In college I took a course in "industrial psychology" and learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs.

One of the things that I saw immediately when I began going to therapists back in 1992 was either their ignorance or deliberate ignoring of these needs. If your basic needs are not being met you will have anxiety and depression. The only way to cure these symptoms is to have your basic human needs met. In modern life the basic needs can be summed up with financial security and companionship.

The first psychological test that a therapist gives to a patient should be to determine which basic needs are not being met. Therapy should be focused on helping the patient achieve these basic needs for the first therapy sessions. A patient will never get stable if his/her basic human needs are not being met.

Another point that I would like to make is: How does a person help someone with a mental illness? A person helps someone with a mental illness the same way that person would help someone without a mental illness!

It is not rocket science although there are some who want to make it complicated.

These ideas will work for all mental illnesses!

Knowing these things and being able to apply them to yourself is complicated. But that is why we have mental health professionals