Experience of friendship and peer relationship of person with mental health illness

Abstract

Background: Friendships and peer relationships among psychiatrically disabled persons become a wide issue in worldwide. The previous literatures were done on specific condition about this topic. Forming and maintaining friendships are sometimes could be challenging for a person with mental health illness. However, this issue is not explored as needed. Aim: The study explores the experience of friendship and peer relationships of a person with mental illness. Method: The study was conducted by a phenomenological qualitative study design through face- to-face interviews among eight participants who suffered from mental health illnesses. Participants were chosen through the study’s inclusion criteria, and all the participants were taken through proper consent. The age range of the participants was 20-39 years, and all the participants were taking services from the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Paralysed (CRP) outdoor service. A self-developed interview guide was used for conducting the semi-structured interview. Additionally, the student researcher analysed all data by following Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA). Result: The student researcher found that friendships and peer relationships have both positive and negative impacts on a person with mental health illness from the perspective of mental health illness. For example, some participants’ friends showed sympathy and behaved well. But some participants’ friends discriminated against them for their behaviour and showed more priority to their other friends. Also, sometimes friends were trolling about illness. Most of the participants felt comfortable with same-gender friends. The peer gave attention to the problem and sound advice. They also tracked disease. Sometimes they show triggering attitudes and underestimate their feelings. On the other hand, forming a friendship was difficult due to social isolation and travelling together helped maintain friendships and get stronger. Peer relationship holding is sometimes challenging for their misunderstandings about diseases. They made fun of, argued and anger about misunderstanding speech. Sometimes peers could be more effective than friends and try to connect. Conclusion: Results suggest that friendship has a less negative impact on a person with mental health illness but most of the time, they play a huge positive impact on a person with mental health illness. Keywords: Mental health illness, Friendship, Peer relationship.