Helping friends with depression, suicide, and mental health problems, especially during Covid19 pandemic
There are things you can do. Your friends can have a mental illness, people can feel depressed, or have reasons to commit suicide, especially during Covid19, although the reasons most likely will not be the isolation itself, as we can connect with everyone, we simply need creativity and innovation to find creative ideas to connect. Inclusion is very important in solving suicide in general. We can take a look at how we can handle these situations and make everyone feel more included, connected, and not alone. Note. Some just like to be alone, or especially during covid19, this is normal, as during covid19 many different emotions are normal (Coons, 2020). Because of these differences, it might be good to take a look at all you can expect during these times.
See this example:
What friends can do:
“You are not alone” NAMI and 7cups advice:
- “Reflection and active listening skills
- Asking open-ended questions to clarify and focus a conversation
- Allowing a person, the time and space to express themselves and work through an issue or overcome an obstacle.
Also,
- Active listening communicating empathy
- Relate to other peoples experiences in a supportive way
- Sharing what worked for you”
(7cups, N.D.).
Human rights:
The acceptance, not the systems to force, influence, interfere, human traffic, exploit (which includes a lot after more exploitations), not lack in knowledge, especially when we work. Not our opinions put onto them.
Also, accepting the competence in each person. Our duty to interpret correctly, to help everyone to get their human rights, help everyone get their dreams to come true.
It is very safe, as human rights have the duty to never violate anyone's human rights, so doing all the things we want, will not harm.
Inclusion, is also not a problem, as it all gets its own place, when not violating human rights.
The more we understand, the more empathy and SEL we have, the more we can include, and all will fall into place.
We are lucky, though, he is so conscious and normal, and telling everyone what his problem is, that problem is the only difference.
“Depression”: Voices led to wanting to die.
He was on a bridge wanting to die but did “ask” for help with a note he threw to a police officer. It was a clear sign he would commit suicide. The cops went around him and saved him on time.
Diagnosed with: Schizoaffective Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, C-PTSD, Brain Injuries, and Anxiety.
So depression perhaps was not just depression, but coming from some other feelings.
“So here are the diagnostic criteria for depression from the so-called Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. What we have to start differentiating depression the mood from depression the clinical disorder. But we start with the moods. So one of these three abnormal moods has to be present for a diagnosis to be present. There has to be abnormal depressed mood, and it has to last for two weeks, nearly every day, or, and one what might call abnormal depressed mood sometimes called dysphoria. But there’s also this feeling of loss of interest or pleasure in things that you usually take pleasure in. They just don’t give any pleasure and this is called anhedonia. And, again, this has to be present for two weeks, nearly every day. For a young person, 18 or younger, irritable mood is one of the criteria but not for adults.” (Eaton, et al., N.D., Lecture 1A: What is Depression?).
People can be having empathy, but when there are signs, true signs of suicide, one puts cases through to people that can help against suicide.
- “Threats or comments about killing themselves
- Increasing alcohol and drug use
- Aggressive behavior
- Social withdrawal from friends, family, and community
- Dramatic mood swings
- Talking, writing, or thinking about death
- Impulsive or reckless behavior
You can suggest www.nami.org.”
(7cups, N.D.).
Covid19, depression, and other feelings
Suicide because of isolation would be rare, or not as common as other reasons, especially because the lockdowns are physically isolating, not socially isolating( Joordens, 2021; WHO, 2021; Hachmer, 2021)).
We can be creative, innovative, and focus on connecting, including, listening to everyone, and let the business and personal world mix together, and do “normal” things together, or distract each other, helping each other to get through this time, also with colleagues.
We can make a deeper connection, ask more about how everyone feels, and understand there are many types of feelings normal at this moment, in this situation, we only need to keep an eye on trauma and depression, so it does not become PTSD, or suicide (Coons, 2020).
So, if we look at the many reasons people could have for suicide, we can see the isolation itself is not as much the problem, like many other reasons, like discrimination, loss of money, and jobs, and this is related to cultural differences. We can find solutions, together, and help each other to get through this time (Hachmer, 2021).
Read more about that here:
References.
Special Books by Special Kids (26th of October 2020) Visiting My Schizoaffective Friend After His Forced Psychiatric Stay. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1tbETJpX4
Daniel Nepveux (3rd of December, 2020) Schizoaffective update on treatment. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8thCYx_ZjI
Eaton, W., et al. (N.D.) Major Depression in the Population: A Public Health Approach. Lecture 1A: What is Depression? John Hopkins University through Coursera. Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/learn/public-health-depression/lecture/9LIiS/lecture-1a-what-is-depression
7 cups (N.D.) Understanding & Overcoming Depression. 7 cups Retrieved from https://www.7cups.com/depression-help-online/lesson1.html
Hachmer, J. (10th of January, 2021) Pandemic and isolation, causing a norm with a lot of different emotions and responses. — Also some have traumas, PTSD, and depression, and commit suicides. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/covid-19-collection/pandemic-and-isolation-causing-a-norm-with-a-lot-of-different-emotions-and-responses-eae1a1511c60
Joordens, S. (2021) Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19. The University of Toronto through Coursera. Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/learn/manage-health-covid-19/lecture/ZvPbl/the-effects-of-isolation
WHO (2021) Mental health & COVID-19. WHO. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/covid-19
