My cousin is having a very hard time at the moment with financial and relationship problems. She is usually very strong but recently things have been getting too much for her. She is not sleeping or eating much and is almost constantly in tears. I have asked her if she is suicidal but she says she wouldnt do that to her daughter. She cannot handle being on her own at the moment. All I can think to do to help her is to keep in constant phone contact - she rings me or I ring her every couple of hours when I am at work or through the night and to spend as much time as I can with her, talking and letting her cry. My view is that she needs to go with this and get it out of her system otherwise she will just bottle it up and it will get worse. I cant tell her to pull herself together as she will then pretend she is fine when she isn't.
I guess my question is that, in supporting her like this, am I doing her any harm? by not telling her to pull herself together and encouraging her to talk and cry it out of her system am I doing more harm than good? at what point do I tell her that she needs to take positive steps to sort herself out?
thanks x
ps for a variety of reasons I can't ask the rest of our family for help on this.
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