My dad died very suddenly at the age of 44, leaving my mum to bring up four teenagers aged between 11 and 16 on her own. Horrendous. It has left me with lifelong scars, eating disorder, depression etc. but until very recently Mum insisted that she'd never suffered a day of depression in her life. I remember her drinking heavily in the years after Dad died, and being very volatile emotionally, but in thosue days (early '80s) counselling just wasn't part of the deal. She's now in her early 80s and in the last few years has been suffering quite badly from anxiety and, I suspect, depression, to the extent that she's been on Sertraline for a few years. Myself and all my 3 siblings have suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety throughout our adult lives. I can't help feeling that if my mum had had more support and acknowledgement of her bereavement at the time, it wouldn't have been passed on to the next generation so disastrously.