Reply to How to approach things with chronically depressed friend

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
People who are allowed to check out of life and daily responsibilities tend to fare worse in the long run. Lots of these people end up living on the streets.

I forgot to mention that her parents helped her kick her daily wine habit which very likely played a role in her worsening depression.

Also: having her mother observe her closely helped with landing on the right medication (and less of it). [/quote]

3 hard facts in a row, PP.

1) don't let your depressed friends check out of life/isolate. It only feeds the depression. It's very "swamps of sadness" but it's true: you can't let the isolation win. Once you've disconnected from the "real world" it's so much easier for the depression to overpower you.

2) if you're depressed, you need to immediately discontinue all drugs/intoxicants except those prescribed to you by someone who knows you're depressed. You can't use antidepressants and drink/smoke weed/eat gummies and expect decent results. All mind- and mood-altering substances impact your neurotransmitters. Before you go adding chemistry to try to adjust your neurotransmitters, you need to stop blowing out your neurotransmitters with intoxicants.

3) Having a "patient advocate" is critically important to most people dealing with mental health issues. When your foot is hurting, your brain can be trusted to process medical instructions, ask good questions, follow-up as needed... When your brain is hurting, you can't necessarily trust it to make good calls about your health, ask good questions about meds and interactions, or even report accurately on what's going on. If your friend trusts you enough to let you get involved, going with them to their initial intake with psych can be incredibly helpful. [/quote]

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