Male Depression

[med forum]

Hi there

I haven't been on the boards in a while but my update is that my boyfriend is in depression and I'm not really sure what to do. He has started seeing a counselor and I'm hoping that this counselor will be able to help him open up to all the things that are being bottled up inside. For the last year, my boyfriend was talking about how he has begun to accept his HIV status but I never really believed him because I always
had a gut feeling that that wasn't really the case.
His family is going through a lot of issues, he has an extremely demanding job and he feels like everything is hitting him at once. From day one, I have tried to be as supportive and loving as possible, and in the last 5 months or so, I've noticed an obvious change about him in that he doesn't seem to want to be close to me.
Then, about a month ago, I found text messages on his phone that were very clearly not from me or sent to me that led me to believe that there was someone else in the picture.
When I approached him about it, he just said that he didn't know what to say and then he broke down and started balling about how he feels like he's a failure to himself as well as everyone around him.
I didn't know what to do or what to say. He still hasn't given me an explanation of what was going on.

I know that male and female depression are very different. I just don't know what to do or say anymore.
I feel like I need to be careful of what I say and how I say it to him because I don't want to add fuel
to the fire. I know without a doubt that he's going through some serious depression......does anyone have experience in this or have some words of wisdom to share with me?

I appreciate it

[Miss Philicia]

This is a duplicate post

see here:  http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=15417.0

The moderators prefer that there only be one post by a member about a particular subject such as this, as it's easier for other board members to provide you feedback.  I will see if someone can merge this thread with the other for you.

[Ann]

I've locked this thread but left it here because of the depression link. Anyone who wishes to reply to MF can follow the link in Philly's post.

Ann