Depression
Have you ever watched a movie that you thought would end happy and it didn’t? It leaves you with sad, depressing feeling. A couple of weeks ago when Joanne was at camp – Kassie and I watched a movie and the main character dies. I jokingly said, “ I hate chick flicks.” In a guy movie – everyone dies, except the main character and he is usually badly wounded. Here Kassie & I spend the time to watch a movie and we end up feeling sad. Nothing happened to her or I. We didn’t do anything wrong or right, but by watching and thinking through the movie we end up with a depressing feeling.
I had worked for a CPA firm in downtown Grand Rapids. There was a place I would go quite often to eat and hang out around lunchtime. There were many stores and in the basement was a hoppin food court. When we moved back from the Philippines, one day we went down there with the kids. Almost every restaurant in the food court was gone, most of the shops were closed or going out of business. I remember feeling really weird – I felt sad and discouraged almost depressed – why?
This morning I want to talk to you about depression. It is an ever-growing problem in the world today. Major depression strikes a surprisingly high percentage of the population: the estimated number of people who will suffer from serious depression during their lives is a staggering 20%. (1in 5)
Many people struggle with some form of depression in their life. (Pastor Duane said that 70% of Americans do)
Statistics vary, but it’s speculated that 80% of people who attempt suicide are clinically depressed.
God not only understands, but He proved it. He told us
Psalm 34:15 If you obey the Lord, he will watch over you and answer your prayers. 17 When his people pray for help, he listens and rescues them from their troubles. 18 The Lord is there to rescue all who are discouraged and have given up hope. (CEV)
What is depression?
It is more than feeling sad or down, it is a persistent sadness that affects most aspects of our lives. (sleeping, eating, working, socializing, and enjoying life)
The whole idea of depress is to press down on like if I told you to depress the gas pedal.
Depression: A neurotic or psychotic condition marked by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, and feelings of dejection and guilt.
Neurosis: Any of various functional disorders of the mind or emotions without obvious organic pathology and with abnormal behavior symptoms, as anxiety or phobia.
Psychosis: Severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, marked by degeneration of normal intellectual and social functioning and by complete or partial withdrawal from reality.
Jesus Said
John 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
Depression is when you are so discouraged or down that you can’t sleep, and you can’t get out of bed either. You feel like a total failure and it affects everything you do. You are so anxious or fearful of something that you make yourself sick. You can’t eat or you over eat. Thoughts of suicide come to your mind. You don’t like the pain of life and believe death will stop the hurt.
Psalms 143 was written by David about (or during) a time of danger in his life. Some theologians believe that it was written about the time Absalom rebelled and tried to kill his father.
In verse 3 he writes – My enemies are chasing me, crushing me to the ground. I am in total darkness, like someone long dead. I have given up all hope, and I feel numb all over.
Then in verse 7 - Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die.
Job 30:16
"And now my heart is broken. Depression haunts my days.
How do we get depressed?
Depression can result from not dealing well with people, things, and expectations. In most cases we bring on depression by the way we respond to living. Now I may be stepping on some toes here by not saying that depression is biochemical. Well it isn’t - sometimes. How’s That?! There are some forms of depression like bipolar disorder that have a strong genetic component and does respond well to medication. But we are made up of chemicals in a sense. The life style we live has a major impact on this – the amount or lack of sleep, our diet, exercise, PMS, side effects of other medication, these things can change the composition of our bodies.
Does the change in our brain’s chemistry cause depression or a result of stress over time? What was first, the chemical change or the depression? They do know that when someone is depressed a chemical imbalance can result and that’s why anti-depressants work.
Am I against medication? NO! They can be helpful on the road to healing. Are medications are healer – NO! Our trust needs to be fully in Jesus Christ for complete healing. There is my mini sermon on meds.
How do we get in depression? (cont)
When we try to avoid or deny loss- we get stuck. We try to figure the things of life out: Why did my dad die, why did my spouse leave me, why did I lose my job… The answers we come up with leave us at a loss. If I would have, should have, could have, then that wouldn’t have happened. For example, Liz was a teenager who finally realized that her parents’ divorce was unavoidable. But when the divorce actually occurred, Liz was overwhelmed with grief and sadness. She didn’t know how to handle the intensity of the loss she felt and got stuck. Liz developed bulimia and for years reacted with feelings of sadness and grief by bingeing and purging. Liz was stuck.
Intellectually, Liz knew her parents were divorced, but didn’t want to think about it and certainly didn’t’ want to feel the pain. Others deny loss or pretend it doesn’t exist at all. How do they do this? By numbing the pain through food, alcohol, drugs, work or other obsessions. When we do this, we sidestep the pain and its accompanying growth. Depression is rooted in losses that are avoided, denied or numbed.
a. Peter & Judas
i. They both did something they later come to know as very wrong. They felt guilt, the question of “How could I” came to mind. What brought on their struggle with Depression?
ii. Peter’s Deal
1. Pride – remember what he said?
a. Mark 14:29 "All may stumble and fall," said Peter, "yet I never will."
2. Guilt
a. When the rooster crowed and Peter realized what he had done the Bible says he wept bitterly.
i. Klaio, (Pron: klah’-yo) To sob, i.e. wail aloud : (words used are bewail, weep.)
ii. pikros, pik-roce - violently:--bitterly.
b. Peter had to have struggled with feelings of depression! It ripped him up.
3. Good News for Peter - Mark 16:7 But go tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, as He said to you.
iii. Judas
1. His deal was the love of money brought on a bad decision. He also was hit with a heavy load of guilt. But he took the wrong road to freedom. He went to the chief priest for forgiveness. His offense and wrong wasn’t with the priests – it was with Jesus. He should have gone to Jesus for forgiveness.
2. Mt 27:3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? You see to it." 5 He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.
Jesus made it real simple – you want to find your life – then lose it. The truth is trying to find the new that comes out of the loss rather than figure out why the lost. When a seed dies then it bears much fruit.
Why do we get depressed?
1. How we respond to loss
a. Loss in relationships
i. Death
ii. Divorce
iii. Break up
b. Loss in things
i. Job, money or power
ii. Health - pain
iii. Unexpected circumstances or events
1. Isaiah 60:1 (AMP) ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you![Zech. 8:23.]
c. Loss in dreams
i. Life isn’t what you thought
2. Sin
a. Unresolved anger
i. 1 Samuel 16:14
Now the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul, and the LORD sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear
b. Unforgiveness
c. Selfishness
i. 2 Timothy 3:1You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. 2 People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless and hateful.
ii. I don’t believe the hard times just come – I believe something precedes them or sets them into motion. We didn’t have problems with kids getting killed in schools until we took prayer and the 10 commandments out of our schools and put on television over 15,000 violent scenes for them to observe in their school age life.
iii. Why are hard times coming – because people are becoming more self-absorbed than ever before. People love themselves.
iv. Ahab wants the vineyard next to his palace, so he offered Naboth a better vineyard or silver for it. But Naboth wouldn’t accept the offer because the land was passed down as an inheritance.
1. 1Ki 21:4 And Ahab came to his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay on his bed and turned away his face, and would not eat food. 5 And his wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit so sad that you are not eating food?
v. During a lecture on mental health someone once asked Dr. Carl Menninger: "What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?" Most people thought he would say, "Go see a psychiatrist immediately," but he didn’t.
Much to everyone’s astonishment, Dr. Menninger replied, "Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find somebody in need, and help that person." To overcome discouragement, "Don’t focus on yourself, get involved in the lives of other people."
d. Guilt
(see Depression Part 2 for the conclusion of this messages)
