
I am guilty of the Scarlett O’Hara school of thinking, “Fiddle dee dee, I’ll think about it tomorrow.” In some cases that works out just fine. If I had thought about it today, I would have worried unnecessarily because that minor problem worked itself out without any help from me.
Other times, it’s not a good thing. A health issue needs to be addressed, whether yours or your child’s, address it immediately. Try to decide if something is worth worrying about before you spend valuable time working yourself into a frenzy about it.
If you deal with your issues head on you are better able to ward off depression. So ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen? If no one is going to die, then it will be OK, one way or another, it will be OK. Financial stress is terrible but really, if they take your house and repossess your car you can find a small apartment closer to work. It may not be ideal, but it’s not the end of the world.
Don’t let the fact that you live alone lead to depression. Address your problems, talk to a friend and if all else fails, see your doctor. Do these things before there is an issue with your mental health.