My sister has had problems with depression her whole life. She’s been hospitalized for legitimate suicide attempts that she’s tried to hide a few times. She genuinely is working to get better it’s just very hard.

She had trouble making friends and getting into college she found a group of friends that she moved in with. Now, these people are fine, they’re nice and like the things she does, but a lot of them also suffer from depression and I feel as though due to their age and being away from home they sort of feed off of each other living how they are.

As far as I know my sister is the only one actively seeing a therapist. She has told me that on not a few occasions the people in her house have attempted suicide, sometimes superficially, sometimes not. And she’s left either volunteering, or because she’s living in the house, as a suicide watcher for more than one person there.

I think this is horribly damaging for someone trying to work through depression. She recently dropped out of school and said one of the reasons was because the constant stress of watching her friends caused her depression to spike.

But they’re her only group of friends and she feels obligated to stay with them, like leaving would be abandoning them when they already feel abandoned. And I think a little of that is true, but it’s not like they’re going to help her get back into school from all of the stress they’ve caused, and these kids have their families already supporting them also. They don’t make use of the free counseling on campus and don’t take medications like my sister. They just stay in this cycle.

I’m considering trying to convince her to come live with me or my parents for a while to get her away from that atmosphere, but since she has so few friends I don’t want her to feel isolated either. Our mother isn’t the most understanding person and I’m afraid she’ll be too antagonistic about the situation, and my sister can only take my husband in small doses because he has a loud personality. But I’m worried about what will happen if she stays there. She’s already been getting progressively worse over the past few months and I can’t help but blame her living situation. Idk if she sees them as a support structure or not, but I think it’s hurting her.

Should I try to convince her to leave and hope that helps her, or should I trust that she will just come to me when she needs help?