hi, i don't really know much about depression or anything like that, but at the moment i'm trying to help 2 people who have mental problems, 2 of my closest friends, and i'm hoping that someone out there will be able to advise me on how to help them. 1 of them has been depressed for months now, she's got problems at home and is finding it really hard to cope, she's tried to commit suicide several times now, and i've sat and talked with her for hours, but nothing i say makes any difference to her. She's 17 and her parents are really nasty to her. She is actually talking to a counsellor, but that doesn't seem to be helping much, and now, she's told me that she's not eating properly, and not taking any medication that her doctor has given her, she says that she feels like she doesn't deserve and doesn't want any help.

Then there's my other friend, he's 18, and tried to kill himself about 18 months ago, but that was before i knew him. To eveyone else he seems really happy, and can always make people laugh, it was only the other night when he told me that he's not actually happy, he cuts himself and gets psychopathic visions of him killing people. No one else knows about it yet, i'm the first person he's told, but he's just been hurt really badly by this other boy and i'm worried that he might do something he'll regret.

Please could someone advise me on how i could help them, i'm trying my best but i don't feel like i'm making any difference.