broomcloset ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tricky, tricky listening to: Echo and the Bunnymen Depression is a tricky thing. Okay, that's putting it veeeeeeeeerrrrryy mildly -- it's actually life-destrying and horrible, but that's not the part I want to focus on at the moment. Depression is tricky. I find that just when you think you are doing well, it rears its ugly head in the wierdest of ways. I shall provide you with an example. Examples, like diagrams, promote clarity. Example: I've been feeling great over the past week, yet I've been missing work and sleeping all the time. Why? I haven't the foggiest clue. (Okay, maybe a foggy clue, but not a very clear clue.) Even though I don't feel horrible, I'm behaving like a profoundly depressed person. Tricky. A friend of mine is currently in a bout of deep depression. I'm not very close with this friend so I haven't been directly involved in their current situation, but I am a close friend of someone who is directly involved - a sibling. Sibling found out what was going on with Depressed several weeks ago and has been trying to convince their parents to bring Depressed home for treatment. Parents are reluctant to do something so drastic (out of fear and lack of understanding, I think), so I don't believe Depressed is getting the help they need. Sibling knows everything that's gone on with my experience of depression in the past year and has been trying to give Parents information about my experience to try and help everyone. (I've given Sibling permission to do that, by the way. :) There is something different about Depressed's experience than mine, something that I'm not sure I can give any insight about. Depressed is acting very distant and even disrespectful to Parents - something that is VERY out of the ordinary for Depressed. Depressed has a lot of respect for Parents and especially D's Father. Yet when Father tried to get Depressed help, Depressed either ignored him completely or left Father's pressence. Even when I was in the very depths of my deepest depression, I still co-operated with my parents and loved ones even if I didn't really want to do something. I was scared to death (no sarcasm intended) to go to the hospital, yet I agreed with my family that the time had come for me to go, so I went and checked myself in. So my question is this: how do you help someone who is actively pushing away all help? Is there a time when you have to more forcefully step in and drag someone to help? I know "you can take a horse to water but you can't make them drink," but does there come a time when you are ethically bound to drag them to the water, whether they like it or not? How do you know when you've "done all you can?" I'm asking specifically for Sibling and Parents in this case, not for myself. I know that it is not my place to be directly involved in Depressed's situation. I also know that it would NOT be healthy for me to do so. I just want to be able to help support Sibling, to give them love, friendship, and advice IF they ask for it! :) Any thoughts? The guestbook is a great place to leave a bit of feedback, but Bravenet has been having some database problems over the past few days, so an email could be safer. ____ Blessed Be, all, Wyrdsister -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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