However you feel...,

[Silverobama]

The other day I talked to a person who recovered from depression. I asked him how he made it. He said:

However you feel, try to talk to people every day. A 30-minute talk saves you from despair.

Is this sentence natural?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's grammatically correct. However, I don't like "saves you from despair". At the very least, I'd change "saves" to "can/could save".

 

[Silverobama]

It's grammatically correct. However, I don't like "saves you from despair". At the very least, I'd change "saves" to "can/could save".

What's the natural version of expressing this idea? Please enlighten me.

 

[teechar]

I asked him how he made it.

Note that we use "do" to ask about how someone managed to achieve something. On the other hand, "made" in a sentence such as the above is asking about how someone managed to achieve a difficult/unlikely target, especially one that has a deadline.

 

[Silverobama]

Note that we use "do" to ask about how someone managed to achieve something. On the other hand, "made" in a sentence such as the above is asking about how someone managed to achieve a difficult/unlikely target, especially one that has a deadline.

Much appreciated. But I still need help with my sentence.

 

[emsr2d2]

Much appreciated. But I still need help with my sentence.

Here's how I would word the whole thing:

The other day, I talked to someone who used to suffer badly with depression. I asked him how he had recovered. He said "I made sure I talked to at least one person every day. Just a half-hour chat would make me feel much better".

If he was using "despair" to indicate just how depressed he was, he could say "Even just a half-hour chat could pull me back from the brink of despair".