Freedom - I have been in your shoes and they are not fun. My husband was severely depressed for several years. I didn't know what to do with myself. And I didn't even have kids - my heart goes out to you... that would understandably put anyone over the edge.

I'd love to be able to offer advice about what "helped" me, but the truth is that nothing seemed to help. All of my efforts to rouse my husband out of deep depression seemed to hit a brick wall. Probably the only things that had any effect were to forcibly drag him to a mental health clinic for emergency treatment, and to push push push him to keep trying new meds until he hit the right combination.

Nothing that the books said (socialize, exercise, blah blah blah) helped me much. Oh, I did start taking Lexapro for myself. That did seem to help, a bit, but it certainly didn't make the problem go away - it just made it a little more bearable.