SIX MYTHS ABOUT DEPRESSION

By John Stallings


….Whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul David took the Lyre & played
It; so Saul was refreshed. 1 Sam. 16:23

….For day & night thy hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to thee & did not hide my iniquity.
Psalm 32:5

To appoint unto them that mourn……the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness…..
Isaiah 61:3

I think it’s safe to say we’ve all experienced bad days from time to time. For some, these bad days can stretch into bad weeks, bad months or even bad years. Some people find themselves in a kind of funk sayings things like “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, my life is worthless.”

I’m not a stranger to mild depression, neither am I an expert. However it’s important to know some of the basics about it, because though we may not experience depression directly, odds are someone in our family will.

The story is told of a husband who noticed that his wife had lost her joy & did nothing but mope around the house. This went on for weeks until one day he suggested that she see a doctor. She was in agreement so the husband made an appointment with a competent psychologist in their city.

During the first appointment the doctor realized that the woman was suffering from a mild case of depression that he felt didn’t need medication. He walked around his desk & asked the lady to stand up. He stepped over to her, took her in his arms & gave her a warm hug. The husband watched with interest as his wife’s face lit up & she started to look like the woman he used to know. The doctor said, “Now see, this is all your wife really needs sir, a nice big warm hug at least three times a week, are you willing to do your part? The man said, “Yes sir doc, & I think it’s wonderful. I can have her here any day but Friday, that’s my golf day.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if depression could be cured that easily?

A doctor from UCLA says that if you want to know what depression feels like, just imagine you have the worst case of jet-lag you’ve ever experienced, combined with the worst grief you’ve ever felt, then throw in a migraine headache. Months could pass before it lifts.

Another well known psychiatrist likened depression to a window in a house. Most windows are dressed with some sort of shades or blinds. Then usually drapes or curtains are added. This lessens the starkness of the light coming through & is adjustable by the people in the room. The person with depression has no such window dressing, thus he or she lives constantly in the glaring light of “reality.”

There are dozens of faces to depression. There is clinical depression where medical intervention is called for. There is acute depression, manic-depression & situation- induced depression. I have no credentials nor training that would equip me to advise in those areas. Perhaps a more common depression is “walking depression,” a chronic condition like walking pneumonia. It’s so prevalent it’s called the “common cold” of emotional disorders. The person feels terrible but has no acute signs.

Listen to one young college woman describe her feelings;

“I’ve suffered from walking depression all my life. I think a lot of people do. Some people look at life as a glass half full & others see it as a glass half-empty. People like me who suffer from walking depression see life as a glass half empty. Without words it comes & suddenly, sharply, one is aware of being separated from every person in ones’ world. At one’s feet there are chasms that had been invisible until this moment & one knows their loved ones will always be across the chasms.

I never feel enthusiastic about anything. I have little faith in positive outcomes. I don’t believe in myself, I don’t trust anyone. I live my life in a fog. I stumble around unable to get motivated because I’m afraid of what I might run into. I feel too flat to do anything exciting.

Walking depression lives in your bones. It makes your bones feel like tubes of water-heavy & unstable. I’m always asking myself if it’s worth it to stand up. I’m never sure I have the internal structure to get me through a task. It takes so much effort.”

When it comes to the area of spiritual depression the word of God compels me to speak. This isn’t so much a clinical or deep depression, but rather a profound sorrow, sadness & gloom; a feeling of being “very down.” Some Christians try to deny its existence because it’s not necessarily a good advertisement for Christianity; but it does exist. Many people of my generation they don’t like the word depression & would never admit to it in their lives. Depression sounds too much like the devils work, & sometimes it is.

I’ve given the following advice to numerous people who wouldn’t admit to being depressed;

“If you have lost all of your joy, if the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup (if that’s going to be the best part of waking up, you might be better off in bed) if you haven’t smiled in so long no one can remember it, if you no longer enjoy the things you used to love, if you feel like God has gone to Key West & lost your phone number, if your face carries the message that you’ve been Baptized in lemon juice & weaned on a pickle, you’d better swallow your spiritual pride & call it what it is (depression) before it becomes something exceedingly worse.”

