I remember when my husband was in his worst MDE - I went to a NAMI meeting. They had a guest speaker, and on the agenda, it said that the topic was going to be "commitment". I thought to myself "how nice... this is a good reminder that we need to be committed to helping our partners through their depression, or that they need to be committed to getting and managing their treatment".
Was I in for a shock. The "Committment" presentation was about being committed to a state facility. That's when it really hit me how serious my husband's situation was -- he would have been a good candidate, according to the criteria that the speaker presented. I bawled uncontrollably during the entire presentation and couldn't stop through the NAMI meeting. I am sure I made everyone very uncomfortable.
Sorry to hijack -- the memories are flooding back...