Companionship is a good medicine for depression

The best way for family members to treat a depressed patient is to stay by their side, just silently accompany, listen patiently, and maybe add a firm hug... All of this will greatly reduce the pressure on the patient and let them know that you will be patient Accompany them through the trough of life and dispel the inner haze.

Accompanying is not commanding.

Never force patients to follow their own pace of life. Some family members feel that they do not have depression, so the lifestyle is the best. Wishful thinking that patients can get out of the predicament simply by following their own actions, which is completely wrong.

Because depression has its own schedule, when patients are depressed, forcing them to do things they don’t want to do will bring more stress to them and often aggravate the condition.

Therefore, relatives and friends must not use their own standards to measure the lifestyle of patients with depression, let alone force them to change their current routines.

Going too far is as bad as not going far enough

Another is that family members are overly concerned, over-critical or over-dominated in the face of depressed patients, which is harmful to the patient and not beneficial.

Perhaps some family members, especially the parents of patients, are eager to defend themselves after hearing the doctor's persuasion: "What's wrong with me doing this? I'm not doing it for him?" "Will I still harm him?" "Parents care about their children, That's right!" Wait a minute.

These words are common among family members of patients with whom psychologists come into contact. They all made the most fundamental mistake of seeing things from their own perspective, not the patient's.

"Are we just doing nothing and watching him go on like this?" is a question frequently asked by anxious family members.

In fact, accompany them silently, support them, say some words of encouragement, or say "don't worry about us, just recuperate at ease" to the patient is the best contribution.

If the patient is slightly better, do some exercise, or do physical labor with them. Like walking with them, planting flowers, etc. It's a good idea, but don't force it.

The most important thing is care and support.

On the other hand, the care and support of family and friends contributes to the recovery of the patient.

So, if your family or friends are feeling down, you should care for them more than ever, call them for sympathy, invite them to a movie, concert, football game, or other event.

However, you shouldn't get your hopes up too much about the outcome, it's better to let your hopes go to zero, because chances are they don't care about you at all.

Of course, that doesn't mean they really don't care about your concerns. They're just stuck with the bad guy depression and can't do anything about it.

Finally, we also want to remind the family and friends of depressed patients: While you accompany and care for the patient, don't fall into depression.