Depressed / anxious friend - looking for advice

ionapaul

Hi all,

A close friend suffers from depression and acute anxiety - could anyone offer me some advice on anything I can do to help? They are on medication and seeing a doctor regularly, so I'm wonder is there any practical way I can help out, like providing a good book(s) on how to promote positive mental health - would this even be useful? Is there anything we can do together that might be useful - exercise, activities? I've heard regular exercise, yoga and meditation all mentioned as being helpful.

Should I avoid talking about it with them, or is being open a good thing? I just feel they might benefit from being slightly more proactive about their mental health, and want to encourage them in this regard without being pushy or inadvertently a negative influence.

Forest Demon

ionapaul wrote: »

Hi all,

A close friend suffers from depression and acute anxiety - could anyone offer me some advice on anything I can do to help? They are on medication and seeing a doctor regularly, so I'm wonder is there any practical way I can help out, like providing a good book(s) on how to promote positive mental health - would this even be useful? Is there anything we can do together that might be useful - exercise, activities? I've heard regular exercise, yoga and meditation all mentioned as being helpful.

Should I avoid talking about it with them, or is being open a good thing? I just feel they might benefit from being slightly more proactive about their mental health, and want to encourage them in this regard without being pushy or inadvertently a negative influence.

Try to find out something that they enjoy (or used to) and do that. Even if its seems like little it can mean a lot.

Just spending time with them and distracting them from the depression will help. Its best not to put pressure on them to be doing loads of positive things. It just makes them feel worse. Getting out of the house and doing something they enjoy is a start. People with depression don't want to speak about depression all the time.

You are a good friend for being interested in the first place. Most people run a mile. Fair play.

echo beach

ionapaul wrote: »

Is there anything we can do together that might be useful - exercise, activities? I've heard regular exercise, yoga and meditation all mentioned as being helpful.

The best thing is to do something the person is interested in - sport, music cinema, walks, drives, crafts, whatever.
It can be hard to socialise away from the pub scene, which isn't the best place for those with depression, so any alternatives are often welcome.

Try to make it sound as if your friend is doing you the favour by going with you to a concert or a class or whatever rather than the other way round.

neemish

Just be there. Accept that there are times when he/she will not want to go out, but encourage at the same time. And don't try to do too much (when I'm out with my best friend, we'll come to a certain time and she says"right, you're hitting the wall, time to go home"!)

Be open. Definitely be open. Ask questions without being too intrusive.

A good thread to read is "LET'S ALL LAUGH AT PEOPLE WITH DEPRESSION" in AH. Dev has a great piece at the top about depression. Always makes me smile but I can identify with it.