My friend is in a very bad way. She's had a painful breakup, and she has a long-term chronic illness that's tough to deal with. She's housebound, isolated, very unhappy and says she's thinking of suicide. What, if anything, can I do to help? [more inside]
posted by Catseye on Sep 27, 2012 - 8 answers

How to support and comfort a friend through the illness/loss of their pets? What helped you? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on May 5, 2011 - 19 answers

How do I explain to people the aftermath of what is probably due to mono? People (family, cute girls) keep brushing off my physical symptoms when I try to concisely explain that, even though I'm infinitely better than I was a couple months ago, my energy fuel tank still empties suddenly and unpredictably, and then I feel awful, freezing, aching, dizzy, and extremely sick until I sleep it off? [more inside]
posted by zeek321 on Feb 1, 2011 - 15 answers

I have a friend who's husband is going in for heart surgery tomorrow. He is a young guy, about 30 years old, He is an extremely athletic outdoorsy type of person, (helicopter skiing, mountain biking, workouts at least 3x a week) He is also one of those guys that don't want any one to visit or call and hates medication, hospitals, doctors. So this is not going to be fun for him, or for his wife. I wanted to know in the hives opinion what I can do to support, say, give during all of this. [more inside]
posted by brinkzilla on Apr 30, 2007 - 12 answers