He has been dealing with anxiety / depression for a long time. He is not confident in himself, tends to be overbearing, and is driven to be the best at everything. Over the past few weeks it has been really bad. He wanted me to remove the knives from the dishwasher, for fear he'd intentionally hurt himself. And then he came right out and claimed that he felt like killing himself.
Woah! So we've been talking a lot about anxiety and how it makes a person feel. We are reading together Stress Can Really Get on Your Nerves! by Trevor Romain and Elizabeth Verdick. We've just begun, but it is clear that Ryan has several anxiety symptoms. I'm looking forward to getting into the sections that talk about how to manage stress. I think that both of us could learn better stress management skills.
Now on to the part about how Ryan made my day. Yesterday he wrote me a letter. He said that I am his hero because I'm always so helpful and nice. He also feels that I'm helping him deal with his depression. That is very important to me. I do not want to dismiss his feelings, or invalidate them. They are his feelings and he has a right to them. When he needs help dealing with his feelings, it is my job to help him find resources.
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