The biggest problem was for me to convince my husband and my mother that I am no more the same as I have been to.
They knew me as a strong, happy and encouraging person and they did not want to accept that they can not rely on me like before, that I can not do things like before.
It was more a luck, not a "strategy" that we have a neighbour next to my mother's house. So, as we were all there (my mother, my husband and me), this neighbour visited us. She 's got depression too. She started to talk about her feelings, her fears, her illness.
My mother and my husband were shocked and surprised: they could hear almost the same words, the same phrases, the same thought like I expressed so many times before to let them know how I feel, to convince them, what it means, to be depressive - that this is an illness and not something like "I do not want to do this or that..."
After this I experienced the first time that my mother WANTS to help me, and she tried to find ways to make me feel better. She started to do things she has done earlier - like reading a book together with me and discuss it (actually she has read, I only listened to). She forced things to help me.
So, I do not know if this is something anyone can use, but just to let you know: listening to another depressed one, live (!), helped my family to understand and to support me. It was like they understood it finally.
(sorry for my english - I am not from Canada, neither from an english-speeking country)
