Depression Supporters Support Group
This community is dedicated to spouses, children, relatives, co-workers and others who are actively supporting someone suffering from depression or other serious mental illness. Depression can bring about intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive, which can have a grave impact on the ability of others trying to help.
I'm sorry for having tI post this, but I don't know what else I can do.
My wife has suffered from severe depression and is diagnosed as BiPolar 2. She does see a therapist (although she wants to stop) and her primary care doctor has prescribed her medicine to help (she's been on several over the last 1-2 years, but none have actually helped; at best it has just made it easier to hide her depression which lead me to believe it was working). Two years ago she quit a comfortable corporate job (not her dream job, but something she enjoyed doing and made decent money) due to a discriminatory boss. She had basically built her department single handedly but, when her manager elected to relocate was not able to apply for that management position (only applicants who were already managers were accepted). Her new boss was, basicially, out rightly discriminatory towards my wife based on her gender. She would go to him with ideas and be told that the ideas were not a priority, and then a week later assign the SAME work to one of her male colleagues (she was the only female in the department). This happened regulalry, and meanwhile the new boss slowly took away all of her work and assigned it to her male colleagues. I can confirm that her issues with him were legitimate and before she quit she was in a severe depression for several months because of her bosses behavior.
Since then she has attempted a couple of entrepreneurial enterprises but nothing has given her the success and, more importantly (to her) financial stability as before. She has always wanted to be her own boss and have her own business, and these unsuccessful attempts have been soul crushing to her. She determines her self worth based on money she is brining into the family, but feels as though she is a failure becauseĀ
Additionally, our relationship has been rocky for quite a while (at least a couple of years, but there have been issues since we were first married). I admittedly have always struggled to show her how I feel, and she doesn't believe that I actually love or care about her. I am have a relatively robust social life (I try to spend some time with friends in person once a week; I used to spend a couple additional nights online with friends but I gave those up a few months ago around the end of November). She, however, doesn't feel as though she has any friends or anyone she can spend time with outside of myself. Many of her friends from before we were together aren't in the picture any more for a number of reasons (no, I didn't drive any of them away and have done my best to encourage her to reach out to some of them) and she doesn't feel like any of my friends would actually be here friend if not for me.
Because of this, she feels betrayed when I spend time with other people. This is because we don't spend a lot of quality time together (something of which I am at fault and have been trying to rectify); most nights are spent watching TV and we infrequently go out on dates (maybe once a month, often less frequently). But because I do my best to ensure that I see my friends every Friday she does not see herself as being important to me.
And now to the real reason for the post. My wife has talked about suicide many times while we've been together, but has always been able to come back from her depressions. The last week, however, has been very difficult. She lost some money (not a lot, but on her second ever trade) on the stock market which has made her give up on that endeavor. Since then she has been very depressed. Because she sees this as another failure she has been struggling to find a reason to get out of bed. I've done my best to try to come up with reasons, but so far nothing has helped. She spends most of her time in bed and when she does get up she doesn't really engage with me or our daughter.
Yesterday was a little better (we went out to some flea markets which is something we both enjoy) but we didn't find the one thing we were looking for (a chair). We eventually went to another store and found one we wanted, but while browsing she made an off hand comment about becoming a stocker at the store which took all of the wind out of her sails. She wanted to go home immediately, without buying anything, and once we were home she was only able to sit on the couch and watch TV. This morning we talked about going out to some other stores, but we only made it to the first stop before she wanted to turn around and go home.
Once we were home she went to sleep, but not long after that she started to talk about killing herseld. However, this time I think she is serious. She was talking about how she would go somewhere that her body wouldn't be found so that neither I nor our daughter would have to find her body. And, after talking for a bit, she actually got up and, with more energy and excitement than I have seen from her in months, started talking about getting her affairs in order and planning for how I would have to handle things when she was gone. I eventually got her off of that subject and even convinced her to call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. However, after talking with someone there for 20 or 30 minutes (she insisted I not be in the room) she was placed on hold which caused her to hang up.
Since then she has been in bed asleep. I don't know what to do, or what else I can do. She works from home, but I don't so I can't be with her 24 hours a day. I feel like this might be the real thing more than any other time before. I'm terrified to lose my wife, but I don't know what else I can do.
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Hi All.... It's great to see all of the new people joining the site... I'm loving it!!...smileI'm not sure if people are aware that if you don't have Bipolar Disorder but have a loved one who has the disorder we do have a board for people to go to in order to share their experiences and seek friendship, support or adviseIt's the Friends and Family of Bipolar Board.... I hope you'll take a...
Your wife needs to be treated by a Pdoc (Psychiatrist) to get the proper Medication Treatment. Most times a BiPolar patient requires a Cocktail of Medication and thats not an easy thing to get right, it can take some work. Psychiatrists are educated, trained and experienced in the care of BiPolar and know what types of Medications to mix to treat BiPolar.
This is your wifes best bet at getting to a Stable point.
And you need support too, sounds like a very stressful situation for you, especially if you have a daughter to look after as well. Do you have someone trustworthy you can talk to?
I hope you are all ok.