How Can You Help Someone Suffering from Depression? Depression is a serious mental health disorder, which, on the bright side, is treatable. Depression can hit anyone from any walk of life and of any age. It causes a lot of pain to not just the individual suffering from depression, but also those around them – their family, friends and other loved ones. If you know somebody who is suffering from depression, you will know that it comes with helplessness, anger, frustration, difficulty and a lot of sadness. It is not easy to deal with a family member or a friend who is depressed, and yes, your health can be affected by this too. Your love and support for the patient can be extremely beneficial apart from the mental health counseling that they must seek. Your role could be primarily to help them cope with the symptoms of depression, avoid negative thoughts, keep them positive and optimistic and enjoy their life, one day at a time. The best thing you can start with is doing some research about the problem. It may be challenging to understand the symptoms of depression. It is possible that you may identify the symptoms of depression in your loved one before they do. Here’s when you should be concerned: • • • • • •
If they don’t care about/enjoy the things they enjoyed before They express negativity often and act helpless and moody They complain about pains and and aches frequently Their sleeping patterns are disrupted – sleeping too much or too little Their eating habits are disrupted – overeating or undereating They have started drinking/abusing drugs or have increased their usage
Dealing with a family member suffering depression can be tricky, and family counseling can be very beneficial to help you manage your troubles. Similarly, depression counselling in Mumbai can teach you how to talk to somebody facing depression in a constructive way. Here’s what you can and mustn’t say to a patient: What you should avoid saying: • • • • • •
“It’s just in your head” “It’s just a tough time, everyone goes through them” “Look on the bright side” “I can’t relate!” “You’re still not feeling better?” “Change your mood”
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