“I’ve tried to be optimistic and tell him that he’s been down this road before and he persevered.. that it’s not his time yet and together we can get through this.” this sounds very good 🙂 you seem to have the right idea on how to cheer someone up

But like you said it’s something deeper, when figuring out anything deep finding out someone’s childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and the relationship with their primary caregivers is a great place to start.

I’m interested in if he was like this when you met him? Did he blame things on external objects when you met him? How old are you both now and were you when you met?

Yet still these are all distractive questions from what Anita mentioned which is, how is the relationship with his parents?

That’s a great place to start, then write your reply here and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.