Friday, May 1, 2009

How to help those who won't help themselves

I have a friend whose circling the gutter. He thinks the options in front of him are so grim that he slights any suggestion I make for him to try and improve himself.
I wouldn't be the happiest camper if i were him either, but... if I were him, I wouldn't write my life off because I thought it was hard, or because I didn't want to do the hard parts of it along with the easy ones.

So today based on the following advice, I follow a new policy:

"Clinical depression is a serious illness but far to often clients with depression use it as an excuse for unexceptable behavior. They begin to feel entitled because of their illness. They aren't really addressing their illness aggressively either. They become content with not working and having someone else pick up the tab for what is essentially their laziness.
This might sound like I'm bashing a mentally ill person but I've seen alot of people with depression, very severe depression, who really want to be better and so do whatever they can to continue being productive. These people force themselves to eat right, exercise, take their meds, not drink or do drugs, socialize a little, and work, even when that is a very difficult thing to do. "

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