Posted by Fi on December 20, 2001, at 8:46:39
In reply to Family not supportive, posted by ivoovi on December 18, 2001, at 20:23:35
First, the most important person in this is you. I'm really sorry your parents arent supportive. Dont get too stressed trying to educate them if they wont listen; look after yourself first.
Also, another option is for them to speak to your pdoc so he/she can educate them too, rather than it all being your task.
There are loads of books out there (see the 'books' page on this website), so it partly depends on what angle you think would be most likely to make sense to them. For example, Lewis Wolpert's book 'Malignant sadness' is written by a (very) eminent scientist who has had severe depression, so if that's the kind of thing that might make them pay attention, fine.
But another thing to consider is the sort of less detailed literature, which includes things you can get free via the internet. Dr Bob has a page of links. There's also some basic quality-checked info via healthfinder (http://www.healthfinder.gov/) eg the leaflet via http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depressionmenu.cfm(which actually says that one thing families can do to help is encourage people to stay on medication long enough to treat an episode!)
Another option is to get them to contact one of the information/support agencies in this field. I'm assuming you're in the US and I dont know about groups over there, but at a guess there is one called the National Mental Health Association (url http://www.nmha.org/). But I'm sure other Board members will be better informed than me on that.
Good luck!
Fi
> So I'm on medication, and I've been trying to find the right medication for the past year. My dad thinks I should just go off all medication completely, and my mom shares this attitude. They don't understand - my dad is just concerned with the bottom line -- how it all hurts his bank account. I was wondering if there is any book or anything I can get to educate them about it.
>
> thanks,
> chris
poster:Fi
thread:15771
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011216/msgs/15817.html