Antidepressants may help, as already suggested.
Does he have live-in caregivers? Family close by? If so, keep asking. Things like going to a park or movie. One of the things that some with ALS go through is feeling useless.
make him realize he's still useful and his company is still desired. Plan an outing and try not taking NO for an answer.
You can also contact the local ALSA and see if their counselors can offer any other tips.
My thoughts are with you.
Thank you for your response. We have a rather unique family situation. Tom lives up the road from us (we live in a very rural area) with his step-father, in the house my husband and I own. Last September, my MIL passed away very suddenly, and Ken (her husband) stayed on in the house. Tom started to really have serious symptoms over the winter and moved into the house with Ken because Tom's own house needed so many repairs. Anyway, Tom was working nights at a large truck repair shop, and he slept during the day, so he didn't really have to interact much with Ken. When he became so ill that he had to be hospitalized, Ken seemed like he was going to really help out with the feedings and Tom's care. That has not been the case.
When Tom got food stamps, I took him grocery shopping and he got lots of things that sounded really good to him, because he is still able to eat and he enjoys eating tasty food. Well, Ken ate a good deal of the food that Tom bought, without asking and without sharing any of it. Tom got so angry, but didn't say anything, and lost a good deal of weight. By the time we realized what was going on, Tom was down at least 10 pounds that he could not afford to lose. We remedied that situation by going grocery shopping again, and keeping all of the food at our house. We all take turns taking his meals to him, one at a time.
This seems to have angered Ken, so we are now in some sort of weird stand-off. He will wash only the dishes he dirties - not any of Tom's. He won't help with the feedings, not even to get a clean tube out or to bring him a can of Jevity. We want to get rid of Ken, but because of an inheritance tax issue, he can still take one-third of our land as his own, even though he has done nothing to earn it. We feel like we have a sword of Damocles over our heads.
We do take care of Tom on a daily basis. Taking him to movies is not really in any of our budgets, nor is it practical. He never liked going to movies before, so it's not something that he would want to do now. He does enjoy going out into the woods with my husband or with my kids. He has a Gator Cart sort of thing that my older kids can drive to take him out into nature. They also watch TV with him in the evenings, and they have Sunday night movie night with him. I know, he's watching movies on TV, but it's different to watch a one dollar DVD from the library vs. spending $10 to sit in a theater.
I know this is long and rambling, and possibly confusing. It's just so new to all of us that it's hard to keep all the balls in the air all the time. Tom has always been a very mild-mannered guy. I joke that you could him him repeatedly with a hammer and he would say, "That's okay." We don't know that things are really driving him crazy until it's really bad. It's hard for someone with his temperament to change after 38 years, even though he needs to speak up now more than ever.