Dax Shepard 'can sense' when wife Kristen Bell is about to have a depressive 'slump'

Dax Shepard has told how he "can sense" when wife Kristen Bell is about to enter a period of depression.

The actor and his wife both experience depression.

Now Dax, 49, has told how he helps his wife, 44, when she's coming into a depressive "slump."

"Kristen has depression, so hers won't necessarily be incident driven," he said on his podcast, Armchair Expert, to guest Anna Kendrick.

"It's not like she has a specific thing. She'll just have a wave of it. She'll sleep a lot and there's nothing I can do or nor do I think I should do."

He continued, "She's gonna sleep a lot for a while, and then she's gonna come out of it. Now earlier on, that used to scare me," he admitted. "And I was like, 'Is this gonna be forever?'"

He revealed that now he has "gone through the cycle enough," he knows, "she's gonna organise for a couple of days really, really, intensely, and then she's gonna sleep a lot for a few days, and then it's gonna be over."

He also told how he encourages her to seek help during these times.

"I will gently (be) like, 'Hey, love. Have you checked in with your psychiatrist lately? I'm not saying you need to do anything. Just, like, have you checked in with your psychiatrist?' So that'll be like one thing I can do. It's evolved because I used to try to fix it. That's my nature and I used to try to talk her out of it or tell her what's good in her life or (make a) gratitude list."

Now he encourages her to take a walk with him.

"One thing I'll still do, and she likes this, and it doesn't trigger (her) feeling judged about being sad, is (saying) let's go for a walk or let's go for a hike. Like, just encouraging, let's go move around."

Dax and Kristen, 44, have been married for 11 years. They are parents to two girls, Lincoln, 11, and Delta, ten.