Is enough being done to help people with mental health conditions (such as depression, anxiety and bipolar) in your opinion?
Talking about it
Sharing a problem with someone else or with a group can give you support and an insight into your own depression. Research shows that talking can help people recover from depression and cope better with stress.
You may not feel comfortable about discussing your mental health and sharing your distress with others. If this is the case, writing about how you feel or expressing your emotions through poetry or art are other ways to help your mood.
Here’s a list of depression support groups and information about how to access them.
Smoking, drugs and alcohol
If you have depression it may be tempting to smoke or drink to make you feel better. Cigarettes and alcohol may seem to help at first, but they make things worse in the long run.
You may also find the following pages useful:
Work and finances
If your depression is caused by working too much or if it’s affecting your ability to do your job, you may need time off to recover.
However, there’s evidence to suggest that taking prolonged time off work can make depression worse. There’s also quite a bit of evidence to support that going back to work can help you recover from depression.
Read more about returning to work after having mental health issues.
It’s important to avoid too much stress, and this includes work-related stress. If you’re employed, you may be able to work shorter hours or work in a more flexible way, particularly if job pressures seem to trigger your symptoms.
Under the Equality Act (2010), all employers must make reasonable adjustments to make the employment of people with disabilities possible. This can include people who’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness.
Read more about how to beat stress at work.
Looking after someone with depression
It’s not just the person with depression who’s affected by their illness. The people close to them are also affected.
If you’re caring for someone with depression, your relationship with them and family life in general can become strained. You may feel at a loss as to what to do. Finding a support group and talking to others in a similar situation might help.
If you’re having relationship or marriage difficulties, it might help to contact a relationship counsellor who can talk things through with you and your partner.
In this video called ‘Help with your relationship: couples therapy’, a relationship counsellor explains what couples therapy involves and who it can help.
Men are less likely to ask for help than women and are also more likely to turn to alcohol or drugs when depressed.
Read more about care and support.
Coping with bereavement
Losing someone close to you can be a trigger for depression.
When someone you love dies, the sense of loss can be so powerful that you feel it’s impossible to recover. However, with time and the right help and support, it’s possible to start living your life again.
Find out more with these videos and articles all about coping with bereavement.
Depression and suicide
The majority of suicide cases are linked with mental disorders, and most of them are triggered by severe depression.
Warning signs that someone with depression may be considering suicide include:
making final arrangements, such as giving away possessions, making a will or saying goodbye to friends
talking about death or suicide – this may be a direct statement, such as “I wish I was dead”, but often depressed people will talk about the subject indirectly, using phrases like “I think dead people must be happier than us” or “Wouldn’t it be nice to go to sleep and never wake up”
self-harm, such as cutting their arms or legs, or burning themselves with cigarettes
a sudden lifting of mood, which could mean that a person has decided to attempt suicide and feels better because of this decision
Contact your GP as soon as possible if you’re feeling suicidal or are in the crisis of depression. They’ll be able to help you.
If you can’t or don’t want to contact your GP, call the Samaritans on 116 123 (the helpline is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year). You can also email jo@samaritans.org.
Helping a suicidal friend or relative
If you see any of the above warning signs in a friend or relative:
get professional help for them
let them know they aren’t alone and you care about them
offer support in finding other solutions to their problems
If you feel there’s an immediate danger, stay with the person or have someone else stay with them, and remove all available means of committing suicide, such as medication.
Over-the-counter medication, such as painkillers, can be just as dangerous as prescription medication. Also, remove sharp objects and poisonous household chemicals such as bleach.
Read more about how supporting someone who’s suicidal.