Help for Brother with Depression

I'm so sorry for your brother. I think anyone might be depressed in his situation. Depression can be chronic or episodic. His sounds like episodic because it is caused by difficult events in his life. Medication may help in the short run, but what he really needs is counseling (even some support groups) to process his losses to a point where he can feel okay again. Medication alone seems unlikely to solve the problem. It must be so hard for you to be so far away when you want to help him. I'm sure you'll keep in close touch with him to let him know that you're there for him if he needs to vent or cry or just chat. When I was depressed at the age of 17 after my parents divorced (I slept a lot, began failing classes when I was an A student before and just generally felt icky inside) I kept a journal, which was a great outlet for me and made me feel less crazy. I wrote or drew whatever because it wasn't for anyone else to look at, it was just to get it out. Good luck to you and him.

First off let him know depression is nothing to be embarrassed about. And a lot of times it doesn't just go away on its own. I spent most of my life dealing with depression/anxiety issues and finally at age 32 got help from a Doctor who put me on Paxil. I have never felt better. One thing I can say is that when you start feeling better a lot of people go off the meds (Big mistake) you have to keep taking them in order to remain normal and healthy. I have come to realize I will be on my paxil for the rest of my life, just as if I had High Blood pressure or diabetes and took meds for them.
Tell him to get help and do it now, he will feel better, no one needs to feel hopeless or sad.

M.,

I recently slipped into a deep depression about two months ago. I had never experienced this before but suddenly found myself unable to get out of bad or even smile at my 5 year old daughter. After about 1 month I went to the Doctor and was prescribed an antidepressant but unfortunatly had a severe reaction to it and couldn't take it. What did help me was talking with positive people (avoiding negative and synical people), getting out in the sun and getting as much exercise as I could handle. I also started taking Vitamin D since a side affect of low Vitamin D is depression, panic attacks, anxiety etc... The first month all I could eat (or drink) was milk and I lost 15 pounds (the only positive thing!) But I forced myself to start eating vegetables, protein and when I didn't want to eat it I would tell myself this is just in my mind, I need to eat. I also tried to get my mind off my troubles by getting back to my art and helping our elderly neighbor water her plants. Small things but they have made a difference.