06-08-2009, 02:33 PM
The symptoms of"Though her performance at work are highly erratic. Periods of poor apathetic performance interspersed with periods of high performance."suggest that she is bipolar.Depressives don't move on to schizophrenia. They move on to suicide.The danger with medicines is that they give you the energy to do what you need to do. And anyone that says"suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem"has never battled depression for 17 years. They just don't understand.She probably needs assistance with affairs of daily living; if you are battling depression, you can't keep the house clean, and if you live in a pig sty, it's even harder to battle depression. If you could come in, straighten things up, do some laundry, cook a few meals, it would really do a long way towards making her life tolerable. Don't just jump in and take over, though; she's already suffering feelings of impotence, and if she feels like you're treating her like an invalid, that will make things worst, so *talk* to her, and ask *permission* to help with those things. (She will feel undeserving, so feel free to plead with her, to be allowed to treat a deserving friend like the friend she is.)It may be necessary for her to retire on disability. Social Security disability is getting harder and harder to get, but she probably qualifies, if the doctors fill out the forms correctly.And never underestimate the value of hugs. She's been through hell, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.
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