When was the last time you had this kind of feeling; like you might do something drastic? Truthfully this happens & it happens to the best of Christians.

Paul tells us in Eph.6:12—for we wrestle not with flesh & blood but against principalities, against powers, against the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.

This doesn’t mean that we go looking for a devil behind every mood-swing but neither should we ignore this truth.

For most of us, if we get into an emotional fog, we know it’s just a temporary feeling brought on us by certain circumstances. Sometimes getting out of bed is hard & people have no energy & can’t concentrate. These feelings usually lift but if they start interfering with our daily life very long it might be clinical depression & then a person should seek professional help. The music David played for Saul lifted his spirits temporarily but the spirit came back over & over again. I think that’s one of the reasons so many billions are spent on music; people are seeking to ward-off depression.

I’m convinced that shopping sprees are another way many people try to lift their spirits. They live with the idea that they’re one shopping trip from happiness. What happens is, they fill their houses up with things they don’t need & as soon as they “lick the candy” off their latest acquisition, they are right back where they started.

Then there are those who use food, alcohol or some other substance to lift their spirits but it’s a lift that doesn’t last.

Here are six misconceptions about depression.


1. WEAK PEOPLE GET DEPRESSED.

The truth is that it takes a strong person to bear up under depression. Saul stood head & shoulders above any man in Israel. He had broad shoulders & a strong constitution but he was still depressed.

Periodically we read about sports figures, people who make their living being stronger than the average person, admitting to depression. Anyone who’s ever read the story of Elijah knows that weakness in no way describes this Prophet, but he got depressed & begged God to kill him. No wonder, he’d just run over 100 miles trying to put distance between himself & Jezebel who’d threatened to kill him.

David was a mighty warrior & leader of men but even a cursory reading of the Psalms he wrote reveal his bouts with depression. For a whole year he didn’t write a song or tune his harp.

Certainly Jeremiah wasn’t a weakling but he got so depressed he walked into God’s office, laid down his prophet-credentials, accused God of lying to Him & vowed never to say God’s name again as long as he lived. From now on God would be “old-what’s-his-name-in-the-sky.” You will remember that Elijah couldn’t stick to that vow when he discovered that God’s words were-“like fire shut-up in my bones.”

Another wrong attitude about depression is;

2. IT’S A SPECIAL HELL RESERVED FOR THE FEW.

If you have been reading the popular magazines & newspapers in the last few years, or for that matter listening to the media you’re aware that we are presently living in the “age of melancholy.” The World Health organization says that by the year 2020, if present trends continue, depression will rank second only to heart disease as the number one disabler of persons. On any given day depression affects 18 million Americans. 12 million will go untreated. Chances are 1 in 5 of us will experience an episode of depression in our lives. The question is, if it strikes, “Where will we go for help?”

3. SOME PEOPLE THINK DEPRESSION IS A MENTAL ILLNESS.

Depression can be a chemical imbalance in the brain, but in truth many illnesses, mental & physical are caused by some sort of chemical imbalance. i.e. Diabetes, etc.

Loss can trigger depression. I’ve known people who had a great loss in their life, went into depression & never snapped out of it. This can happen with the loss of a spouse. Loss of any kind can trigger depression. Some people get depressed when they start getting older & grieve over loss of youth. Most of us snap out of it by considering the alternative.

Pain can also trigger depression. I read an article recently that in America, back pain is a leading cause of depression.

We are in a culture that so idolizes youth that today many teenagers & pre-teens are suffering depression because of the prospects of aging.

