How to help?

Can you help? You may be the only one to get them into treatment.

We've spent quite a lot of time talking about families and how they can help. But for students away from home, for people living alone and working away from home, you might be the only one who can notice the changes. You can be the only one to get them into treatment.

Even if your friend is living at home, you might be the first to know. It isn't unusual that people can talk more freely with friends than with family. This can be especially true with adolescents who may fear judgmental reactions from parents. Or they might be unwilling to admit that they have fallen short of "the perfect child."

It's also quite possible that advice from a friend might be more acceptable than advice from a parent.

The key is treatment. Depression can be beaten. If the first episode is treated promptly and well, there may never be another.

Where can I get advice?

You have already started here. We suggest you learn as much as you can about depression.

Then there are the support organisations that we've mentioned already. Others like you may have told their stories in another part of this web site. You can chat with some of them. You can ask questions here as well.