Depression

Hi Tracy,

Your husband is indeed lucky, although he does not think so. Whilst my husband has not been so lucky with his stroke I can understand his thinking as my husband thinks the same thing.

My thoughts are the male pride is sorely dented and for them to accept that their situation may

never be the same is almost like they have failed. A suggestion would be for your husband to

open up to a counsellor, our GP has recommended a mental health plan for my husband.

My husband is 16 months post stroke, and getting quite depressed about his situation and can

see no future for himself particularly as there is little function is his right hand and he has had

problems with mobility. Be strong for yourself also and try and get him to do things with you, we go for drives, do gardening, painting, and I join in his rehab sessions. I allow my husband to "wallow" in his self pity for a bit, give him permission to wallow, then tell him in 20 minutes I would like a hand with something and expect him to join in. Wish you well, but do talk to someone. Take care and look after yourself. Kaz

Hi Tracy,

Depression is common after stroke, up to two thirds of people will suffer depression at sometime in their lives after a stroke.

You might find these videos from Beyond Blue helpful: 

To order a free DVD call us on StrokeLine 1800 787 653 and we will mail one out to you. You may also want to message Adrian O'Malley, Antonio Iannella or Neville Kerr and see if they have got some advice from a mans perspective.

Diana

This sounds like my mum. She lost her vision after 2 TIAs. The most recent only 2 months after the first. She lost peripheral vision with the first and was coming to terms with it when she had the other which took most of the rest. She is now in a severely depressed state. I've suggested counselling but she isn't interested. I can't make her do it and it's so frustrating. We have a gp appt today and I'm going to bring it up with the Dr while we are there. Wish me luck