How to Help Your Husband With Depression?
Depression can be a severe illness, but it can also be tough for those without experience. The people closest to someone who is depressed must do what they can to make their loved one comfortable. But this isn’t always an easy task. Here are some tips to help you support your husband or significant other through their depression.
Understand the Underlying Reason
There are several reasons why your husband is depressed. Here are some of the causes and possible solutions.
- Unemployment – A source of income provides a sense of purpose, belonging, and identity. If you are a stay-at-home mom and your husband is the primary breadwinner, losing a job may cause him to lose self-esteem and confidence. If your spouse is unemployed for an extended period, his mental health may deteriorate, and he may experience depression. To avoid this or to assist your spouse in overcoming jobless depression, strive to restore his self-confidence, help him find work, and encourage, motivate, and support him.
- Work stress -Toxic working conditions, job insecurity, inadequate compensation, and other factors contribute to work-related stress and depression. If your husband is having a difficult time at work, offer to help. Motivate him to stand up for his rights at work regardless of the opposition. Encourage him to look for new employment that pays well and has a positive work culture.
- Prone to depression personality – Is your husband prone to overthinking? Then make it clear to him that you love, trust, and support him no matter what. Make it clear to him that you are always there for him. Be gentle with him and assist him in overcoming his overthinking tendency.
- Failing sex life – This may surprise you, but your husband’s depression might be caused by failing sex life. The main reason for sex life failure is a low testosterone level. Testosterone is involved in biological activities such as sex drive and sperm production. If it is lacking, it impacts sex, and your partner may believe he is not enough for you, eventually leading to depression. You should motivate him to seek medical help. Google the best testosterone clinic near me, compare the reviews, and seek help from an expert. Whether the low performance is due to low testosterone levels or erectile dysfunction, a testosterone clinic can help you in every way to boost the excitement in your love life.
How to Support Your Depressed Husband?
Just as you cannot help your husband with any other medical condition, you cannot help him with depression. Depression is a severe medical condition affecting how your husband feels, thinks, and sees himself; it’s not a choice or sign of weakness. He may feel he is to blame for his depression, but it isn’t his fault. It can happen for many reasons outside his control.
A combination of medication and therapy works best to cure depression since it is often complicated by feelings of hopelessness or helplessness that prevent people from seeking help on their own. If you notice that your husband has symptoms of depression, ask him to talk with his doctor about treatment options before they get worse—and don’t wait too long!
Be Patient
Depression is a severe illness that takes time to treat. It’s not something you can fix with patience and love alone. This is why your husband needs to receive treatment from his doctor and therapist, not just the two of you sitting on the couch watching TV together.
Depression affects nearly one in ten Americans each year. So, it’s likely that most of your friends or family members will know someone who struggles with depression (and maybe even know someone who has committed suicide). While society still hasn’t entirely accepted the reality of mental illnesses, the stigma surrounding them often keeps people from seeking help until they can no longer cope.
Individuals with depression need to know that many others out there have gone through exactly what they’re going through right now.
Be Understanding and Accepting
Understanding your husband’s feelings can be difficult, especially when he doesn’t share them. Your husband may feel things foreign to you, but you must try to understand his perspective and be understanding of his emotions.
Your husband needs your patience and acceptance as he navigates his depression. If he feels like he is being judged or criticized by you, this will only make him feel worse. Instead of trying to fix him, focus on being supportive and accepting of how he feels at any given time.
Boost His Self Confidence
You can help your husband overcome his depression by boosting his self-confidence.
- Encourage him to exercise: Exercise can positively impact depression, and it’s also helpful for increasing motivation and stress relief.
- Motivate him to eat well: Depression is often associated with diet choices that lead to weight gain, leading to feeling worse about yourself. Make sure you both are eating right, so he doesn’t feel guilty about indulging in unhealthy foods when the mood strikes.
- Encourage him to get enough sleep: Depression can make it difficult for people who suffer from the condition to enter into REM sleep, which keeps them awake longer than they should be during the night. Due to a lack of restful sleep cycles during this period, they wake up groggy despite having slept at all. Help your husband get more shut-eye by setting an earlier bedtime or encouraging him just chill out before bedtime so he can relax before hitting the hay.
Encourage Him to See a Doctor
If your husband is depressed, one of the best things you can do for him is to help him see a doctor. The correct physician can offer your husband the tools he needs to manage his depression, including medication and counseling.
You must understand your role in encouraging your husband to seek treatment. You can’t force him into it—no one should have to be forced into anything—but you can gently motivate him by offering information about how helpful it could be for him if he did get help from a medical professional.
If you’re able and willing, offer to accompany him on his first visit, so two people are invested in helping him take care of himself adequately and effectively.
Conclusion
Most importantly, you need to remind yourself that depression is not the fault of the person experiencing it. It’s not a character flaw, and it does not mean that your husband is “crazy” or “sick in the head.” Depression is an illness that can be treated and managed with medication, therapy, lifestyle changes, and love from his family and friends.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
