I was recently sent an article by one of my sons and ask my opinion. (LInked here: http://christianity.about.com/od/whatdoesthebiblesay/a/Bible-Depression.htm)
The article so disturbed me within the first section that I am compelled to post this. (I would have replied directly to the author but could not find a response address.)
For any who may have seen, read or referenced this article, or anything similar, I will simply ask...Don't...Please, please don't!
As someone trained in CISM, suicide intervention and crisis intervention, and whose second major in college was psychology (counselling emphasis) this article, in my view does an injustice to the subject of depression and those suffering it on a number of levels.
First, it nowhere...not once...defines depression or its multiple root causes. Depression, in my view, generally comes from 3 root causes: physical or mental circumstantial stress that tends to be chronic; chemical or hormonal imbalance or other physical causes within the body; and/or, spiritual oppression. There are likely causes I'm forgetting but the point is, without a definition, explanation or description everything becomes depression and it is not.
Second, the result of the first is every possible depressed reference in scripture is lumped in as "full-blown depression" and there is a huge...separate universe...difference between being "in depression" and being depressed.
Yes, someone "in depression" is depressed but NOT EVERYONE WHO'S DEPRESSED IS "IN DEPRESSION." Each of us gets depressed from time to time...it is the result of life in a fallen world. "Bad day"..."in a funk"...call it what you may, but being depressed is NOT being in depression. Listing "sad," "mourning" and "discouragement" with no explanation or further description is a disservice and borders on injustice, in my view.
Mourning?? Someone died...it is loss of unimaginable ache...but mourning and grief are NOT depression! They are the God-designed, God-ordained responses to loss. Following the implications of the article in saying that mourning is depression leads us to the inescapable conclusion that on some level God has ordained us to be in depression...Do we really want to go there???
Being depressed is a temporary, normal response to circumstances and situations that, in my view, God never intended we experience but do because of The Fall. Depression, however, is chronic and unrelenting...day after day...week after week...and requires proper intervention.
Third, although the article states accurately that God isn't angry at those in depression, by lumping everyone who is depressed with those in depression it demeans the magnitude of those struggling with depression in that, without saying it, it communicates, "If they (someone depressed) got through it so can you." As such, those receiving, or worse, those not receiving but needing, treatment are reduced to "second class, what's-wrong-with-you" Christians.
Finally, (at least for here), while the article says (again accurately) God is our hope in depression, it still sends both a hopeless message and a message of false hope...unintended I'm sure...but hopeless and false hope none the less.
By implying someone who is depressed but not in depression is "in depression" it creates an issue where none likely exists that could cause a crisis of faith and a "what's the use of trying?" spirit/attitude in someone. (Should I go so far as to say, it could create a more permanent depression in someone because they are temporarily depressed?) The flip side is, by lumping those who are actually in depression with those who are temporarily depressed it can give the false hope of "I'll get over it" without the needed intervention whatever that intervention may be - healing, deliverance or treatment of some sort.
So please...as a man who deals regularly with people mourn, grieve and who are depressed but coping...don't do this to people.
My thoughts...A MannMuse
Blessings
Michael M
reply to mannmuses@aol.com
PS...If anyone feels they are experiencing actual depression please go to http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml and read the signs/sypmtoms. If they fit, talk to someone...find an experienced trained counsellor...get help.
