Peicing but Angry and Confused.......HELP !

[native]

SG,

I am going to sit on this letter for a while, and edit it. Like Michele has noted, timing is a big factor in the success of any particular approach.

Saffie,

thanks for the insight to depression. I have been depressed before, but I don't think I can fully understand what it is like for my W or anyone who has been clinically diagnosed for depression. I know that W has experienced a lot of (self-imposed?) misery.

The mild depression I have experienced in life took an active process of changing my thinking about me, others, life and God to pull out of. Today I enjoy a pretty even keel emotionally, but when I do get frustrated or worried, my feelings are picked up by and amplified in my W. Her counselor described her as a 'Clarasynthic' (sp?) i.e. someone who's emotional experience is easily affected by those around them. As if she had no personal filters against others intense emotions.

"I had to work my way through in my own time until I was ready to improve."

This helps me to give her breathing room. Again, it is hard to imagine the enormity of what she is dealing with. By the time depression becomes a chemical imbalance it must be like being trapped in quicksand; what a horrible thought.

It is hard to remember that because of this condition, she may say horrible things about me, things I don't recognize as true. I'm far from perfect, but if I took her trashings to heart, I would be in a ward by now.