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Depression
Ways to Love Your Depressed Friend
When a believer is depressed it is difficult for them to sense God’s presence. A loving and listening friend can be a tangible representation of the Comforter.
1. Encourage them to talk and cry. Verbalizing helps to organize thoughts and put them into perspective.
2. Be a good listener. Wait until they are done talking. Tell them simply that you care.
3. Give answers sparingly. The depressed person often lacks the ability to absorb or act on good advice. Well-intended counsel can be twisted into insult in the confused mind.
4. Pray daily for God’s plan to be played out. God knows, and He is in control.
5. Pray for right to prevail over evil. The enemy will take advantage of the vulnerable.
6. Call or visit frequently. Offer your help.
7. Offer social invitations. The tendency to withdraw only deepens the loneliness.
8. Your friend’s spouse may be confused by her mate’s changed temperament. Pray for the spouse, too.
9. Mail Scripture verses that declare God’s faithfulness and love.
10. The lie of despair is that no one can understand. Wait until you are asked, then assure your friend that there are people who can help. Accumulate referrals to professional resources.
Discipleship Journal, October, 1996, quoted in Lifeline, Summer, 1997
Alan Redpath
A Christian who passes through the dark tunnel of depression tends to focus on his sinful weaknesses and failures. God can use this time in a positive way, however, to enlarge his appreciation for His all-encompassing and all-sufficient grace.
In 1964, Alan Redpath, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, suffered a near-fatal stroke and sank into the depths of despondency. He wrote later of having terribly wicked thoughts. At one point, he prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this attack of the devil. Take me right home!”
It was then that he sensed the Lord saying, “It is I, your Savior, who has brought this experience into your life to show you [that] this is the kind of person—with all your sinful thoughts and temptations, which you thought were things of the past—that you always will be, but for My grace.”
Our Daily Bread, Saturday, June 20.
How to Tell When It’s Going to be a Rotten Day
- You wake up face down on the pavement.
- You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold.
- You see a “60 Minutes” news team waiting in your office.
- Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles.
- You turn on the news and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city.
- Your twin sister forgot your birthday.
- Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway.
- Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat.
- The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard.
- You wake up and your braces are locked together.
- You call your answering service and they tell you it’s none of your business.
- Your income tax check bounces.
- You put both contact lenses in the same eye.
- Your wife says, “Good morning, Bill,” and your name is George.
Author unknown
C. H. Spurgeon
One of England’s finest preachers was C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892). Frequently during his ministry he was plunged into severe depression, due in part to gout but also for other reasons. In a biography of the “prince of preachers,” Arnold Dallimore wrote, “What he suffered in those times of darkness we may not know...even his desperate calling on God brought no relief. ‘There are dungeons,’ he said, ‘beneath the castles of despair.’”
Source unknown
Statistics
Half of Americans in a recent poll said they or their family members have suffered from depression, 46% considered it a health problem, and 43% saw it as a “sign of personal or emotional weakness,” according to the National Mental Health Association.
Other topics measured included alcoholism (seen as a personal weakness by 58% and a health problem by 34%) and obesity (38% deemed it a weakness, 48% a health problem).
Where to go for help? Three choices were allowed. 45% suggested a medical doctor, 60% a mental health professional, but only 20% suggested a church, minister, rabbi, or priest, and just 14% suggested a spouse, relative, or friend.
National and International Religion Report, Jan 1, 1992
Today’s Women
Today’s young women are more likely to become depressed than their mothers were and at a younger age. Reasons: (1) increased economic pressure to contribute to family income; (2) changing role in society; (3) inability to meet their own expectations; (4) a sense of having lost control.
Dr. Gerald Klerwan, in Homemade, Dec. 1986
Computers and Depression
Depression strikes about 10 million Americans within any six-month period. Human therapists can now treat only a fraction of that number. But a study shows that by using computers, more of these persons might be helped. In the American Journal of Psychiatry, researcher John Greist presented a study showing that depressed people treated by computerized questions and answers improved just as much as those consulted under a human therapist.
Resource, Mar/Apr, 1990
Abraham Lincoln
Many years ago a young Midwestern lawyer suffered from such deep depression that his friends thought it best to keep all knives and razors out of his reach. He questioned his life’s calling and the prudence of even attempting to follow it through. During this time he wrote, “I am now the most miserable man living. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not.”
But somehow, from somewhere, Abraham Lincoln received the encouragement he needed, and the achievements of his life thoroughly vindicated his bout with discouragement.
Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 20
Resources
- Swindoll, You and Your Problems
- Transformed by Thorns, p. 58
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The Clown
In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy. He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn’t eat, and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found that he was in prime physical condition. Concluding that his patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi. Night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles. “You must go and see him,” the doctor advised. “Grimaldi is the world’s funniest clown. He’ll make you laugh and cure your sadness.” “No,” replied the despairing man, “he can’t help me. you see, I am Grimaldi!”
There are dungeons beneath the castle of despair. C.H. Spurgeon
Source unknown
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