Depression Help - Can You Provide It?

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For a friend or aquaintance of a depressed individual, knowing the warning signs can save lives. Depression help can come in many forms but often it is a friend who knows the individual well enough to observe that something is "off" and a plan of action is needed. The friend should not feel as if they are intruding in the individual's life when their intuition tells them something is seriously wrong. They should contact a medical professional for further advice.

One thing you must always remember is to treat depression, especially severe depression, as an emergency situation. The feelings of being exhausted, worthless, and above all those of helplessness, experienced by the sufferer, can press on him/her to give up living and commit suicide. Depression help for such patients is like the oxygen mask for a suffocating person. The first rule of providing help to the patient is to treat depression as a matter of life and death situation.

Willingness to Act

One of the most urgent parts of depression help is to realize for the help giver is the readiness to act. Thinking that a depressed person is 'not alone' is the thing that gives many a life to suicide. If you are close friend, family remember, or acquaintance that cares, treat the case as if you are the last person on whom the survival of the patient depends.

Getting Treatment

The most helpful way to provide depression help is to get the patient necessary treatment by a trained psychotherapist/psychiatrist. Make an appointment with the therapist, encourage the patient to accept the treatment and be consistent in following it. Take time to accompany the patient to the therapist. Keep yourself informed on whether the patient is taking the prescribed medicines

Emotional Support

Major depression is essentially a river of emotion running out of the person's control. The patient is emotionally devastated by the feelings that the situation is out of control; life means little; and nothing is there to live for. The core of practical depression help consists in staying with the patient and boosting his/her morale to live. Treating him/her with affection, paying full attention to his speech, and keeping a positive tone of conversation about things, all bring about a positive change in the patient's attitude towards living.

Remarks about Suicide

If the patient mentions anything about suicide, even if with a smile or apparent lightness, mark it as a threat. Do not impose your 'learn positive living' on him/her. Tell the therapist about this in confidence. Offer hope to the patient and never laugh at the way he or she thinks about life.

Involvement in Life

Depressed people lose all interest in life and mostly they prefer to be left alone. This is the dark tunnel, which open into death. Take them out to be part of life activities, eating, movies, games, friends and anything which they were previously fond of. However, take care not to be too demanding or forcing things on the patient for acceptance. Depression help demands that the patient be allowed to accept things on his/her own or otherwise, feelings of failure loom.

Initiative

Proper depression help must never wait for the patient to come and seek your help or tell you that life is getting hard. It is your job to go ahead and make the difference in the patient's life by saving him or her from giving up on living.

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