Befriending Someone Who Is Deeply Depressed

In many important ways, I can liken someone who is deeply depressed to someone who is in a coma.  That is to say, when we are deeply depressed, we are not living in ordinary reality, even if we seem to be able to escape into the real world to TRY to fulfill our responsibilities and we seem to you to be awake. It might be easiest to say, only part of us is awake, and that part isn’t functioning all that well at the moment, thank you very much.  There’s a dark fog around us and we are trying to find the yellow line to stay on the road.  This takes up all our energy and concentration.

I had friends who tried to be there for me, but I felt so worthless and unlovable, I could not receive their love and support as coming to ME, just loved them as loving people.  But, restored to…