A Reddit user has won praise for his touching idea for helping his girlfriend when she’s struggling with her mental health.
Sharing an image of his work to the forum, the user, who posts under the name of bovadeez, explained that his girlfriend suffers from ‘crippling’ depression and anxiety, and so he’d wanted to do something to show support and help her to manage her symptoms as much as possible.
‘My girlfriend suffers from, at times, crippling depression and anxiety. I saw this idea somewhere online and decided to make her something like it,’ he wrote alongside the picture.
In the snap, there is a jar filled with coloured sticks, with each colour representing a different thing. The orange sticks are quotes, the yellow are reminders, and the pink are ‘things to help you relax’.
He’s also left some of the sticks blanks, advising her to ‘Add a memory. Write something you enjoyed on a blank stick with person and date’.
The sweet gesture has been applauded by many commenters, who called the jar ‘great’ and ‘really beautiful’.
‘Wow this is a really great idea. Sometimes depression makes it really hard for people to hear what you are trying to say and sometimes talking doesn’t help. I’m gonna pass this idea along if you don’t mind,’ one said.
‘My girlfriend has bad anxiety and sometimes depression as well (same for me, but mostly just bouts of depression). Thank you for passing this idea along; I’m going to show it to her and we may make something like this for at home. Fantastic idea,’ another agreed.
‘The fact that what you have done is so personal should in itself provide some relief. You are special,’ a third posted, to which he responded: ‘She’s very special to me ..I least I can do is try to help.’
However, bovadeez was also quick to stress that it was not his original idea, and that he’d seen similar projects posted online.
