Hello, I could use some advice - if I were to describe a person who
is:
- always overwhelmed, stressed, tired, etc
- and that all these feelings are "justified" because they are always
caused by someone or something else
- and that any disagreement is taken as a personal attack
- requies constant reinforcement that she has "support" to deal
with all this (constant!)
- is always looking for the next physical ailment
- refuses to let things go that she decides are "wrong" (always
caused by another's intentions, clulessness, malice, etc.)
-always worried about what others think of her and paranoid
about others' intentions
- never develops or maintains friends to run around with outside
of family, hates/avoids parties or other social events (and
consequently manages to either be always late or to feel ill right
before so as to not go)
-but can put on a great cheerful show for the general public so
that they cannot see any of this
- and, perhaps most importantly, has been this way for at least 35
years?
Sometimes she is ok to handle and others (goes in phases, I
think?) is bloody impossible because all the items I described
above are really magnified. Without question she is not mean or
ill-intentioned. She does have an abysmal self-esteem though.
Ok, here is my question (and I apologize for being long-winded) -
Does this fit symptoms of depression? (someone *just* clued me
in that it might and I frankly know nothing about it) If so, is there
any way this can be helped if the person in question will not admit
it? (If I were to even hint that I was thinking this, there would be
massively hurt feelings, tears, feelings of personal attack, failure,
anger, etc.)
Can someone suggest something to read so that I can figure out
how to address this? I'm really running thin on being the constant
support and hearing nothing but complaints and such.
thank you for your help and time...
