Christian Depression

[JamesVersusEveryone]

I'm going to be the jerk that probably shows up on this forum from time to time to declare that Christians shouldn't be depressed, etc.

Background: I come from a long line of depressed ancestors. I have been diagnosed with depression. I took Prozac for a little while. That was before I became a Christian.

Now that I believe in God, things are different. For one--I think that psychology is an incomplete science. You see--science can't acknowledge the supernatural, that's one of the restrictions of science by definition. Think of it like this: a handful of scientists are standing around a car, trying to explain how it works. But there is a limitation: they can't acknowledge that the engine exists. So they reason about some possible connection between certain components, they reason that perhaps some ether between steering wheel and tires enables motion, but they don't acknowledge the engine in any way, shape or form.

This is what modern psychology looks like to me--in that God, sin, redemption, Christ and the like are all incredibly important factors in how our brain works, but the school of psychology cannot acknowledge their existence. That is not to say that psychology is a complete crock (though I don't recommend majoring in it), but it is an incomplete picture.

So what does it mean if you have clinical depression (like I do) ? It means that based on certain aspects of your behavior, you fall under the commonly accepted psychological profile of "depressed." This profile is based on an analysis of a limited understanding of the mind.

What's the point? I guess I'm trying to say that psychology is mostly arbitrary. Its interesting as insight, but its not canon. I think the first step towards messing yourself up in the whole psychological realm of things is accepting their label. That's a psych term I agree with--the "self-fulfilling prophecy:" essentially if you let them call you "depressed," you will be "depressed."

What is the Christian to do? Acknowledge, for one, that modern psychology presents an incomplete picture of the mind.

Of course, taking things into perspective is good. "I am very sad now, but what is this lifetime--it's a blip in eternity."

Then there's looking at the brighter side. "I'm sad, but I have my arms and legs. That's more than a lot of Christians in Indonesia can say."

The best answer is always prayer. God will always tell you what He wants you to do if you just ask Him.


And bear in mind that I'm not trying to be condescendingly instructive; I use these principles in my own life on my own "clinical depression" and I thought I'd pass along the insight. I hope they help, God bless all.

 

[ArmouredSaint]

I agree w/some of what is said here. Each of us that post here have a different level of depression probably. I was more severe a year ago. Dr's freak me with the amount of drugs they dish out. I began praying and most of the symptoms left. Hey,part of my problem was the 3 drugs I was using.


this is only armoured saint's personal opinion. hee hee hee stay on your drugs as dr's order.

 

[Annoula]

thank you very much for the post!!!

i was feeling pretty bad cause my goddaughter is probably depressed, and under a drug. i saw her yesterday and it made me so sad. i could see her pain and i could do nothing. only hug her. and listen to whatever she was saying...


but friend,

you reminded me that psychology is only a human made science. of course it is helpful, but it is not our only resource.

we have a Heavenly Father, we have the Light and the Bread.

if we allow ourselves to "feed" our souls with this Bread,

if we allow ourselves to "see" this Light with the eyes of our soul,

and if we allow ourselves to acknowledge that we are in the arms of our Heavenly Father then our soul will find peace.

our soul may still struggle, but she won't lose hope.

how hard people of this world or circumstances make our life miserable, bad, awful, horrible, WE KNOW THAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER CAN PROVIDE FOR US. FOR HIS IS NOT A MERE IMMATURE, BAD PERSON. HE IS OUR CREATOR. HIS POWER IS GREAT, HIS LOVE AND HARMONY IS POWERFUL.

let us try friends, each one of us with our own problems and difficulties...
let us try to find Him and acknowledge the serenity He can bring in our souls.

thank you again!

you gave me hope!

thank you!

 

[gezusroxmasox]

I have suffered w/ depression for years....some of it is genetic....some of it is past experiences. Anyway, depression is something many people struggle w/, including Christians. It's just part of life. Sometimes, I think God makes people depressed (including Christians) to test their faith in Him, and sometimes He allows it for other personal reasons. If you say a Christian cannot get depressed, you are doing two things:
1: You are judging other peoples hearts when that isn't in your place. Only God has the position to judge others hearts.
2: When you say a Christian cannot get depressed, tell me if I'm taking all you're saying wrong, but then it's like you're saying a Christian cannot get hurt.

