For this week’s episode of Agony Aunties, a listener asks an important question: how can they be happy when someone in their family is deeply depressed? And so, to answer this, we’re not going to discuss what the listener can do to fix their family member’s problems, even though that might be the urge that arises in us instantly. Instead, we’ll talk about ideas of codependency, and highlight the importance of not anchoring our emotional wellbeing on the state of other’s. Finding ways to take care of ourselves is very important, so that we can be better resourced. We’re not going to help our depressed family member by getting depressed as well, and it can be very easy to catch the emotions of others. So,  please make sure that you’re finding ways to find your own happiness as well.

Resources mentioned:

Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) - https://www.thecalmzone.net

Mind - https://www.mind.org.uk

Samaritans - https://www.samaritans.org/

Papyrus - https://www.papyrus-uk.org

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