Mum is having a mental health crisis

[Clarro]

I’m really worried for my mum. She is clearly going through something right now. She woke me up this morning crying and reluctantly shared life feels like Groundhog Day. My mum is not a crier but she was clearly panicking. She is staying with me for the week.

My mum has had a hard life but in recent years it on the surface has got much easier.

I have sent her to the gp right now (can’t go because of work and kids).

Hopefully she will got some meds.

What else can I do?

Im very worried she was talking about falling at the last hurdle and not making it

Shes in a rut. She works and then comes home and just sits on the sofa. Normally she is very social but has not been out of house for a month+.
Ive taken her out for meals out. But she’s clearly not herself.

Im waiting for my manager to respond to my request for the day off so I can be with her.

Thanks in advance

I'm sorry to hear this, and hope you can get some time off. I don't know the answer, but fingers crossed the GP will offer something helpful x

Going to the GP was the right move. Other suggestions: therapy would be helpful and exercise as well as getting out and about. Can you take her out? Cinema, coffee, walk etc so she's not sitting around dwelling.

What sort of age is she, OP? I gather she's still working so maybe she's not what we would think of as an isolated older person who could be suffering emotional or social loneliness (or both)? You say that until fairly recently she has been a sociable person, but suddenly her behaviour has changed, so there could have been something (existential?) bothering her for quite a while and she hasn't been able to resolve it in her mind/heart and has finally slipped across a line where hopelessness has set in. Or something might have happened that she hasn't talked about to anyone and she's feeling alone with it and how it has made her feel, perhaps. Either way, if at all possible try to persuade her to talk to a counselling service. Tell her it's very normal these days for people to seek counselling when they're struggling and it's completely confidential. The GP might point her in that direction this morning anyway.

Whatever she's going through, I hope you get help with supporting her. It's not easy to go through as someone who cares so deeply, and none of us know what to do when our parents are struggling like that so be very easy on yourself too.