Contents:
- Medical Video: We Need to Talk About Depression
- Understand the symptoms of depression
- How to support the closest person with depression
- 1. Encourage treatment
- 2. Understand the risk of suicide
- 3. Take care of yourself
Medical Video: We Need to Talk About Depression
Helping someone with depression is not easy and can be a challenge. If the person is a family member, this can be more challenging. You must understand that your support can have a big impact and contribute to the recovery process of your family members.
Understand the symptoms of depression
The first step to helping someone with depression is to understand their conditions and symptoms so that you know what is happening to them. Here are some common symptoms of depression:
- Loss of appetite or sudden weight loss
- Having a bad eating disorder or self image
- Always feel sad, empty, hopeless or frustrated
- Easy to get angry, upset or cry
- Having sleep disorders, insomnia or sleeping too often
- Lack of energy and always feeling tired
- Restless, anxious or anxious
- Having problems with communication, slow thinking and reacting, difficulty concentrating, making decisions and remembering
- Often mentions death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide
- Have physical problems, such as headaches, back pain or abdominal pain.
The above symptoms can vary in each person, but generally depression can cause loss of enthusiasm which can interfere with daily activities. It is important to understand that depression is a serious but curable condition. This is why regular visits to the doctor are very important. You must make sure your family members take medication according to the instructions.
How to support the closest person with depression
Here are some tips that can help you help family members with depression:
1. Encourage treatment
Because depression should not be left without treatment, it is necessary to bring people closest to you to visit a doctor to get effective treatment. Sometimes people with depression are unaware of their symptoms of depression, so they think they are fine or ashamed to seek help. All you can do is talk to the person about what you see and worry about. The important thing is you have to express your willingness to help them and maybe you need help from a professional expert.
2. Understand the risk of suicide
People with depression tend to have suicidal intentions and usually occur in people with serious depression. There are some clues that you can look at the person closest to you if they have suicide signs so you can take action to immediately stop it.
- Often talking about suicide or hurting yourself
- Feeling hopeless or hating yourself
- Having actions that are harmful or self-destructive
- Tend to look for pills, weapons or violence
- Feeling suddenly calm after depression
If you suspect your friend or family might be considering suicide, you need to discuss your concerns and seek help from a mental health doctor, and tell their family or closest friends what is happening. Go up to make sure the people closest to you are in a safe environment to avoid possible suicide attempts.
3. Take care of yourself
Keeping someone with depression can cause stress, so you need to prepare yourself physically and mentally. You need to take time to take care of yourself and do your own activities. It is important not to drop while looking after the person closest to you. Maybe you also need to seek medical attention if you feel frustrated and tired. Finally, be patient with your patients, because it will take a long time to wait for treatment to be effective.
