Just a thought -
Dec. 17th, 2006 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgHow Family and Friends Can Help the Depressed Person
The most important thing anyone can do for the depressed person is to help him or her get an appropriate diagnosis and treatment. This may involve encouraging the individual to stay with treatment until symptoms begin to abate (several weeks), or to seek different treatment if no improvement occurs. On occasion, it may require making an appointment and accompanying the depressed person to the doctor. It may also mean monitoring whether the depressed person is taking medication.
The depressed person should be encouraged to obey the doctor’s orders about the use of alcoholic products while on medication. The second most important thing is to offer emotional support. This involves understanding, patience, affection, and encouragement.
Engage the depressed person in conversation and listen carefully. Do not disparage feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope. Do not ignore remarks about suicide. Report them to the depressed person’s therapist. Invite the depressed person for walks, outings, to the movies, and other activities. Be gently insistent if your invitation is refused. Encourage participation in some activities that once gave pleasure, such as hobbies, sports, religious or cultural activities, but do not push the depressed person to undertake too much too soon. The depressed person needs diversion and company, but too many demands can increase feelings of failure.
Do not accuse the depressed person of faking illness or of laziness, or expect him or her “to snap out of it.” Eventually, with treatment, most depressed people do get better. Keep that in mind, and keep reassuring the depressed person that, with time and help, he or she will feel better.
Do not disparage feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope.
Dude, you're never going to get away with "this is how things work and they're never going to change." Because that's not what's real.
Some times, that happens.
Some times.
Not always. Not forever.
Oh, and things change. Believe me.
The most important thing anyone can do for the depressed person is to help him or her get an appropriate diagnosis and treatment. This may involve encouraging the individual to stay with treatment until symptoms begin to abate (several weeks), or to seek different treatment if no improvement occurs. On occasion, it may require making an appointment and accompanying the depressed person to the doctor. It may also mean monitoring whether the depressed person is taking medication.
The depressed person should be encouraged to obey the doctor’s orders about the use of alcoholic products while on medication. The second most important thing is to offer emotional support. This involves understanding, patience, affection, and encouragement.
Engage the depressed person in conversation and listen carefully. Do not disparage feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope. Do not ignore remarks about suicide. Report them to the depressed person’s therapist. Invite the depressed person for walks, outings, to the movies, and other activities. Be gently insistent if your invitation is refused. Encourage participation in some activities that once gave pleasure, such as hobbies, sports, religious or cultural activities, but do not push the depressed person to undertake too much too soon. The depressed person needs diversion and company, but too many demands can increase feelings of failure.
Do not accuse the depressed person of faking illness or of laziness, or expect him or her “to snap out of it.” Eventually, with treatment, most depressed people do get better. Keep that in mind, and keep reassuring the depressed person that, with time and help, he or she will feel better.
Do not disparage feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope.
Dude, you're never going to get away with "this is how things work and they're never going to change." Because that's not what's real.
Some times, that happens.
Some times.
Not always. Not forever.
Oh, and things change. Believe me.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 12:09 am (UTC)>_<;
what are you complaining for? you could be so much worse off..
T_T
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Date: 2006-12-18 03:28 am (UTC)This one always bothered me to no end. Yes, okay, I could be a starving child in Africa or a factory worker in Asia.
That doesn't make what I am going through any less valid or important right now. Because I am NOT a starving child in Africa, but there is some thing that I am having a problem with and I would not like to have the importance of it minimized thankyouverymuch.
Sorry, old wound. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 03:31 am (UTC)Im not allowed to let my parents know I feel bad, they take it as a direct insult to their parenting.
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Date: 2006-12-17 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 07:59 pm (UTC)It also helps to remember that changes for the worse are not the end of the world because life does go on. That's a big one I learned this year after being diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia. Not a happy diagnosis, but a bump in the road, and it means constant change.
But, it could be worse, as I keep reminding myself. It's actually a blessing that I was diagnosed with FA because it does make me one of Jerry's Kids, which means I can be seen through the MDA clinic, and they do help defray some of the costs of braces and things. If I had been diagnosed with any of the other Ataxias, I would not be that fortunate.
Perspective, it helps. If a friend can help gently remove the blinders that one puts on when depressed, that's a wonderful start. Know that whatever it is that is troubling, it could be worse.
To borrow a quote from Heartbreak Ridge, "Improvise, adapt, overcome." That's become my motto anymore, that's what keeps me going. That's survival, that and a good sense of humor. My mother told me that those that survived the Holocaust did so by keeping a sense of humor about them in the bleakest of times.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 06:15 am (UTC)