How do I stop the Guilt from creeping in?

[JoVal]

Knowing that my children are suffering with anxiety/depression has me feeling all sorts of guilt and helpless. All I hear from others is just to "take care of yourself" so you can take care of them, which is great in theory, but how do I do that? I take things one day at a time and support my children in all of their moments and just need to know how to shut my mind off when it starts to say that I'm not doing enough for them?

[Sunshine1968]

Hello, As a mother of a girl suffering from anxiety ad depression I can relate, I felt guilty and I also suffered from depression myself and doctors are to quick blaming it on genes.

In fact the best way is treatment, even without insurance there are affordable medicines, with insurance therapy and combined medicine is the best approach. Meditation, yoga exercise are also good, depressed people don't feel like it but they have to push through.

It's very easy for mothers to take the blame for things they didn't do. Decades ago autism and other mental disorders where blamed on the mother. Can you imagine how guilty a mother can feel being blamed for having caused such a severe disability to her child. The past ignorance of the medical community and the basis of psychology has hurt so many families.

So no it's not your fault, you have given them life, taken care of them the best you could and now what you can do is advise them to seek help with the tools available in your reach to treat their depression, but you should definitely not feel guilty.