How to Talk to Family About Your Depression

Depression can be a debilitating illness. Often, friends and family members will tell a depressed person to "just snap out of it," not realizing that their loved one is experiencing more than just occasional lows. Talking about feelings and experiences can be stressful for a depressed person, but planning and preparation can help ease the difficulty.

Instructions

• 1

  Get advice from a mental health professional before talking with your family about depression. He can give you useful facts about depression to share with your loved ones and guide you on who to tell and what kind of support to ask for.

• 2

  Keep the initial conversations intimate and brief. Though it might seem easier at first to gather everyone together and tell them all at once, each family member will react in a different way to your news and it will become impossible and overwhelming to manage the multiple threads of discussion and inquiry that will come up. Speak to close family members, such as your spouse, children and parents, individually or in pairs.

• 3

  Let your family express their concern, and share your concerns with your family. Don't minimize their feelings of concern or the severity of your depression. Your family is there to offer you support through your depression.

• 4

  If some of your family members are less than supportive, take some time apart from them to process your feelings and let them do the same. Often what comes across as negativity or hostility is just surprise and feelings of helplessness on your relative's part. Consult with your mental health professional on how to re-introduce the topic at a later time.