How to Help Someone with Depression

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Rachel Blackston and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village, and I am a private practice mental health counselor in Orlando, Florida and I work at a private practice called Twelve Stones Counseling Center and it's located in Ovido, Florida. And I'm here to talk about how to deal with depression over the holidays. There are a number of things that you can do if you have a loved one who you think they're that may be depressed. The organization, Families for Depressional Awareness, puts out a couple of tips on the website www.familiyaware.org. The first is to show your love to the person, to your loved one. When you're depressed, you're often feeling very lonely and hopeless and isolated. Let them know how much you care and that you're willing to help. And it's also important that you really validate their feelings and their experiences of sadness. The last thing you want to say is "snap out of it" or "cheer up" or "use your willpower to get out of this situation." The second is to be informed. There are a number of family profiles on www.familyaware.org that can help you watching families that have a depressed loved one. The third is to speak to the impact on the relationship. It's ok for the depressed person to know that this impacts you. If you have a spouse that's depressed it may be affecting financial responsibilities, household duties. It's ok to let them know that this has an impact on you and to be honest about speaking to that. The fourth is to reach out, reach out to your community, to mental health professionals, to your doctor and see if your loved one would be willing to see someone, a professional counselor who specializes in depression. And finally, see if they'd be willing if to take a questionnaire or an assessment or an evaluation. There's one at www.depression.com that is could be really, really helpful for them to identify if they have some of the symptoms of depression. And finally, it's important for you to read up and understand some of the underlying issues of depression. This is a great book by Mitch Gallant and Susan Gallant. It's called "What to do when your loved one is depressed." I really recommend this book. It's got a lot of really helpful, helpful tips."