Depression has been something I have lived with for most of my life. Thoughts of hopelessness, despair, and a general sense of purposelessness have overwhelmed me on many occasions. Counseling and prescription drugs never helped me, nor did any other outside source I ever tried. The only relief I have ever found was through the redemptive healing of Jesus Christ in my life.
For many, depression is a regular part of your daily life. It can bring about a great swirling cloud of emotions that threaten to take over. Once depression settles in, it is very hard to get out of the thick of it. It can seem like you are living in a fog, with no way out.
The good news is, you are not alone, and you are not helplessly stuck in this bog. Depression does not have to be your normal. With the help of Jesus Christ, you can create a new normal for your life that is filled with hope and joy.
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I personally know the battle within that is depression. I have come from suicidal to filled with hope and joy. I do still have days where depression starts to settle in, but with the help of the Lord, these days are nowhere near as bad as they used to be, and fewer then (sic) every before.
Jesus wants nothing more than to intercede for you (Rom 8:34). Allow His love to bring you strength and healing and most importantly, joy. You are not alone in this battle. Jesus is with you, and His love is greater than any depression or struggle we will ever face. Jesus faced the cross so that He could take all of our pain in this world.
— Beth, The Other Side of Darkness, How To Defeat Depression, February 5, 2018
BULLSHIT!!
Sorry for shouting, but wanting to believe that shit only made me sicker and destroyed what might have been left of my marriage. I always knew to see a doctor for physical ailments, but mental ones (those not having a physical cause), especially depression, that was something God should be able to fix, right? Align my mind with God’s will and joy will be the natural result! Except it didn’t work. Progressive perspective, “traditional” perspective, it didn’t matter. The “traditional” perspective, with the husband as the head of the home, actively harmed what was left of my marriage and turned me into a doormat, even though my husband was totally unaware of what I was doing.
The more submissive I became, the more I was berated, the more he drank and my panic attacks became more frequent. I left before the increasing violence was directed at me instead of inanimate objects after a year of purely secular therapy. By that time, a remote control had been twisted in half, a glass half-pint bottle had been thrown onto the table beside me, and the stock of a .22 rifle was smashed against a deck post after it had been pointed at me from less than 10 yards away.
It took another 18 months before I could effectively stand up to him, or anyone else for that matter, because I was convinced I was worthless. This shit leads to the abuse of women and children, my own sadly included. I cannot change my past nor the past of my children but I’ll be damned if I sit idly by while it happens to someone else.
So sorry that you’ve been through all this, but glad that you’re doing better now, Anotherami.
No! It’s this kind of faulty advice that leads so many devout evangelicals to suffer needlessly and even to lose their lives! Depression CAN be helped with the right treatment in most cases. My grandma was a devout evangelical who Jesused more than anyone I know, and even she got medical treatment for her depression. I hope people aren’t listening to her horrible damaging advice.
Utter and complete bullshit. Period.
A number of people in my family are fundie christians. A number of people in my family are also mentally ill. There is much overlap between the two groups.
Major depression, OCD, and anxiety disorder run rampant through my family tree. So do alcoholism and drug addiction (both forms of self-medication.) So does suicide. Two of my relatives have killed themselves, and a cousin died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound that was ruled “accidental.” But those of us who have escaped the fundie bubble believe his death was no accident. Had I not escaped the bubble, and sought real, medically proven treatment for my own mental issues, I probably wouldn’t be here right now, to be brutally honest.
Prayer and religion did nothing to help my mental illness. If anything, they probably made it worse. It infuriates me when I see so many of my family members who are walking around with undiagnosed, untreated mental illness, unable, or unwilling to do anything about it, because their pastors tell them that all they need is Jesus. I wonder how many more are going to die from suicide, or overdose, before they realize that more prayers, more bible reading, more time at church etc. won’t do a damn thing to help.
Yeah…no. I had to leave my religion to be able to deal with my problem. And I never found a good reason to go back. I remember Tim LaHaye trying to tell people through his book, I forget which one, how depressed people just needed to CHANGE THEIR THINKING. Drugs were totally unnecessary. Well Tim, you were full of it. The right medications and/or the right therapy can truly help. Just praying? Not so much.
I feel so much for x-tians in this position, having crippling depression and being told to pray, believe and trust harder. And that you don’t need effective psychiatric interventions, so, by implication, it’s your fault when x-tian woo doesn’t work. I’m reminded of a line from a ‘Book of Mormon’ song ”You didn’t pretend hard enough”. Image is everything to fundies, so families and individuals must present an image of their perfect lives. The black hole of despair must suddenly get a whole lot deeper and blacker when you’re in the position of treating it with such harmful useless beliefs. (DD happens to be working in a locked psychiatric unit where there are some desperately sad cases, but says she reminds herself that many thousands more people with mental illnesses are out in the community, able to lead pretty normal lives, thanks to psychiatric support when needed and to increasingly better and better medications through modern research.)
I was just at a women’s church meeting last weekend with one of my daughters in law where this very issue was discussed. The speaker was sharing her own issues with post partum depression and anxiety. She, too, at the time was part of a church where it was almost considered unspiritual or a symptom of a lack of faith to struggle with depression. Fortunately, this woman was able to receive help as well as the counsel of people of faith who knew and felt differently.
She did feel that for her faith and trust in God was a help and comfort in this situation, but it was not all she needed. Medication to balance her brain chemistry was a Godsend.
I feel this is true for most people. We need to use everything at our disposal to support people with depression and anxiety including medication and psychotherapy. I also think that more could be said about natural therapies in conjunction with this. It is known, for instance, that vigorous exercise can raise serotonin, and that a balanced whole food diet can also play a part in helping people..
People need support, not condemnation.
What a bunch of crap. Im sorry but Jesus can fill your every need is like saying a cup of coffee will provide all the nutrients and calories you need to get through the day(scratch that starbucks might have something its just going to cost a small fortune). I hope people will ignore her advice and see a doctor.
Christianity is designed to harm and offers relief to some who are suffering. It does so in the same fashion as other acting-out behaviours. Harming the self by lies and self-admissions of sin etc. is bullshit but to do it earnestly brings some temporary relief sometimes. Giving in to a strong bully releases endorphins! So does cutting or ripping off your fingernails till they bleed.
As for medications, allopathy has its limits but I have used anti-depressants for short periods more than once… to get some relief so that I could face and tackle the underlying harm that birthed my depression. Allopathy has its place and is good. We must find our own, authentic ways to love and care for ourselves,first, and if you can come to that reality by inventing a perfect invisible love that becomes real in your head and heart, then fine, go at it but I maintain that Christianity itself, the very doctrine is based in self-harm and harming others. It requires one to think evil of the flesh, to give up and give in and to want to be Christ… Why want to become somebody else when you have not loved yourself in a genuine way, when you have experienced the normal human experience that involves being out of balance sometimes and having ‘troubles’? So, instead of turning inward to learn more of your nature and why excess happens, you agree to believe you are evil at heart and magic Jesus (whom you murdered) will save you. I lost most of my family to this bullshit. It is a clever ploy designed to shepherd the lost and harmed. It does a good job. The Bible still outsells…