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Are you struggling with the very less talked about mental health challenges faced by single moms? I know you never planned this or imagined being a single mom in your worst of dreams, but now you are a single mom. Blame your luck, your ex or everything that went wrong in the whole process, it is what it is, now what? It is draining, I agree, rather it is awful and there is an end number of mental health challenges faced by single moms as an after-effect.
If it takes a village to raise a child, just imagine how much mental and emotional strength it takes to raise a child alone, unassisted and single-handedly. Forget about the physical and financial capacity. A separation/divorce causes a ripple effect and you are never fully prepared to anticipate what might come next, all this leads to a lot of stress and mental health deterioration. In this blog, I am going to talk about a few mental health challenges faced by single moms.
Mental Health Challenges Faced By Single Moms
As a typical single mom, you will suddenly feel lonely and trapped in your own mind, no matter how many times you visualise being alone and separated, but reality hits differently. From being judged to being misinterpreted, for being restless for all the uncertainty hounding you, you also go through a lot of mental turbulence.
Parenting alone is physically and emotionally demanding, and if you are a single mom, it can surely take a toll on your mental health. Here are a few dreadful mental health challenges faced by single moms across the globe:
1.) Financial insecurity and future uncertainty
Suddenly, the feeling of financial insecurity starts entailing and haunting you. You feel all the more responsible towards your child’s future needs for their overall development and quality of life. The rising tuition fee, extra-curricular activities, medical emergencies, own house, and a decent living all these visuals make one restless and desperate at the same time.
Then there is a lot of future uncertainty involved when you are newly separated and restarting your career path. The job, the place, new arrangement, new pain and its after-effects, honestly speaking, it lasts longer than one can imagine.
2.) Dealing with past memories
While you are stuck in moving on and grieving for the big loss of your life at the same time, you go through an extreme emotional ride. It is not the person you miss, but the memories attached to each event, each festival and belongings make it a little tough to deal with, for a while.
This process is one of the draining mental health challenges faced by single moms.
3.) Unsupportive atmosphere
You know, one day a lady living next door advised me to become a little cautious and street-smart, just because I am a single mother. I wonder how people judge you and give their unsolicited remarks/advice based on a very limited understanding of the subject matter.
An unsupportive atmosphere could involve family members, friends, relatives, bosses and various other external factors. Dealing with the tag of a broken family, a total misfit woman etc. To top it, even Facebook memories also play their part by continuously popping up old memories with the very person you want to forget those memories.
4.) Lack of self-care
All the episodes of frequent anger, frustration and restlessness lead to major stress and sometimes it is very easy to fall into the depression zone, with not a single ray of hope. There comes the role of community.
But for most of the items, women don’t get the much-needed care and affection during this period. Plus she herself stops looking after herself, and loses the inner spark and all the energy just because of that one relationship. It is natural but we need to overcome this.
5.) Facing the stigma
There is a lot of stigma and discrimination attached to separation, and divorce in India or maybe in other countries as well. Like, I mentioned above, people easily judge you thinking that divorce might be an outcome of your inability to manage things, manage your husband etc.
If you move on quickly then you are labelled, if you fall into depression or sadness then you are treated as a burden, more or less, life changes but it is up to us how we change our story from here on.
To conclude, I would say, this is indeed one of the toughest roads to walk, knowing you are all alone, but that freedom of owning yourself and your life, can be liberating. This is where you can change your narrative, change the end of your story, put a semi-colon instead of a full-stop and hold your child’s hand to move ahead in life, to accomplish greater things.
Before these stressors lead to a major mental health crisis, seek help and be open to receiving help. If you are able to maintain your inner balance in these tough times, you will surely overcome this and will be able to manage your life with grace and vigour. If you are facing difficulties then please seek professional help
You can also reach out to various helplines or reach out to me. Don’t forget to love yourself in this whole process, you need you in all ways and always.
Love and light
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