Helping Your Depressed Husband: Finding Support in Rockwall, Texas

Although more women suffer from depression than men, men are still at risk. Depression is a mental disorder that can range from mild to severe, and last several weeks, months, or years. It can disrupt the home, work, the relationship in the bedroom, and other areas of life. Helping your depressed husband is critical to maintaining a strong relationship while he receives treatment.

How to Help Your Depressed Husband

You can help your depressed husband with a few lifestyle changes and reprioritizing the relationship. Remember when you were dating? Most people would have walked miles to see the other person. They would run to the phone when it rang to see if it was them. Once married, we accept adult responsibilities, and sometimes these crowd out the excitement of the relationship.

Work with your husband to rekindle the spark in your relationship. The feelings of love and acceptance trigger the release of serotonin and dopamine, counteracting stress hormones and alleviating depression.

Consider a few of the tips for helping a depressed husband.

Encourage couples counseling

Let your husband know you are willing to attend couples counseling with him. He may be afraid to go alone or think it’s a waste of time, but he’ll be willing to go if you’re by his side. Impress upon him that the strategies and skills the counselor shares will help alleviate his depression symptoms. Couples counseling also provides you with an opportunity to share your concerns and learn how to support your husband.

Help him with tasks when he’s overwhelmed

If your husband is the primary breadwinner in the family or works a stressful job, he may feel overwhelmed by his responsibilities. If he’s out of work, the chronic stress may be contributing to his depression.

Try to help him with tasks when you think he’s overwhelmed. Ask him if there is something you can do to help. Maybe that means clearing the schedule for next month, so both of you can spend more time together. Or you or a family member could temporarily assume a household chore for him.

Make his favorite meals

If your husband has a favorite comforting meal he likes, try surprising him with it one evening. Eating meals that bring back fond memories or stimulate the release of “feel-good” hormones can leave him feeling happier. It also shows him that you love and care for him and are willing to take the time to shop and prepare the meal.

Give him some space

Although isolation is a concern with depression, your husband needs some space to work out his own thoughts and emotions. Encourage him to pursue creative outlets or journal his thoughts. Support his efforts to exercise or go to the gym. Make it easier for him by arranging childcare, setting out his gym clothes, or helping him shop for items needed for a hobby.

Make time together a priority

Aim to rekindle the spark in your marriage by “dating” your husband again. Spend quality time together, listen to each other talk about the day, and leave notes around the house or on his phone. Think about romantic gestures. What worked in the past? What would bring a smile to his face now? Work to strengthen the emotional connection you have.

Consider your family’s lifestyle

Lavish lifestyles are great, but living beyond your means will cause undue stress on your husband, family, and you. Consider your family’s lifestyle. Is there an area where you need to cut back as a family to take the stress off your husband? If he needs to cut back on work, what can you do to make it affordable?

This may involve cutting out certain things, swapping out services for DIY tasks, and eating more meals at home. Discuss with your husband and gather his input on how he would like daily life at home to be. Working together, you can come up with a compromise that will make you both happy and lessen his depression without stressing you out.

Christian Couples Counseling in Rockwall, Texas

The Christian couples counselors in Rockwall, Texas specialize in helping depressed individuals and will customize a care plan for your relationship. You will learn evidence-based methods combined with faith-based principles to strengthen your marital connection and deepen your relationship with God. Call us today at Texas Christian Counseling, Rockwall to get started.