[PaperBagger'14]

Most of what I have to say is purely anecdotal, and I'm sure lots of it you've heard or seen before so apologies if it comes across as preachy.

The most important things I did when I was having similar issues were:

1) Alcohol consumption almost entirely cut out. I cant state that enough.

2) Making goals. I started off with very small and easily attainable ones (go fo a 10 minute walk, make a good meal). The goal itself wasn't important for me, it was having a sense of accomplishment even if it wasn't significant. Building confidence was a major factor in my healing.

3) Medicine and Therapy. I found a drug that worked for me on the 2nd try, the side effects of the first drug were too much for me and not worthwhile. My therapist was recommended to me through my family doctor who had known me my whole life.

As far as the medication goes, it is important to know how it affects your mood. They arent happy pills that make everything better. The effect they had on me was cutting off the extremes of emotion. The highs you get in anger or happiness as well as the lows of depression all get diminished. If you think of emotion as a graph, the medicine acted as a bandwidth.

Best of luck Ed

Edit: About family counseling, it would really depend on the situation. With me, I know it wouldn't have been beneficial given the situation I was in, but there is no blueprint for mental health. If he ever reaches out asking for family counseling I would jump all over it.