Dealing With Depression

“The Spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness,

but who can bear a broken spirit?”

Proverbs  18:14

 

                Depression is debilitating. Without care, it can consume every area of your life to the point that you are emotionally and physically bed-ridden.  The word ‘depression’ has become a catch-all phrase for everything from the “Monday morning blues” to “manic-depressive”, with a wide birth between the two. Thus, what depression is for one may not be for another.

                Webster’s Dictionary defines depression as gloomy, dejected, discouraged, despondent, and feelings of inadequacy.  The Greek word for depression and biblical definition combines those descriptions into one to mean literally one’s spirit being ‘pressed down’ or ‘brought low’.  According to both researches and the Bible, it can be brought on by several reasons, such as:

1.            Non-personal reasons: Death of a loved one, reversal of pleasurable circumstances, sickness, exhaustion, hormonal changes, inadequate nutrition, a pessimistic world-view, stress, and feeling trapped (i.e. in marriage, parenting, job or financially).

2.            Intra-personal reasons: Being mistreated, oppressed, mocked, rejected, taken advantage of and feeling inadequate, etc.

3.            Intra-personal reasons: Unrealized aspirations such as to be married, have children, a home, to get a raise, or be successful. Additionally, over-indulgent desires to eat, drink, have sex, etc.

4.            Behavioral causes:  Selfishness or guilt of failing to respond to God’s opportunities by relying on God’s sufficiency; guilt due to wrong actions due to personal aspirations, gratification, and reputation due to immorality or negligence; or guilt due as related to having the wrong reaction to situations such as having unresolved anger issues or resentment or bitterness.

5.            Root cause: Delusion of the Deceiver, Satan, “the father of lies” (John 8:44) which promotes hopelessness and feelings such that God or Christ are insufficient.

                There are several biblical examples of people who grappled with depression from Genesis through Revelations. Individuals who were prominent; leaders, kings and prophets, such as: Job, Moses, Elijah, King David, Asaph, and Jonah.  For me, the most graphic and descriptive story involves Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet.” The background of Jeremiah’s story is the fall and brutal destruction of Jerusalem at the bloody hands of the Babylonians in 586/5 B.C. Times were devastating. Famine and the sword consumed the fallen city. The story is filled with sorrow, melancholy, and mourning as Jeremiah sat on a hill, weeping over the devastation of his beloved city. If anyone had cause for depression, he did.  In describing how he felt, he didn’t mince words:

                “I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their mocking song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drunk with wormwood. And He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. And my soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, ‘My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.’ Remember my affliction and my wandering, and the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me” (Lamentations 3:14-20).    

                Jeremiah felt defeated, rejected by others, deserted and deprived of hope. Have you ever felt that way? I have. Matter-of-fact, for most of my life I’ve wrestled daily with depression. Sometimes it’s just a cloud hovering over my head threatening rain, but other times it has been literally life-threatening. As an unbeliever, I tried to commit suicide several times in an effort to rid myself from its dark claws further imbedding in my soul and pulling me even farther down into a dark hole of hopelessness. As a believer, I now have hope in Christ, so that has completely changed the way I cope with the illness.

                Mother Theresa said something once that has remained with me on the hard days that I’ve grappled with depression. She said, “You don’t need Jesus until Jesus is all you have.” It would be completely honest for me to tell you I’m grateful for the depression I’ve suffered through for the sole reason that it has caused me to cling to Jesus as my very breath on days that it was all I could do to get out of bed. As a result, I have an intimacy with Jesus I know without a doubt I would not have otherwise. On days when I couldn’t pray, I just mumbled the name of Jesus repeatedly, knowing that Jesus was interceding for me in heaven and that God was hearing my cries. On better days, I’d pray for deliverance, healing and strength, lifting up and praising the name of Jesus.  I have a CD that plays healing and hope related scriptures in my home twenty-four hours a day. Praise and worship are played regularly. I’ve come to realize I need the Bible to wash me in the Word daily and praise music to lift my spirit like the diabetic needs insulin.  It’s one of the successful ways I’ve battled depression.

                There have been times I’ve been on medication and gone to Christian counseling, both have worked well for me.  I’ve had many women who struggle with depression come to me and say if they had more faith they wouldn’t need medication. While that topic could be an article in itself, I’ll just say here that mental health issues, like physical sickness are a direct result of the fall, and just as a cancer patient would actively do something to treat their illness, so should the person who struggles with depression or other mental illnesses.  On the same note, I believe God is totally capable of healing me. I’ve prayed for it for nineteen years. When I became a believer, God instantaneously and miraculously healed me of several things; depression was one thing He chose not to heal. While I may not understand why he chose one thing over another, I continue to walk in faith, trusting and believing He has a reason and that He knows best.

                I believe that some depression is the result of unconfessed sin and guilt, so I often encourage people to go through what the Twelve Steps refer to as the fifth step: a time of sitting with another individual and confessing all known sin. The Bible clearly tells us to confess our sins to both man and God; man for accountability, God for humility and freedom (James 5:16). Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”  Thousands of people have used The Steps to Freedom in Christ, written by one of my mentors, Dr. Neil Anderson, author of The Bondage Breaker and other best sellers.  Then I encourage people to take a daily inventory of their sin and make it a practice of confessing (admitting you did wrong) and renouncing (turning away from) sin. 

                Depression is an exhaustive topic and I’ve spent 3-day conferences teaching on it. However, for the sake of space and time, I must bring this “discussion” to a close. In doing so, I’d like to share a verse with you that has encouraged me and given me hope. I pray it does the same for you: “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18). 

                You can know without a doubt that I am praying for you; my readers who are my friends.