The pace of our modern day life also causes some people to be depressed. In my forties I kept such a rigid travel schedule along with being a pastor that I often had mild spells of depression. In 1981 I went to China & several other Oriental countries for three weeks & when I came home I thought I’d never get back to normalcy. People who are depressed will often say the world seems “surreal” to them. I don’t think we realize how jet travel, computers, cell phones & fast cars (all of which I use) have robbed us of the normal human scale of life.

Researchers say that cortisol; a stress hormone can also cause depression. It’s harmless in small doses but when stress causes inordinate amounts to constantly be pumped into the body it can rob us of energy, mobility, our sex drives, & our basic ability to feel human emotions. I read about a man who experienced this to such a degree that he lost all ability to love his wife, parents & his children. He had pushed himself so long trying to be successful that he was, in the vernacular, burned-out; so burned out that he no longer had real feelings. I hope & pray it was temporary for him.

4. ANOTHER MISCONCEPTION ABOUT DEPRESSION IS THAT IT’S A RESULT OF SIN IN ONES LIFE--& THAT DEPRESSION ITSELF IS SIN.

This is not so. Charles Haddon Spurgeon the great 19th century preacher often called “The prince of preachers,” the man God used to light the fires of the 19th century revival movement suffered from depression most of his adult life. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be away from his pulpit two or three months a year because of depression. I don’t know whether this is true but many scholars think that Paul’s “Thorn in the flesh” may have been depression. I will say however that if Paul wasn’t depressed he missed several good chances. After all, his kin, his race, & his people largely rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

And what about some of those churches? Maybe he was depressed by the failure of the churches he planted to live out their life in Christ. They were a constant anxiety to him. (2nd Cor.11:28.)

Abraham Lincoln; at the height of the Civil War said, “If the misery I feel was equally divided among every member of the human race, there would not be a single smiling face among us.”

The Bible tells us that Moses, Jeremiah, Job, & Elijah all had bouts of depression. I have a feeling that some of the best people suffer from depression. The truth is life is not always a stroll through a rose garden. There are mountains & valleys. There are many downward slopes. I have known pastors who didn’t want to take Mondays off because they were still stressed out from Sunday & they didn’t want to feel that bad on their day off. They could enjoy a day off later in the week much more. We should learn to see these depressed times less like a pit to climb out of & more like a tunnel to pass through.

But we can’t blame all depression on things like the pace of life, stress & chemical imbalance. We mustn’t overlook the possibility that unrepentant & unconfessed sin is a major cause of depression.

Saul had every right to be depressed. God had anointed him to be king of Israel but he disobeyed God & gradually backslid. God ended up giving the kingdom to David. Saul, the man with all the potential in the world ended up committing suicide on Mount Gilboa.

When David’s baby died he was able to throw it off but when it came to his sin with Bathsheba & the murder of her husband, his writings show us it continued to depress him. I suspect that a lot of people would get rid of depression if only they got rid of their sin.

You could say it like this; ---when we grieve the Holy Spirit by our sin, He turns around & grieves us back.

Another myth about depression is that;

5. DEPRESSION IS ALWAYS BAD.

In Saul’s case, God was dealing with him causing him to be depressed because of his wrong doing. There is only one thing I can think of that is worse than depression & that’s for a person to become so dead to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit that they can totally ignore Him. When that happens we are beyond help because it’s impossible to repent. This is what Jesus meant when he said the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the unforgivable sin. (Matt. 12:31)

According to Hebrews 12:6-- “God chastens whom He loves.” We are convicted of sin & righteousness & judgment. (John 16:8) We ought to take a measure of hope if we are in sin & its depressing us. There remains the possibility that we will humble ourselves before God & receive His aid & forgiveness.

If we’re experiencing depression we should ask ourselves questions like; am I harboring bitterness toward another person? Have I addressed the sin in my life? Am I feeling guilty about something? Have I turned away from God? Am I being a faithful Christian? And so on.

