{"id":38047,"date":"2018-04-30T07:50:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=38047"},"modified":"2018-04-30T07:52:26","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:52:26","slug":"how-can-i-help-my-adult-child-with-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/dear-gt\/how-can-i-help-my-adult-child-with-depression","title":{"rendered":"How Can I Help My Adult Child with Depression?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear GoodTherapy.org,<\/span><\/p>\n

My adult daughter is incredibly gifted (she tested around 130 IQ), but she has pretty serious depression<\/a>. The sleeps-all-day, forgets-to-eat kind. It took her an extra two years to graduate from college because she kept turning assignments in late. Once she got her engineering degree, everyone thought she\u2019d get a job easily, but she bombed all her interviews. Eventually she ended up working as a waitress.<\/p>\n

\n\t

Find a Therapist<\/a><\/h2>\n\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\tAdvanced Search<\/a>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

She\u2019s been in therapy<\/a> for a year now, and her more serious symptoms have improved. My daughter says she wants to quit her job and go to graduate school. However, she keeps procrastinating on applications and missing deadlines. When I try to ask about her progress, she clams up and shuts me out.<\/p>\n

I know she\u2019s an adult now. I can\u2019t do everything for her. But I would hate to see my daughter\u2019s depression sabotage her career. All she needs is a little support for her condition.<\/p>\n

Should I take a more active role in guiding my child? Or is my daughter\u2019s procrastination<\/a> a sign she\u2019s not actually ready for graduate school? I want her to reach her full potential, but I don\u2019t want to push her into a situation she can\u2019t handle. \u2014Not an Empty Nester Yet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Submit Your Own Question to a Therapist<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Not an Empty Nester,<\/span><\/p>\n

It can be so hard to watch someone you love struggle. It can be even harder when you feel so helpless. Your daughter is an adult, is in therapy, and has to be in charge of her future. Your desire to help her comes from a loving place, but sadly, it is not the kind of help she needs.<\/p>\n

Often when we try to help our kids by smoothing their path or taking care of things for them, we unintentionally signal that we\u2019re not confident in their ability to manage things. This can reinforce their self-doubts<\/a> and contribute to their sense of helplessness<\/a> and ineffectiveness. What our kids need more often is to hear and see from us that we believe they can manage their lives, and that we are available for support if they want it. Then we must step back and let them fall and pick themselves back up. It can be excruciating to watch, and of course we can intervene when they are in serious or life-threatening danger. Failure to reach potential, though, doesn\u2019t meet that standard.<\/p>\n

If she owns her choices and the results of those choices, good or bad, she will move into adulthood on better footing. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not unusual for kids, even as they enter adulthood<\/a>, to push back against the expectations they believe others (especially parents) have of them. If your daughter feels you are more invested in her graduate school applications than she is, she may lose some of her own motivation<\/a>. Ultimately, she will have to decide what she wants and how much she wants to pursue it. If she owns her choices and the results of those choices, good or bad, she will move into adulthood on better footing. Maybe grad school is the right choice for her now, maybe not. Either way, she must choose how to live her life and forge her own path.<\/p>\n

If you are wondering how best to support your daughter, could you ask to meet with her and her therapist? Her therapist might be able to offer ideas about how to communicate effectively with your daughter and offer her loving support in a way that bolsters her sense of self-efficacy. If not, perhaps you could find a therapist<\/a> to work with to share your fears and concerns and identify a way to manage the anxiety you feel on your daughter\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

Best of luck,<\/p>\n

Erika Myers, MS, MEd, LPC, NCC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I can\u2019t do everything for her. But I would hate to see my daughter\u2019s depression sabotage her career. Should I take a more active role in guiding my child?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[625,542],"tags":[522,161,51,470],"class_list":["post-38047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-goodtherapy","category-featured-articles","tag-dear-gt","tag-depression","tag-healthy-parenting","tag-young-adult-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}