IRNS. Good news. Wishing you well.

Speaking as a qualified therapist, I'd like to say you can't figure other people out because you can't be them or be inside them. You can respond honestly, say what you notice, and if they're not interested, then that's it.

It's quite hard enough trying to figure oneself out.

Much of any and every human is beyond understanding anyway. And if you decide that the other isn't listening ....... True listening is pretty hard to do, and anyway, plenty of people find being truly heard hard to take; they can become uncomfortable.

So I didn't offer much to IRNS beyond pointing them towards professional help because I would want direct contact with the person,which is not obtainable via a screen.

However, reaching out, as IRNS did, was, rather than a pathetic thing to do, actually a brave thing to have done. Would that more were that brave; it's certainly more courageous than gun-toting. The courage shows up in the relative rarity of people doing so in society(especially here in stiff-upper-lip UK).

Going to a professional is also seen as selfish, which is odd in a society that encourages making money, owning property, becoming famous. The fact is that , for each of us, there is only one person who can live our life.

I'm personally not to keen on taking stuff, if only because you are thereby avoiding getting to the roots of whatever is going on, and stuff can have undesirable side-effects. There are alternatives, like exercise, as was said, and eating better ("You ARE what you eat"not yet sourced) See, for example Nutritional Medicine by Dr. Davies and Dr.Stewart. And of course therapy or counselling.