The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability.
You're asking a big question in a small space, so take what I say as it's an outline. It's a few seed thoughts. First, I might start with a secular novelist. William Styron wrote a book describing his own depression, and he makes a fascinating comment that I would take as a starting point that he says the word depression's a terrible word. It's a word for an economic downturn or a slight dip in the topography. It's an absolute dull word. It came from a man that had a tin ear for English. And then he proposes the old word melancholy, because melancholy captures something of this searing edge of sorrow, anxiety, distress, guilt, paralysis, difficulty, anguish, feeling overwhelmed, and it captures all those richly human sorts of experiences.
Now, once you start to talk about the experience in a way that humanizes it, you realize that for a human experience, the very first place you're going to think is not going to be medication. It's one of the ways we're, because our culture, you might say psycho pathologizes it and dehumanizes the experience, treats it as a medical ailment only. The first thing the world cuts to is medicine. Now, there are certainly cases where there is a clear biological component. If your thyroid gland is removed because of cancer, if you have postpartum hormones running a muck, there will be a physiologically driven, extensive extreme downness, extreme frightening even. Discouragement, gloominess, blues, heartache can be there. But if there's not some overtly obvious physiological cause, the first thing you want to do in thinking about those human experiences is try to ask what's going on. Because there are many other causes, contributory factors, in what gets labeled depression in our society. Some of them are as straightforward as life losses. Some of them are as fundamental as living a life that is without hope and without God.
I sometimes wonder why anyone without the hope of the resurrection is not profoundly depressed. And that existential despair and angst can catch up with a person. Germans have a word, weltschmerz, world sorrow, just something all-encompassing. There can be guilt over things one has done wrong, a sense of failure and regrets, and the world we live in tends to not discriminate very well between those. It takes the phenomenon of being down at face value, but you're obviously dealing with very different things when you're dealing with guilt or when you're dealing with an extreme loss or you're dealing with our existential condition, our unbelief, or you're dealing with something that may have a clear medical cause.
My point of view on this would not be all that different from what's really the cutting edge within secular psychiatry. Leading psychiatrists... Their way of putting it would be if medication is there, take the absolutely smallest amount possible for the shortest possible time. And so if someone's life is just one step below pond sludge and something provides a little bit of a lift so that they can deal with the real issues of life, the human issues, that's something that, it really puts medication in its place.
Maybe another little anecdote I think's worth mentioning. I heard the director of the National Institutes of Mental Health make a comment on this once, and obviously he's America's top psychiatrist, he's at the top of the research pyramid and he said, "We psychiatrists have been given an impossible task. We've been given to solve the sorrows and brokenness of the human condition. Our medications can sometimes alleviate symptoms, though they have side effects, often negative, but we can't give people what they really need. People need meaning and relationship." And I thought as a Christian, well I think I could sign on that dotted line. People really need meaning and relationship. Doesn't make it necessarily wrong and it will provide a little symptom relief, but let's make sure we go for the real issue that's at stake.
(Article first published October 10, 2012)
For more information about David Powlison, visit: www.ccef.org
For more information about Christianity, visit: www.christianity.com
What Are Some Cautions Christians Should Consider Before Seeking Treatment for Depression?
Christianity.com: What are some cautions Christians should consider before seeking treatment for depression?-Michael Lawrence from christianitydotcom2 on GodTube.
(The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability)
One of the things that many Christians encounter is what we describe as depression, and some of the greatest figures from church history, as you read their journals and autobiographies and biographies of their lives, you realize they struggled with depression. CH Spurgeon is one great example of a fantastic preacher used by God who struggled very profoundly with dark nights of the soul, and was deeply depressed. This continues to be something that Christians face. We live in a fallen world, and there are all sorts of reasons, both in our lives and perhaps in our bodies, that lead us to experience real despair and discouragement. What do we do about that? Well, one of the options for us in the modern world is to seek medical therapy. To go see your doctor, maybe get a prescription, or even to go seek psychotherapy from a psychiatrist.
As Christians, we want to keep a couple of things in mind as we consider those medical options. First, we were created with bodies. We are not just spirits or souls. We have bodies. Those bodies are part of who we are, and we will spend all of eternity in bodies. God cares about our bodies, and our bodies are fallen. And so, there are things perhaps that go on in our bodies chemically that medicine can address. But we also want to remember that we're not only bodies. We are souls. We have a spiritual relationship with God, and God intends for us to deal with him even in the midst of depression. It can be easy to think that the problem that I might call depression is simply a medical problem, and it can simply be cured with a drug or a change of circumstances. But the fact is that depression and our experience of depression, while it may be partly physical, may in fact have all sorts of other even spiritual components to it, and no drug will fix those.
So, we want to remember that as we struggle through the reality of depression, that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us his word, has given us his Holy Spirit, and has given us the church in order to address and deal with at least some of the issues that are a part of the experience of depression. We need to be reminded that even if the depression never goes away, God is real. His love for us endures. He has not left us or forsaken us, and a drug doesn't do that. God's word does that as God's people speak the truth of his word into our lives and into our perspective. I think the Psalms are a great resource for people who are struggling with depression. Again and again, you turn to Psalms in which the psalmist is pouring out his heart, lamenting his circumstances, and lamenting his plight in the world.
There are even some Psalms that have more darkness in them, it would seem, than light and hope. And yet, those Psalms remind us that in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of the discouragement, it's to God that we must turn. It's to God that we must put our hope in, and it is God who will in the end, lift that darkness. Lord willing, in this life, certainly in the life to come where there will be no pain, no crying, no sorrow. And as Christians, that's where we want to direct our hope, and it's where we want to direct one another.
For more information about Michael Lawrence, visit: www.hinsonchurch.org
For more information about Christianity, visit: www.christianity.com
(Article first published May 31, 2013)
How Can God Help People in the Midst of Depression?
Pray to the Lord and tell Him everything that makes your soul depressed. The passing of a loved one, the end of a friendship, or a marriage that ends in divorce are a few reasons why you may be experiencing depression. Jesus knew what it felt like to be depressed. He was sorrowful after His friend Lazarus died as the Bible tells us the Lord wept (John 11:35).
Since He knows what it feels like to be depressed, He is able to comfort us and extend His love, care, and compassion to our wearied souls. Depression can feel as if all life has been drained out of you and you are a lifeless body stumbling through each day. Jesus does not want you to feel like this. He yearns to fill you up with His strength, peace, and love. Turn to Him today and tell Him how you are feeling. Pour your heart out to Him. Ask Him to silence your racing thoughts and calm your heavy heart. Do not be afraid to cry, yell, or scream in your prayers. The Lord knows your heart and He wants you to come to Him. Even though we may feel God has left us in the midst of our depression, He has not. Jesus is standing beside us in the midst of our depression and He is not going anywhere.
In addition to turning to the Lord, reach out to your family, friends, therapists, and doctors. Inform them of your depression and ask for their help. Ask your friends and family to lift you up with prayers and encouragement. God may seem far removed in the midst of our depression; however, He is right there beside us." - Excerpted from 'Where Is God in the Midst of Depression?' by Vivian Bricker
Further Reading:
Bible Verses for Depression to Encourage Hope and Faith
What Does the Bible Say about Struggling with Mental Health?
Is God with Us in Our Depression?
Should Christians Take Medication for Mental Illness?
Photo credit: Unsplash/Jude Beck