Miley Cyrus, Tish and Noah family feud rumors swirl: How to cope with family drama

Rumors about a Miley Cyrus family feud, reportedly between her sister Noah Cyrus and their mother Tish Cyrus, have been swirling since last summer. 

Multiple anonymous sources have come forward with details about Tish’s wedding and relationship with Dominic Purcell. While none of the claims have been confirmed by members of the Cyrus family, many people can identify with the difficulty of dealing with familial rifts that, in one way or another, can leave lasting impacts on mental health. 

"Research suggests that the same parts of the brain that process physical pain also process emotional pain,” psychotherapist Chelsey Cole previously told USA TODAY, “so being cut off, isolated, betrayed, rejected or disowned by your family physically hurts.” 

Cole estimated that over half of her therapy clients have experienced a break in their families.

The consequences can be dire. Isolation and loneliness brought on by family estrangement, or other types of relationship strain, can increase risks of anxiety, depression, heart disease and cognitive decline, Cole added. 

The mental health toll of family drama

Family drama, regardless of the cause, can hurt for countless unique reasons, one of them being a shattering of one’s sense of self and worth. 

"A lot of our identity is tied up into our family: 'Who are my parents? What kind of family do I come from? What do we believe?'” Cole said. "When there is this discord or disconnection or fracture in the family, it affects people to their core."

Gregorio Lozano III, a therapist in Texas, says that the pain of family abandonment is a primal one.

"When we experienced a rejection from the tribe, that meant a life or death situation," Lozano said. "Now, we don't have that aspect, but we still have the emotional trauma that can result from that."

How to heal from a fractured family

To a certain extent, family drama is normal, but a time may arrive when the issues become too complicated to ignore. 

“It’s time to get help when the conflict is pervasive, occurring more days than not and interfering with family functioning," Laura Petiford, a licensed marriage and family therapist, previously told USA TODAY. 

If you're struggling with the pain of family drama, therapists offer the following advice:

• Seek therapy: Family fractures can bring on several mental health concerns that are best treated by professionals.
• Feel your feelings: Allowing yourself to acknowledge a feeling can be healthier than repressing it, Lozano said."It's more of what we do with those feelings that matters."
• Build an identity outside your family: Finding passions, hobbies, community and values outside of family can help build self-worth and self-efficacy, Cole said.
• Reflect on how your family fracture may be affecting other relationships: It's important to take stock of how feelings brought on by a fractured familial relationship may be impacting your other relationships, said psychiatrist Dr. Dion Metzger. "When there's an issue within our family and we feel estranged, it does affect how we approach our relationships, our romantic relationships and our friendships," she said.
• Find healthy relationships: For people with fractured families, Cole stressed the importance of "finding other healthy relationships where you do feel seen or you feel appreciated and supported and connected."

Charles Trepany and David Oliver contributed to this report.