Yes, we need to trust God w/ our problems and our lives and all, but hey, take Job in the old testament for example. Even though "Christian" wasn't the term used yet, he was a great follower of God. He trusted God w/ everything, and God tested Job's faith and Job did get depressed. Take David as another example. When David became king, he became depressed but praised God also. I mean, hey, if someone wanted to k i l l you and your family, you'd be depressed too.

 

[JamesVersusEveryone]

I mean, hey, if someone wanted to k i l l you and your family, you'd be depressed too.

I like the way you put that!

What I am trying to say is that clinical depression is just a list of symptoms, put together by psychologists, to describe a behavior. Its not a virus, or a bacteria, or a cancer. Psychologists can't include God or sin or anything else that is "supernatural" in their work, so they have an incomplete understanding of the mind. Whatever conclusions they reach are based on flawed assumptions then.

I think a great example of this is schizotypal personality disorder. I don't know if it's got a more coherent classification now, but I remember years ago it was a mess. I took one of those online mental disorder tests for fun and scored high for schizotypal, so I checked it out. There's basically a list of symptoms in groups, none of which seem like they go together, and the instructions something like are "if you have 2 symptoms from group A and 1 from group B or 3 from group C and 2 from group B, you may have schizotypal personality disorder."

What I'm trying to say is that a personality disorder is what psychologists tell you it is. It's all based on correlations and assumption and so little of it is grounded in good science. Recently, a few psych researchers put together a paper which said something to the effect of "child molestation isn't necessarily bad." Does that make it science fact?

I still have my bouts of depression, but I remind myself these things, and that helps me out. Chemicals and genetics are real, and I won't argue with their influence on mental health.

It seems more like despair than depression, though. And that describes David and Job better I think. The nice thing about calling it "despair" is that it has a more temporary ring to it. And in my Christian walk, it seems like God has been using despair as a means to get me moving in some direction.

 

[gezusroxmasox]

I like the way you put that!

What I am trying to say is that clinical depression is just a list of symptoms, put together by psychologists, to describe a behavior. Its not a virus, or a bacteria, or a cancer. Psychologists can't include God or sin or anything else that is "supernatural" in their work, so they have an incomplete understanding of the mind. Whatever conclusions they reach are based on flawed assumptions then.

I think a great example of this is schizotypal personality disorder. I don't know if it's got a more coherent classification now, but I remember years ago it was a mess. I took one of those online mental disorder tests for fun and scored high for schizotypal, so I checked it out. There's basically a list of symptoms in groups, none of which seem like they go together, and the instructions something like are "if you have 2 symptoms from group A and 1 from group B or 3 from group C and 2 from group B, you may have schizotypal personality disorder."

What I'm trying to say is that a personality disorder is what psychologists tell you it is. It's all based on correlations and assumption and so little of it is grounded in good science. Recently, a few psych researchers put together a paper which said something to the effect of "child molestation isn't necessarily bad." Does that make it science fact?

I still have my bouts of depression, but I remind myself these things, and that helps me out. Chemicals and genetics are real, and I won't argue with their influence on mental health.

It seems more like despair than depression, though. And that describes David and Job better I think. The nice thing about calling it "despair" is that it has a more temporary ring to it. And in my Christian walk, it seems like God has been using despair as a means to get me moving in some direction.

Hmm....well, I've been a Christian for only two years, and even though two years may not be a lot, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to Christ everyday. The thing about child molestation, I do think it's a bad thing. Depression can be temporary too, but depression usually lasts for a long period of time I think. What I'm trying to say is God sometimes put things whether it's depression or whatever, I think He puts those things in our lives as a test of our faith, and sometimes to teach us or prepare us for something He has for us, like a plan of some sort.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

I think doctors are often too interested in treating the symptoms rather than the causes.

If a person has cancer, you get rid of the cancer rather than the feelings of discomfort associated with the cancer.

