Hi. My mom has been suffering with depression for about the last year and a half. Basically, my grandmother passed away more than two years ago, we took on the debt of the house plus my mothers credit card bills. My mom is divorced and very alone. She also lost her job, and after several interviews and "filler jobs" nothing is seeming to work out. Lately, her emotions she kept hidden and covered up from her marriage are starting to pour out, and she now has to deal with them. My father emotionally abused her, cheated on her, and his parents demeaned and belittled her. Her marriage ended about 12 years ago but she is just now facing it all. She never fully dealt with the pain; instead, she used her career and our amazing mother daughter relationship as an outlet. Since her career has left, she has been in her own head a lot and has really lost herself and her inspiration to find a job and herself again. We have pin pointed her problem to not being able to "seek." She knows what she wants, but she is waiting for it. She says that she has lost her ambition and that she just does not care anymore.

The thing is, my mom admits she has depression and that she wants to tackle it. We have had several heart felt talks and goals set; however, we cannot afford treatment. Also, she wants to gain a greater relationship with Christ and go to mass more, but what steps can we take to grow in a relationship, which verses, where do we start? Do you know of any websites we can look at for a self treatment, or if there is free group counseling, or blogs, anything!!!?

Thanks for reading through all of this. I’m a teenager and my mom is in her early 50′s. She is gorgeous and I am not just saying that, she looks about 30. She also has an amazing sense of humor and charisma, so I just hate seeing her waste her life away, dwelling in our home becoming stir crazy.