The only way out of depression is through acceptance: accepting what you feel, accepting what you want, accepting who you are. Being accepted definitely helps with that.
You don't have to do anything.
His only problem is that he thinks he's being a burden to you, and that you're only with him out of pity. That's why he's being distant. He doesn't want to share his feelings because he doesn't want to seem like he's asking you for help. That's why you just need to show him that you can let him feel the way he feels.
He may think with "leaving you" you meant "not being in a relationship" and he doesn't know if he can commit to that. Depression can take away one's desire, in fact all one's emotions.
You should do whatever you want, but if you wait until he's better, he won't want a relationship anymore, because the fear of the depression coming back would always be there.
If you want to be with him you have to accept him at his attitude, because it's just the way he feels. It will all get better once you accept it.
There's this trick in psychology called "paradoxical intention." It was invented by an Auschwitz survivor who founded existential therapy. The idea of paradoxical intention is that when you face your fears they go away. He's afraid of being depressed and that makes him depressed, so he should face that fear: rather than trying not to give in to it until he can no longer resist it, he should try to be depressed. If he does that, he won't.
And a good way to do that is to talk about how depression feels for him, to let him express it and wallow in it until it doesn't feel depressing anymore. You have to make him feel like you accept the way I feel. Show interest, maybe even joke about it. What would keep you? When you're with him and you're both being yourself, you're together. And when you accept each other there's no way you couldn't be yourself.
So just hammer it home over and over again that you love him no matter what. And you love him even when he's depressed, just the way he is. You can't help it.
Say you'd rather be him with depressed than not be with him at all. That he's still valuable for what he is at that moment and not just because he might get better. Once you make up your mind, really make up your mind to do that, you'll feel such a rush of love inside you that it can overcome anything. Love will always give clarity and guide the way in that confusion, because it's the one thing that gives our life purpose, and that never changes.
He felt like he couldn't be depressed with you, that he could only be depressed alone. When he was with you he was trying not to be depressed and he just couldn't do it. Because our emotions don't care what we think about their being there. We have to go with their flow.
Love is wanting the best for someone. You feel like a burden to him like he felt like a burden to you. You were trying to protect each other. It's alright to fight if that's what you both want to do, though. All those emotions are just different forms of love. If he didn't care, he'd show no emotion and wouldn't fight. Tell him that you feel more depressed when you're alone than when you're with him and feeling his depression.
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