Helping a depressed friend

Depressed teens typically rely on their friends more than their parents or other adults in their lives, so you may find yourself in the position of being the first—or only—person that they talk to about their feelings. While this might seem like a huge responsibility, there are many things you can do to help.

· Get your friend to talk to you. Starting a conversation about depression can be daunting, but you can say something simple: "You seem like you are really down, and not yourself. I really want to help you. Is there anything I can do?"

· Encourage your friend to get help. Urge your depressed friend to talk to a parent, teacher, or counselor. It might be scary for your friend to admit to an authority figure that there is a problem. Having you there might help, so offer to go along for support.

· Stick with your friend through the hard times. Depression can make people do and say things that are hurtful or strange. But your friend is going through a very difficult time, so try not to take it personally. Once your friend gets help, he or she will go back to being the person you know and love. In the meantime, make sure you have other friends or family taking care of you. Your feelings are important and need to be respected, too.

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Disabled people suffer a lot; they feel exempted from our society by the treatment they receive from others. Most of the people in Lebanon will stay away from disabled humans. But aren’t they the same as normal one’s? Don’t they have a good hearth? They want the same things that normal people do, they eat the same food. Everything is the same, but they have a part of their body that’s malfunctioning. The technology and the science are developed as much that it has made disabled people lives easier. In Lebanon, there are rules for disabled people, but unfortunately these rules aren’t always followed. For example not in every public toilet has a special place for them, not every parking has place left for wheel chairs. But they feel more pain in their hearth when they are pushed away from society. This will hurt them even more than any rules. Even if they can’t walk it doesn’t mean that they can’t be any help. They want to work like a normal employee; they want to be treated like a person, not like they don’t exist or, just because God wanted them to be like this, don’t have a life. Here we have some private sector for disabled people but it’s not enough. There has to be more activities for them, more learning schools. They have to be encouraged to participate to any events, because in this way they will be recovered faster and in some way they will be normal.

B

How does a normal child learn the language of his culture? First the child learns to understand language because the people in his environment talk about objects, events. The language learning process begins at birth. The infant begins to associate sounds with objects, events. From the age of 6 months he develops understanding of the meaning of words and word combinations as they are used by others in his environment. Hearing is the sensory avenue for this learning process. At the age of eleven to fifteen months the normal child may begin to express what he sees, feels or wants by the use of a single word. Later he will combine two words in expression and still later he will progress from simple sentences to a wider variety of sentence forms. At the age of six the normal child can communicate verbally with anyone in his culture. Because hearing impairment is not usually detected at birth, the child with serious auditory impairment cannot begin acquiring language until the impairment is discovered and special education is initiated.

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Depression is one of the most common psychological problems, affecting nearly everyone through either personal experience or through depression in a family member. Depression can interfere with normal functioning, and frequently causes problems with work, social and family adjustment. It causes pain and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to those who care about them. Serious depression can destroy family life as well as the life of the depressed person.

Depression is a psychological condition that changes how you think and feel, and also affects your social behavior and sense of physical well-being. We have all felt sad at one time or another, but that is not depression. Sometimes we feel tired from working hard, or discouraged when faced with serious problems. This too, is not depression. These feelings usually pass within a few days or weeks, once we adjust to the stress. But, if these feelings linger, intensify, and begin to interfere with work, school or family responsibilities, it may be depression.

Depression can affect anyone. Once identified, most people diagnosed with depression are successfully treated. Unfortunately, depression is not always diagnosed, because many of the symptoms mimic physical illness, such as sleep and appetite disturbances. Recognizing depression is the first step in treating it.

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