I'm so sorry your mother is going through this and sorry, too, for you, as I know you miss her. I'm not in the medical field, but it sounds like your mother is suffering from clinical depression, and she really needs to seek proper treatment from a doctor. Clinical depression is as much an illness as any other illness, and it can be very devastating, both to the person who has it and to family members. One way to help your mother is to encourage her to see a doctor. Perhaps your father could persuade her or join you in letting her know how worried you are about her. People who suffer from clinical depression don't intentionally isolate themselves. They do so because that may be the only way they can continue to live, even with a limited quality of life. I'm fortunate that I don't have clinical depression, but I have friends who have been diagnosed with this illness, and it can be, in many ways, worse than a diagnosis of breast cancer. I have a close friend who is a stage 3 bc survivor and suffers from clinical depression (familial), and she told me that if she had to choose between the two, she would choose to have bc over clinical depression any day. This is also a very little understood illness as people commonly think those who are clinically depressed should just put one foot in front of the other and go forward. But the problem is that this type of depression simply doesn't work that way, and it really doesn't matter what the person is depressed about. Depression is depression. But it can be treated; however, the longer it continues, the harder it is to treat. So please do whatever you need to do to convince your mom to get help. I will pray for both of you,
Hugs & prayers,
Mary
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