Depressed Husband - Discussion and Treatment

A depressed husband in the home will have a negative impact on everyone in the family. Depression does not just affect one person in the household. Instead, it spreads like wildfire and everyone around the person suffering from depression feels the effect of depression.

Between the husband and the wife, it is slightly easier to diagnose and treat the wives for depression as compared to men. To begin with, most men have a problem accepting that they could have a problem. If confronted directly by the wife regarding depression, men are going to resent it a lot and create more problems than already exist. Therefore, diagnosing and treating husbands suffering from depression is difficult, challenging, and needs to be handled extremely carefully.

If there are children in the family, care should be taken to ensure that they are not negatively affected by the whole process of diagnosing and treating depressed husbands and fathers. Sometimes, it comes as a rude shock for the entire family when the husband is diagnosed with depression - this is because depression is generally associated with women and it is easier to accept that.

Some of the reasons for depression in husbands could include biological as well as stress factors. Biological factors could result from a family history of depression, where certain people are at a higher risk of suffering from depression as compared to the rest of the population.

In other cases, people who are faced with too many stressful situations in life personally or professionally could end up with depression. Either way, men, too, are affected by depression. However, when compared to women, the number of depressed husbands is slightly less.

Wives should look out for the following if they suspect that they may be having depressed husbands:

• Highly irritable and get agitated very fast.
• Flying tempers and exaggerated reactions for the most insignificant problems.
• Sad and depressed mood that does not change despite several attempts made by the wife and children to cheer him up.
• Insomnia or excessive sleep.
• Loss of appetite or overeating.
• Refusing to go to work or be part of any social activity.
• Excessive smoking and drinking.
• Talks about separation or divorce and suicide.
• Pays less and less attention to personal health and hygiene.
  
  

If more than five of these symptoms exist for over a period of two weeks, wives should immediately seek professional help and take the husband to meet a therapist or psychiatrist.

Breaking this to the husband will definitely not be easy. Therefore, one must ensure that if friends or parents are around, they should be taken into confidence and the news should be delivered to the husband gently. While there might be an extreme reaction to this, or the depressed husband might refuse to seek help, one should try and convince him that depression affects everyone at some point in time or the other, and that the best way to deal with it is to accept it and overcome it through treatment.

In addition to the above, depressed husbands must be encouraged to enroll into an exercise program, stick to a balanced diet, cultivate a new hobby, spend time with children, friends, and family, start thinking positively, as well as give up smoking and drinking if possible.

A lot of other meaningful activities, including yoga, meditation, and learning a new skill or two could be added to this list as time progresses. The idea is to relax the mind and body, channelize energy positively and ensure that there is no time for negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions to manifest. Wives should check out various forms of detoxification for the body and mind for both of them and invest in these programs seriously.

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