My 27 year old girlfriend we will call "MISS" just informed me she has
depression, which she says her family has in their history.
"MISS's" mother committed suicide when she was 5 and "MISS" increasingly shows some classic signs of
depression, including: sadness,
headaches, light-headedness, joint
pain, reclusiveness, angry spouts at strangers out of the blue, and sleeping problems.
According to an RN with whom I shared this, the following is relevant: Approximately 6 weeks ago MISS began taking birth control after several years of abstaining from both birth control and sex. In the past 2-3 weeks she has had abnormal cramps & an extended menstrual period, and next to no appetite for sex. Prior to that she had very easily managed menstrual cycles and we were very sexually active. Finally this week, In MISS's words, she is "in a very dark place right now and unable to give the compassion and affection to sustain a relationship" We have spoken very little despite my efforts this week and she emailed me to tell me she just needs me as only a friend.
While I think it is fairly to extremely likely she has
depression that needs to be treated, (I don't know if she's ever been treated) and want to help her with it; the following is what is most confusing/important to me...
Reluctantly a mutual friend disclosed to me that when MISS is at home in bed alone at night (and ONLY in these circumstances) MISS sees and/or senses--and sometimes communicates with--dead people and animals, and that MISS's grandmother does as well (I don't know if MISS's mother did prior to death). Apparently, these spirits with whom she communicates include people as well as her former pets (not sure if one of the people is her mother) and the spirits in HER house are not bad, because the only bad spirit she sees is that of a deceased person when she is at her family's cabin, alone, at night... she feels this spirit is bad, scary, and is eventually going to kill her. It is the spirit of a real person who was really murdered and ditched in the lake next to her cabin, all prior to MISS's lifetime.
I have tried to research psychotic
depression and
schizophrenia but these experiences MISS is having do not appear to be anything like the
hallucinations that are typically described in the research I have seen.
I would like to know what sort of links there are between
depression and this type of experience before I talk to her about it. She is not currently on any form of treatment.
Unless I can find some research that indicates this combination/behavior is a diagnosed illness, I feel I cannot even bring up the aforementioned interaction with dead people (since she has never actually told me about it herself). I fear she might reject my help if she learns that A) I have heard about her contact with dead people, and B) my reaction is to tell her to get help. Either way I would like to help her get the help she needs for the
depression.
