[sito]

My mother has depression for a long time but she refused to acknowledge the fact. Family doctor prescribed antidepressant but she failed to forgot to take the medication. I remind her to take it but she claims it makes her sleepy. I told her to take it at night.

The issue is that she has these mood episodes which she blame me for bad things happening in her life. She always drag junk stuff home and hoard them.

I don't know how to persuade her to stop collecting junk.

[MickeyCheeky]

I'm sorry for you and your mother. Perhaps you could show her some articles that explain what depression is and how to fight it.. however if she talked to a doctor I believe she may know it already.

I guess you can only insist, but really, you've already done all you can do to help her..

[Skeezyks]

Well... I don't know how old your mother is, of course. That may, or may not make a difference. As an older person myself, though, whenever I read about an older person who is struggling with what appears to be depression, I always wonder if perhaps there could be some underlying medical condition that looks like depression but may not be... or perhaps the underlying medical condition may be causing or contributing to depression. My personal, non-professional opinion is that doctors in general are too quick to chalk anything & everything up to depression. I think this is probably especially true when it comes to older women.

You mentioned your mother claims the antidepressants her doctor prescribed make her sleepy. Here again I do believe, based on my own personal experience, that this is legitimate. I'm no longer on antidepressants. But I have taken them in the past. And mostly what they did for me was to make me groggy. I recall mentioning this, one time, to my pdoc's assistant. She said: "They're supposed to perk you up!" But my reply was: "They just make me sleepy." And whether I took them in the morning, in the afternoon, or at night really didn't make any significant difference. (My pdoc suggested this as well.) It was the cumulative effect of being on antidepressants that caused that 24 / 7 feeling of grogginess... at least for me.

You asked how to persuade your mother to stop collecting and hoarding junk. Personally I doubt you can. First of all your mother would have to see this as being a problem she needs to address. If she does not, I doubt any amount of persuasion from you is likely to make a difference. And if your mother does at some point come to see her collecting & hoarding as a problem, then it's likely (in my opinion) this is something for which she is going to need to seek professional help in the form of counseling or therapy... which, for that matter, is probably what she needs to be doing to address the depression her doctor has decided she has.

There's an article I read a few days ago posted by PC's friendly "News Bot" that talks about the causes of depression. I guess I must like it because I keep linking people to it in my replies. Here's a link to that article:

https://forums.psychcentral.com/news...you-think.html

Having written all of that though... here are links to some articles from PsychCentral's archives on the subjects of helping someone who is in denial, hoarding, & helping someone who has depression. Hopefully some of the information in these articles may be of some help:

https://psychcentral.com/blog/11-way...one-in-denial/

https://blogs.psychcentral.com/relat...-hurtful-ways/

https://psychcentral.com/disorders/h...rder-symptoms/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-thin...sive-hoarding/

https://psychcentral.com/blog/psychology-of-hoarding/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-ways...hos-depressed/

https://psychcentral.com/blog/4-ways...th-depression/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/how-to-...sed-loved-one/

[sito]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Well... I don't know how old your mother is, of course. That may, or may not make a difference. As an older person myself, though, whenever I read about an older person who is struggling with what appears to be depression, I always wonder if perhaps there could be some underlying medical condition that looks like depression but may not be... or perhaps the underlying medical condition may be causing or contributing to depression. My personal, non-professional opinion is that doctors in general are too quick to chalk anything & everything up to depression. I think this is probably especially true when it comes to older women.

You mentioned your mother claims the antidepressants her doctor prescribed make her sleepy. Here again I do believe, based on my own personal experience, that this is legitimate. I'm no longer on antidepressants. But I have taken them in the past. And mostly what they did for me was to make me groggy. I recall mentioning this, one time, to my pdoc's assistant. She said: "They're supposed to perk you up!" But my reply was: "They just make me sleepy." And whether I took them in the morning, in the afternoon, or at night really didn't make any significant difference. (My pdoc suggested this as well.) It was the cumulative effect of being on antidepressants that caused that 24 / 7 feeling of grogginess... at least for me.

You asked how to persuade your mother to stop collecting and hoarding junk. Personally I doubt you can. First of all your mother would have to see this as being a problem she needs to address. If she does not, I doubt any amount of persuasion from you is likely to make a difference. And if your mother does at some point come to see her collecting & hoarding as a problem, then it's likely (in my opinion) this is something for which she is going to need to seek professional help in the form of counseling or therapy... which, for that matter, is probably what she needs to be doing to address the depression her doctor has decided she has.

There's an article I read a few days ago posted by PC's friendly "News Bot" that talks about the causes of depression. I guess I must like it because I keep linking people to it in my replies. Here's a link to that article:

https://forums.psychcentral.com/news...you-think.html

Having written all of that though... here are links to some articles from PsychCentral's archives on the subjects of helping someone who is in denial, hoarding, & helping someone who has depression. Hopefully some of the information in these articles may be of some help:

https://psychcentral.com/blog/11-way...one-in-denial/

https://blogs.psychcentral.com/relat...-hurtful-ways/

https://psychcentral.com/disorders/h...rder-symptoms/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-thin...sive-hoarding/

https://psychcentral.com/blog/psychology-of-hoarding/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-ways...hos-depressed/

https://psychcentral.com/blog/4-ways...th-depression/

https://psychcentral.com/lib/how-to-...sed-loved-one/

Thank you for the links. They are very helpful