Premiumg, your parents need to understand the seriousness of depression. It is a life-threatening mental illness. There's a good chance that your brother's excessive time on the computer, unusual sleep patterns, lack of friends, etc. are all symptoms of his depression, because depression causes one to want to withdraw from personal contact and causes sleep disturbances. His insistance on withdrawing from his school could also mean that he has an anxiety disorder or social phobia.

If your brother were my son, I would get him in to see a psychiatrist as soon as possible. A psychiatrist can prescribe medications for him and recommend the best course of therapy for him. He/she may want to conduct the therapy or may recommend a good therapist for your brother to see. As to the cost: My therapist charges $85 p.h for people with insurance, and about $60 an hour for those without it. My psychiatrist charges $75.00 for a 1/2 hour visit. If your family is paying $5,000 per year for his education, they probably can afford this. If not, then find out where your community mental health center is located and take him there.

Again, I want to stress that your family needs to take your brother's depression very, very seriously and get him the recommended treatment. He also needs patience and emotional support from you and your parents---and be sure he doesn't feel guilty about the $$ spent on making him well. Depressed people feel guilty a lot, and it makes the depression worse.

Please keep us posted on your brother. If you can get him to visit us here, that would be great, too. There are a lot of very caring people here who know how he feels and would be happy to offer him support.