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Need help with a complex situation with depression

Need help with a complex situation with depression

Hi,

I usually post on the lived experience forum as I have MI issues but have an issue I am struggling with relating to depression and anxiety with my son's girlfriend who lives under my roof. I am not sure how or if to intervene. It is causing me stress and affecting my mmental health lately too. She has not come out of her room for days and has been demanding of my son who is doing his last exams and needs good grades to do honours next year. They have lived here for about 4months and this would be about the 6th episode. She really has only had about two weeks of being ok. She won't seek help but says she wants my son to get a professional to contact her. I have talked to her about headspace but again she wants them to contact her. She was seeing a psychologist earlier this year but has stopped and has highlighted that she wanted the psychologist to ring her and make the appointments.

Her mood is currently affecting mine and I feel like I'm walking on egg shells, my emotions are starting to spike in unpredictable ways because of this situation too. I have trouble with emotion regulation as I have BPD traits but don't lash out rather turn them inwards. I am watching my son suffer and it's difficult when it's under your roof. He jumps to her every command.

I am am looking for advice to a) help her seek professional help. b) know how to effectively help her. I've been too scared to broach this with her and how I deal with my depression is very different to hers. C) know how to deal with it so it doesn't take me out.

I feel like a hypocrite with this all because I have had several serious episodes of depression and have a couple of hospital admissions during this time so I also feel like anything I say will be seen as the pot calling the kettle black.

Her family is aware of her MH issues but not of her current situation. I don't really have contact with them to ask for help. I guess if it wasn't under my roof I may not get involved but I am seeing it destroy her life and my sons in the process.

Im grateful for any advice.

185 replies

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In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Hi @Shaz51.

In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

💜💐💕 @Former-Member

In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Hi @Faith-and-Hope. Thank you for all your support. I'm ok for now. I'm going to need lots of support being grounded this weekend. Your last post this morning breaking things down into the little things helped today. I'm about to be on a huge roller coaster for the next few days, make that weeks. I'm scared to go back to my other thread because I need help but not too much attention just now.
So much appreciation for all your help. Love and hugs 💜🤗

In response to: Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

So glad you are feeling okay in this moment @Former-Member ....

Please do something now that I believe is important for your recovery .... ?

Can you focus, just very briefly, on how it feels to be grounded .... so you can start making an imprint of it .... a marker to return to when you're not so grounded ....

Think of it like the memory of the warm sun on your skin at the beach, or the cool lapping of the ocean water over your toes on a hot day ... in fact if you link those visuals to the memory of feeling grounded, you will likely be able to recall the feeling by thinking of the visuals.

Hugs sweetheart .... ❤️💕

In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Ok grounded right now is a huge exaggeration @Faith-and-Hope. I've run away from home and am not sure which way is up but I'm not in SH mode. I am waiting to see what plays out at home before I work out if I can go home or not. I have a back up plan to go to my friends house who just got off a plane an hour ago from overseas. I really want to talk to you about it but really can't in this arena. But I'm holding my own, not quite grounded but not in crisis although not knowing where I'm sleeping tonight is a small drama to overcome.

In response to: Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Sounds like you're applying some good strategies in any case @Former-Member .... and it also sounds like what I would do ....

Not quite at the same level, but there are times when I don't go home so everyone else there have to work things out and find resolutions for themselves ..... I could imagine doing exactly the same with more intense circumstances ..... good for you .... !!

💜 .... with you in spirit ....

In response to: Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

@Former-Member .... 💙💛💜💚💕

In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Transferring the convo to here @Former-Member .... have I got you ?

In response to: Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Yep @Faith-and-Hope

In response to: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Re: Need help with a complex situation with depression

Hugs Hon .... 💜💐🌷

Probably what you need to try to get s grip on first is fighting back the panic that seems to set in .... am I correct with that perspective ? As Lunar was saying the other day, keep practicing .... because that's what these situations represent .... practice at managing emotional fall-out .... It took me somewhere between 5 and 7 years to get a grip on the emotional wipe-outs my MIL was causing me in the early years.

Don't know if you have found my thread on CF yet .... it's a novel .... and I can't remember how much I wrote about my MIL .... I was nervous about anonymity in the first few months, and worried about the fall-out if anyone pieced together my story, worked out who I am, and WH and in-laws got hold of it all .... now I figure I am spread so thin across the two forums, aside from that thread that it would take some working out.

MIL raised her sons as surrogate emotional husbands, but that only became clear gradually into marriage, fior all her DIL's, including the ones who have been divorced. Then gradually the claws came out, in the most blind-siding ways .... it really did my head in .... a smiling ass#ssin .... seemingly living, then suddenly emotionally bru+al .... I became quite a mess there for a while.

It was my faith and my beautiful mum who held me together .... together we can get through all of this with you ..., have faith in the human spirit, if you don't believe in the big guy above .....

Holding you in the light .... 💕🌷💐💜💕
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