Monday, May 19, 2008
A Christian approach to Depression
As with many families, depression has touched DenverDoc's family. It is so difficult to watch the suffering of loved ones.
Depression is so complex and multidimensional. I'm convinced that there is in part a biological component, a neurochemical portion. But there are also spiritual, behavioral, learned, environmental, and psychological components and they all interact.
BeliefNet has put out an article on "How to pray when you are depressed." I scanned it quickly and there may be some useful information there. It certainly appears that when depression hits, people tend to isolate themselves from other people and from God. I wonder if that happens in other cultures, or if it is a "show no weakness" American response?
At one of our Resident talks a couple of years ago, there was discussion about forgiveness and the story came out that a depressed patient found great relief in forgiving people in her past. She was actually counseled to make a list of all the people that had hurt her, and was told to pray to learn to forgive those people. (This would require great wisdom in helping discern between forgiveness and enabling or going back into abusive relationships.)
Another of our members told me that he had suffered with depression for years (in his case, in came out as anger. I heard somewhere recently that anger is one of the most common symptoms of male depression.) He read Isaiah 61:3: "...and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." He said that he would take his dog on a walk each evening and praise God during the walk. "The dog was fine with it, but I worried a bit about the neighbors!" he told me. The darkness lifted for him, and one of his nurses noticed that his anger at every little thing had evaporated.
There was also a book called Spark that I read recently. Despite the fact that it was written by a Harvard (not a Duke) psychiatrist it is still worth the read. Apparently there have been some recent studies that aerobic exercise is more effective than antidepressants (if of course you can get a depressed person to stand up and exercise.) The book also contains interesting information about maintaining cognitive abilities and even combating some kinds of learning disability, particularly ADD, with aerobic exercise daily.
That said, do I as a pathologist have the gall to say, "Throw away your antidepressants! Pray, forgive, praise, and exercise and all will be well! (oh and make sure you get lots of bright light!)" No way. My family members have found great relief in well-prescribed medication, and also bright light exposure. But I throw these out for your consideration.
Depression is so complex and multidimensional. I'm convinced that there is in part a biological component, a neurochemical portion. But there are also spiritual, behavioral, learned, environmental, and psychological components and they all interact.
BeliefNet has put out an article on "How to pray when you are depressed." I scanned it quickly and there may be some useful information there. It certainly appears that when depression hits, people tend to isolate themselves from other people and from God. I wonder if that happens in other cultures, or if it is a "show no weakness" American response?
At one of our Resident talks a couple of years ago, there was discussion about forgiveness and the story came out that a depressed patient found great relief in forgiving people in her past. She was actually counseled to make a list of all the people that had hurt her, and was told to pray to learn to forgive those people. (This would require great wisdom in helping discern between forgiveness and enabling or going back into abusive relationships.)
Another of our members told me that he had suffered with depression for years (in his case, in came out as anger. I heard somewhere recently that anger is one of the most common symptoms of male depression.) He read Isaiah 61:3: "...and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." He said that he would take his dog on a walk each evening and praise God during the walk. "The dog was fine with it, but I worried a bit about the neighbors!" he told me. The darkness lifted for him, and one of his nurses noticed that his anger at every little thing had evaporated.
There was also a book called Spark that I read recently. Despite the fact that it was written by a Harvard (not a Duke) psychiatrist it is still worth the read. Apparently there have been some recent studies that aerobic exercise is more effective than antidepressants (if of course you can get a depressed person to stand up and exercise.) The book also contains interesting information about maintaining cognitive abilities and even combating some kinds of learning disability, particularly ADD, with aerobic exercise daily.
That said, do I as a pathologist have the gall to say, "Throw away your antidepressants! Pray, forgive, praise, and exercise and all will be well! (oh and make sure you get lots of bright light!)" No way. My family members have found great relief in well-prescribed medication, and also bright light exposure. But I throw these out for your consideration.
