Watching the waves roll past

Nina's getting quite down again - I'm worried but don't know how to respond.

This morning while walking the dog, she talked about her fear about not being able to successfully complete the next unit as my family are planning a family holiday that will occur around the time one of her assignments is likely to be due.

This then rolled into her not liking the idea of going on family holidays, and then that my family was uncaring when it comes to the environment, consumerism, etc., and in particular as the now proposed holiday is to Borneo and that ecotourism isn't necessarily good (e.g. Orangutans may be harmed by it and would be better left along ... even though tourism potentially helps to save them). This then flowed to Antarctic tourism, and that if she went, it couldn't be as a tourist - it would have to be with a particular purpose as part of a scientific mission.

She then talked about how she'll be happy once I die (if I go before her) because she'll be able to withdraw from society and live and die alone (even though half her anguish is probably because she feels alone). She went on to say that she was going to cut-off all her friends as they only ever contact her when they want something ... but they spend much more time with their other friends ... and her "friends" have always done that to her.

She highlighted that once our puppy (who's now 5) dies, and if we don't have another dog, then that is when she will end it ... so in her words, she has 5-10 years left.

She went on to say that maybe she'll have a lot to drink and have a bath and 'see what happens'.

Oh, and yesterday, she was explosive while doing some painting ... indicating that she can't paint, she's a fraud, she doesn't even know why she's doing the course she's doing, that the course was the easiest one she could find to prove she could handle it, etc. Her fiery outbursts caused our puppy to climb up on me for security / comfort.

She's tried seeing a psychiatrist, but hasn't continued (and tends to hide half the terrors, I suspect), so I don't know how to help her ... indeed, I'm not sure I can.

I wish I knew how to respond to rants like this ... buy all I can do as I type this is let out a big sigh as I think about it.