Concerned about friend

[Sunset]

So this is the situation. This friend I text and meet for lunch sometimes stopped responding to my texts. Out of character for them...so was starting to feel a bit concerned.

Then I got a reply from then saying sorry they had been quiet but had been really bad with depression, feeling very low and unable to communicate, and that sometimes these feelings come and go. They said they had tried to snap out of it but finding it impossible.
I said I was thinking of them.

This person is a man. Throughout the week I sent a couple of texts to say let me know how you are if you feel able. Heard nothing. I know they are reading them, so not concerned they have done something.

Now its been a week and Im just not getting any contact. Don't know if the best thing to do is leave them to contact me, or continue to reach out.

I really care about this person as a friend and we are close, and it feels really weird for this person to be incommunicado.


I would like some views, particularly from men, about whether depression can actually make a person not be able to respond , even to say, "still a bit down"
My SA is kicking in too, and I feel like maybe they just don't want to talk to me.

I know this man had a history of depression, and he once told me he held a gun to his head in a fit of depression, but then changed his mind, when he thought about his daughter living with what he had done.


He has a fire arms certificate and a collection of guns in his cabinet.


I don't know what to do, if anything, to help him...….