Dear Amy: My 83-year-old widowed mother is depressed, and I don’t know how to help. She refuses to see a therapist and sees drugs as a crutch. She has always been a very private person, is generally distrustful of doctors, and would never let down her shields to a stranger. I have told her that I am not a therapist, but she has lately begun to confide in me about things that, even as an adult, I shouldn’t be hearing. Depression runs in the family.