What should I do?
There is a man, a good man, in my life who has trouble communicating his emotions. As he put it, "when bad things happen, I shut down and my mind goes blank. I don't feel anything physically like I'm numb."
Today he was going through something and just sat there in silence while I asked him questions. He kept answering "I don't know" to almost everything I said and I could see he was shutting down. Head down, eyes to the floor, quiet when he spoke, stuff like that. I told him journaling helps me so he felt comfortable writing some of his feelings down on there (which is where I got the above quote). He said I could read it so I did to further help him.
Any advice on how to help him from here? He is looking for therapists but as someone in his life who cares about him, I still would like to help if I can. I know it's not my job to "fix" him but I want to be a good support system. Also I know men and women are very different so particularly men on here who struggle with maybe depression and expressing your emotions and feeling numb, what are things that could help you? What do you suggest? Or any women who have helped men go through this? He is very open to my suggestions but not others so I think if I figure out a few things and act as though they were my ideas then he would give them a try