Beating the black dog...

It's been an incredibly long six weeks. I can't actually remember a time that's been quite this tough personally. Depression is a very nasty problem, and unfortunately there's no easy way of dealing with it.


I always thought that I'd be the one to become depressed. I do, after all, have a family history of it. In this case, though, it is my partner who has become depressed. For the last six weeks he's been seriously depressed. There's not always a cause for depression but in this case it was triggered by an incident at work.

We have been seeing a psychiatrist, and the antidepressant medication is starting to take effect now. Hopefully that means that the worst is behind us now and he will continue to recover.

As a partner I have found it very tough. There's very little that I can actually do to make him feel better. That's the worst part - it's just made me feel quite helpless. Depression isn't like other illnesses. There's no physical problem that we can heal, no fixed time frame. It can seem like he should be able to just snap out of it if he wants to make an effort, but I know that's not true. It is a real illness that needs professional treatment. And we're getting that treatment - I just wish it would work quicker!

Anyway, the last few weeks have been very tough. I'm just hoping that from now on things do start to improve.

Beyond Blue - the national depression initiative.

Continued around the bend...