i do have little same situation at times. It gets worse as thoughts just come over and over with more and more strange things, start crying as if i am some hopeless helpless kid and at the end its like i am trying to run from everything, mind goes really wild and its hard to control. The only thing that helps me at these time is when i am having these episodes i go for pray and then share it all with Allah. its hard to judge if its good or bad thing (something coming from Allah or devil) so i just say it all to Allah and at times i even fall asleep prying and then when i wake up i feel really great with a very light heart, and i am really happy. When i have these episodes they are worse to the point few people claimed they heard me crying with little screams but praying that time really helps, tell your friend to do it and InshaAllah will find this really useful