Advice for the friends of the depressed patients

What you say to a depressed friend can have a dramatic impact on their state of mind, so you should be careful to show them love, care and understanding.

You can make things worse for a friend who is depressed by not treating depression as a real illness. Depression is a real illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, which requires treatment.

Depression is not the sufferer’s fault. They can’t just ‘snap out of it’ or ‘pull themselves together’ in the same way that heart disease patients cannot ‘think themselves better’.

People with depression need those around them to be sympathetic and understanding. When they are feeling low, worthless, and perhaps guilty, the last thing they need is friends creating more problems.

If you have a friend who is depressed, it will take time to for them to get better. During that time you should give them as much support, love and care as you can. Depression is an illness that your friend may suffer from more than once. You can help them to stay well and avoid depressive symptoms by encouraging them to follow these simple guidelines. Your friend should...

• Stay in contact with their doctor.
• Stay in touch with their friends, family and loved ones.
• Keep interacting with those around them. Don’t allow them to withdraw.
• Keep stressful activities and situations to a minimum.
• Stick to a daily routine.
• Seek help and advice from support groups.
• Take any medicine exactly as instructed by their doctor.
• Keep taking their medicine. They may need to continue with their medicine for several months, even after they have started to feel better.

When your friend is depressed you need to give them all the support you can