A state of feeling sad : dejection (2) : a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies. This is diagnosed as clinical when someone has felt this way for at least 2 weeks. Not woke up on the wrong side of the bed, in a funk, out of sorts, kind of feeling that everyone has.
Who suffers from it?
David
"Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak" (Ps. 31:9-10).
Job, just read the book!
Elijah in 1 Kings 19 – I love this story because the Angle of the Lord has Elijah eat and sleep to get better. Then he goes on a 40 journey, just after he had been asking for death! Our bodies are a temple!
A survey in 2009 showed that there was no evidence to suggest that the frequency with which one attends church altered or diminished the occurrence of Depression. Supposedly 25% of church goers experience depression at some point and 15% are taking anti-depressants. I couldn’t find any other sources to back up these numbers.
Of course there has been a significant rise in the diagnosing of Depression mostly due to pharmaceutical companies and psychologists lowering the threshold of diagnosing the ‘illness’. It is no longer ok to just ok. You have to good, or great when someone asks how you are doing. If you respond ok or fine then something must be wrong and subsequent questions follow. Our society doesn’t recognize normal emotional fluctuations. Bi-Polar seems to be thrown around a lot.
What are some causes of Depression?
* Situational Depression – Job, housing, family dynamics
* Sin – Guilt induced depression
* Exhaustion – I listened to Dr. Dobson yesterday and he spoke about his own father’s bout with depression. His father was a traveling evangelical speaker. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion and had to quit. It took two years for him to recover. He found that he needed an athletic outlet and took up tennis.
* Chemical Imbalance – which can’t be proved but can be medicated
* A God given emotion
* And for Women, a hormonal imbalance or issue like after child birth
* Distorted thoughts – such as; I’m not as good as others, My family would be better off, and other self destructive thoughts.
This is not a complete list! This is just what I compiled from my research.
What does discouraged mean?
To deprive of courage, hope, or confidence, dishearten, dispirit.
So I was wondering if we sometimes jumping to conclusions and calling discouragement depression. There is a difference. We can all be discouraged at times. I would venture to say that Jesus was discouraged during his time on earth. I don’t know that he was Depressed.
I took a poll on my facebook last night and I had 31 comments.
I asked is :Depression a sin issue, chemical imbalance or normal emotion. (I discovered and thought of a few more later on after my research)
2 said Sin
1 said both
2 said normal emotion
2 said situation
Another cautioned us against judging and a few more just saying nice topic.
Than it just turned into a long discussion after that.
Pretty much most people didn’t believe it was solely a sin issue.
A lot of the people that commented had dealt with it themselves.
No one here pays to hear what I think, but here ya go!
I personally have dealt with 3 of these for sure and I do believe that A Chemical Imbalance plays a part in depression. BUT not to the extent that social media, psychotherapists, and pharmaceutical companies say they do.
But what it all comes back to is the focus that I am placing on myself. Maybe you’ve heard it said that the best medicine for depression and self loathing is to volunteer time to a bigger cause like a Homeless Shelter or Animal Shelter. We have a hard time thinking about ourselves when we are focusing on others.
I have been on medication before for Depression. Looking back, it was probably situational depression. Someone I was close to told me that Depression was solely a sin issue and that obviously I had to stop taking the meds and do some serious praying. I did just that. Went off of Zoloft cold turkey and prayed. I don’t remember what lifted me out of that depression, but you can bet it wasn’t someone judging me and telling me what to do. No way! The church has a big problem with Depression and drugs. I heard someone say on Dr. Dobson’s program that the same people who take Lipitor and other drugs for various reasons are the first to condemn you for taking an anti-depressant. Church, why are we so judgey!? Why do we all assume we are right? Everything is opinion! Your opinion is not fact.
How am I handling my depression right now?
1, I learned that my destructive thoughts played a huge role in my depression. I believed lies and was repeating them to myself all day! I ‘captured my thoughts’ and started living and believing Biblical Truths. I have Isaiah 55:8 is taped to the wall by my kitchen sink. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD’
2, on those cloudy days I’ve sought the LORD with my whole heart. Making sure that I was walking closely with him and asking him to search my heart for any thing that I may have done that could cause me to feel this way today.
3, life continues. My girls still need me. I still need to get up and feed, clothe, and care for them. I have to choose to smile at them sometimes. I cannot just lie on the couch all day. It just isn’t an option! When I decide to be apart of life, usually, I find that things just aren’t as foggy.
4, This happened most recently. I was being disobedient. I knew I was. God asked me to do something and I didn’t want to. So I didn’t. For 2 weeks I was depressed. I knew what he wanted me to do and I knew that when I did, the depression would lift. So I finally sat down and obeyed. Obviously under great protest since it took two weeks. But when I sat there having completed my task, the cloud over my head was lifted.
My depression doesn’t happen as often as it use to. And when it does I am better equipped to handle it. But some days nothing helps. No amount of prayer, reading my Bible, and helping others lifts that fog. I don’t know what to say about that. I have no explanation.
The articles I read stemmed from a google search of the words depression and Christianity. There were many articles, but my favorite was from the Christianity Today Magazine. An Article in March 2009 called The Depression Epidemic.
Great post Ruth! I like your question: "Church, why are we so judgey!?"
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