8 The Eternal Family: Depression

I am taking The Eternal Family religion class here at BYU. I love it. I have already learned a lot about my relationship with my family. Recently, we had to write a research paper about any topic we wanted and approach it from a secular, theological, and personal perspective. I chose to write about how families can help and support other family members with depression. It is a really heavy topic which made it hard to write without getting really down, but I still enjoyed writing it. Doing the research and being able to figure out how families can support really helped me since I have had family members and friends struggle with it before and still. Obviously this topic was very personal to me which made it interesting to write about.
So how does a family member help a spouse or child suffering from depression? A family member’s greatest duty is to love and be patient. It is hard to have a loved one suffering from this mental illness, I know. But there a lot of ways we can make life a little easier for our family members suffering from this illness. Parents and spouses need to educate themselves on clinical and major depression so they can help their loved ones. They need unconditional love, patience, hope, persistence, faith, and they need to seek professional help.
Sometimes I forget just how many people have faced the despair and hopelessness of depression. It is heart breaking to see it affect people's lives and families over and over and over again. I want to be able to help people as much as possible. All too often we end up angry with someone who has depression and even thoughts of suicide. We think, "how can they be so selfish? Don't they know what it would do to me and to so many others if they ended their life?" And yet, the hopelessness felt by someone who is depressed has nothing to do with selfishness. It is a chemical imbalance. We need to be PATIENT.
Anyway that was just a little rant/advice about depression. You never know who may be struggling with it so always be kind to everyone!! Always have an attitude better than you feel. And don't judge others because you have no idea what God has asked them to go through. Have a great day guys!