6. FINALLY, SOME DEPRESSED FOLK FEEL THERE’S NO HOPE FOR THEM.

This is a myth. If the depression is a chemical imbalance, there is prayer & there are also medications that can do wonders. Many other depressed people can be helped by a change of diet, rest or by taking up a hobby for physical activity. I read somewhere that it’s impossible to actually be depressed while exercising. I’ve known people who always had headaches & were so sick it kept them constantly depressed. A trip to the doctor revealed they were eating too much sugar or other bad foods & when this changed they were different people.

One of the best ways to fight a mild case of depression is to do something. We don’t feel our way to a different way of acting, rather we act our way to a different way of feeling. If you wake up one morning & feel depressed, talk to depression like you would a person.

· “O.K depression, I see you are here & that’s alright but you have to understand I’ve got a lot to do. I’m getting out of this bed depressed. I’m going to shower, if necessary depressed. I’m going to eat breakfast depressed. I’m going to work depressed & I’m going to work all day depressed if that’s the way it has to be. Then I’m coming home depressed. I’ll eat my supper depressed & I’m going to church depressed.”

It’s possible but not probable that depression will still be there when they sing the first worship song. It could possibly still be there after the second song. But if you’ll keep on singing & praising something will happen & depression will have to go for James said “Draw nigh to God & he’ll draw night unto you.”

In all the years I’ve been preaching, I’ve rarely felt like preaching when I first started. But after I’ve been preaching about 5 minutes, something happens & I start feeling different. Then I don’t feel like stopping. Many people over the years have been grateful that I don’t go by my feelings.

If a person’s depression is spiritual in nature, the result of sin, that person can find release by turning to the God who loves them.

Psalm 32 continues;

5. I acknowledge my sin to you, O, Lord. & I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgression to the Lord; then you forgave the guilt of my sin. 6. Therefore let every one who is Godly offer a prayer to you; at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not be reached. 7. God, you art a hiding place…..

There isn’t a “twelve step program” for avoiding depression, but there are however some steps we can take if we’re facing it.

We should ask ourselves the questions; do we have trouble making decisions? Do we experience a lot of uncontrollable crying? If a person is living on the verge of tears all the time, though as I said I’m no expert, I think that should be recognized as serious & an individual should seek help either through personal prayer or through Christian counseling.

If a person is having trouble getting out of bed, can’t seem to make it to work or to school, or if thoughts of suicide are creeping into their head, in these cases immediate care is necessary & steps should be taken with a professional.

WHEN HOLIDAYS COME UP IT WOULD BE LUDICRUS NOT TO INCLUDE,


POST HOLIDAY DEPRESSION.

Have you ever noticed that depression can strike after a holiday, or for that matter, after any of the great celebrations of life? We feel the build-up of excitement & all of the sudden its over. The problem is that big days tend to magnify all our emotions. We suffer from an intense case of the “oughts” during the holidays. We believe we ought to be able to give our children all the things they want, & we ought to be able to satisfy all the time demands of our extended family. We ought to spend the holidays in the middle of a great big adoring family. Unfortunately the real holiday experience never quite lives up to our “oughts.”

Nurses report that the maternity ward of a hospital can be one of the saddest places in the world. The initial rush is gone. Now the baby is keeping you up all night; you are tired & discouraged & asking yourself—“why did I ever get myself into this situation?” They even have a medical name for it; Postpartum Depression. After any great success or triumph after any of the great accomplishments of life, there’s normally a reaction, a falling back. You can almost feel things slowing down, returning to the routine & the mundane.

WE SHOULD BE CERTAIN TO TALK TO GOD ABOUT OUR MOODS & REMEMBER PRAYER IS A POWERFUL TOOL AGAINST DEPRESSION.

When Jesus was having a difficult time He went to God & cried out, “Please God, deliver me from this.” We should make certain we’re getting enough rest & ask ourselves if some unresolved conflict or unconfessed sin is causing this. But no matter what, I encourage anyone battling depression to seek help from God & also from trained Christian professionals if necessary.


No one needs to be held captive to depression, there is a way out.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.—Isaiah 61:3—

Blessings,


John