I'm in an awkward situation and I don't know what the best thing is to do.
I'm armchair diagnosing but I think my friend is bipolar and has depression. I'm not an expert so I really don't know but he's generally very hyper and peppy when happy but then extremely low and wallowing when sad. Take tonight: I texted him and then he sent me some really silly happy audio messages of him having fun with friends...but then like an hour later he called me crying and didn't really speak, just cried for a quarter of an hour and cried even louder whenever I said anything.
He's also got a lot more aggressive and short tempered recently but has realised this and says he really wants to work on that.
I told him I'm really not qualified to tell him what's wrong or what he should do to get better. I've told him a few times now I think it's best he goes to see a doctor. He said he is considering it but also says he doesn't want to share his feelings with anyone he doesn't know so he'd prefer to just talk to me about this stuff as I'm the "only one [he] feels comfortable sharing these feelings with". But his outbursts are getting more frequent and he's just trying to put paper over the cracks. That being said China, generally speaking, is of the philosophy that mental illness isn't a real thing so I don't know what the facilities here for this sort of thing are like. He did say he's considering going to see a doctor though so I assume there are facilities here for mental issues.
I'm really worried about saying the wrong thing... but then I can't just say nothing to him about it.
We don't really have mutual friends and he said he doesn't really like his family (I know he doesn't live with them since they're in a different city).
Right now I think I should really push the idea of him going to see a doctor.
Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?
I'm armchair diagnosing but I think my friend is bipolar and has depression. I'm not an expert so I really don't know but he's generally very hyper and peppy when happy but then extremely low and wallowing when sad. Take tonight: I texted him and then he sent me some really silly happy audio messages of him having fun with friends...but then like an hour later he called me crying and didn't really speak, just cried for a quarter of an hour and cried even louder whenever I said anything.
He's also got a lot more aggressive and short tempered recently but has realised this and says he really wants to work on that.
I told him I'm really not qualified to tell him what's wrong or what he should do to get better. I've told him a few times now I think it's best he goes to see a doctor. He said he is considering it but also says he doesn't want to share his feelings with anyone he doesn't know so he'd prefer to just talk to me about this stuff as I'm the "only one [he] feels comfortable sharing these feelings with". But his outbursts are getting more frequent and he's just trying to put paper over the cracks. That being said China, generally speaking, is of the philosophy that mental illness isn't a real thing so I don't know what the facilities here for this sort of thing are like. He did say he's considering going to see a doctor though so I assume there are facilities here for mental issues.
I'm really worried about saying the wrong thing... but then I can't just say nothing to him about it.
We don't really have mutual friends and he said he doesn't really like his family (I know he doesn't live with them since they're in a different city).
Right now I think I should really push the idea of him going to see a doctor.
Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?