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What you should never say to a depressive
How do you deal properly with depressive people? What can one say to them? You should never say that one thing to a depressive one.
To see someone suffering and not being able to help - one of the biggest evils of a serious illness. So also with a depression. Not infrequently, friends and relatives of depressive people have to look helplessly as they lose themselves in their illness. You cheer up or make you laugh? Wrong! As well as? Those who do not suffer from depression themselves can hardly comprehend what the mental disorder is. They would love to ...
... help! Easier said than done. Because - without wanting to do so, friends and relatives often say the wrong thing. To cheer up or make someone laugh - the wrong way. But how do you handle a depressed person? What do you say to him?
A study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology explains that depressive people do not respond to positive stimuli but to negative validation. Means in German: Depressed people want to be empowered in their situation, get compassion. Denise Marigold, study leader, explains, "People with low self-esteem want their fellow human beings to see them the way they see themselves (...) That's why depressed people often do not appeal to them when their friends remind them how positive they see them: depressives reject optimism and cheer. "