I don't know why the same is often overlooked with emotional/mood disorders.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I have suffered w/ depression for years....some of it is genetic....some of it is past experiences. Anyway, depression is something many people struggle w/, including Christians. It's just part of life. Sometimes, I think God makes people depressed (including Christians) to test their faith in Him, and sometimes He allows it for other personal reasons. If you say a Christian cannot get depressed, you are doing two things:
1: You are judging other peoples hearts when that isn't in your place. Only God has the position to judge others hearts.
2: When you say a Christian cannot get depressed, tell me if I'm taking all you're saying wrong, but then it's like you're saying a Christian cannot get hurt.

Yes, we need to trust God w/ our problems and our lives and all, but hey, take Job in the old testament for example. Even though "Christian" wasn't the term used yet, he was a great follower of God. He trusted God w/ everything, and God tested Job's faith and Job did get depressed. Take David as another example. When David became king, he became depressed but praised God also. I mean, hey, if someone wanted to k i l l you and your family, you'd be depressed too.

Well said.

I am a Christian who struggled with a severe, agoraphobic depression for several years and I beat it. I am also majoring in psychology. I see nothing wrong with my major; I will have the faith, personal experience, and education I need in order to help others in the future.

 

[gezusroxmasox]

Well said.

I am a Christian who struggled with a severe, agoraphobic depression for several years and I beat it. I am also majoring in psychology. I see nothing wrong with my major; I will have the faith, personal experience, and education I need in order to help others in the future.

Thank you for the compliment I'll pray for you to continue to conquer your depression

 

[InTheFlame]

I think doctors are often too interested in treating the symptoms rather than the causes.

If a person has cancer, you get rid of the cancer rather than the feelings of discomfort associated with the cancer.

I don't know why the same is often overlooked with emotional/mood disorders.

It's not overlooked - that's where the SSRIs (selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors) in particular come in. They're an attempt to correct brain chemistry when it's gone doo-lally

Sure, some doctors just prescribe medication without advising therapy, which can be a bad thing... sometimes there's a problem that can be worked through (generally easier as a christian, I think... with wise counsellors, anyway) which will greatly lessen or remove the depression.

But take me. I spent the first 15 years of my life regularly unhappy... ie, cried pretty much every night of my life. There was a specific reason for that. When I moved out of home, I naively expected the bad feelings to go away... but of course they didn't, because I still needed a lot of healing. Over the years, God's taken me through that healing process step by step. And thanks to him, I'm 99% healed (yes, the wounds you can't see ARE the ones that take longest to heal). But I still have depression. Why? Because my poor brain had its chemistry skewed toward 'miserable' for most of its life that it seems like the natural state. Mind you, I'm not actually miserable or sad most of the time these days... just tired, more inclined to tears, not interested in much at all, wanting most of all to stay in bed and sleep or read.

 

[gezusroxmasox]

It's not overlooked - that's where the SSRIs (selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors) in particular come in. They're an attempt to correct brain chemistry when it's gone doo-lally

Sure, some doctors just prescribe medication without advising therapy, which can be a bad thing... sometimes there's a problem that can be worked through (generally easier as a christian, I think... with wise counsellors, anyway) which will greatly lessen or remove the depression.

But take me. I spent the first 15 years of my life regularly unhappy... ie, cried pretty much every night of my life. There was a specific reason for that. When I moved out of home, I naively expected the bad feelings to go away... but of course they didn't, because I still needed a lot of healing. Over the years, God's taken me through that healing process step by step. And thanks to him, I'm 99% healed (yes, the wounds you can't see ARE the ones that take longest to heal). But I still have depression. Why? Because my poor brain had its chemistry skewed toward 'miserable' for most of its life that it seems like the natural state. Mind you, I'm not actually miserable or sad most of the time these days... just tired, more inclined to tears, not interested in much at all, wanting most of all to stay in bed and sleep or read.

Same here....I still get depressed because of past experiences....but God is slowly healing me Every now and then I'll get really sad....not knowing why....and other times I'm bouncing off the walls (yea I have ADHD). But since I've been a Christian (two years) God has been helping me heal from the past

 

[Nebmaatisus]

I used to take SSRI:s but their effect was quite minimal compared to their price. After all, my depression is not a severe one. I am still able to work and look after my children. My wife is the real problem. She is severely depressed, which is a heavy burden to carry. She is anorectic, too, so she´ll propably die young. Even in the darkest moments, when no light can be seen, I still believe in light. Well, this is my life, and I praise God for it.