I’m skipping several chapters now in the Slaying the Giant book to get into the meat of overcoming depression. But before I move to that, I just want to say a brief word about therapy and medication.
There is definitely a time and place for both of these types of assistance in overcoming depression. If you’ve been struggling for a long time and you have reached a point where you would much rather be under the bed than anyplace else, or where you can not handle basic daily tasks, or if you are thinking of taking your life, you may very well need some professional help. Also, if you have been dealing with depression for a long time, you may have gotten to a point where your brain chemistry is “out of whack” and you need some chemical intervention to get it reset.
If you were diabetic, you would not feel ashamed of taking insulin. If you broke your leg, you would get a cast…you wouldn’t just keep hoping God would fix it or you would just “snap out of it” (no pun intended) If your brain chemistry needs to be adjusted, you’re now dealing with a physical dimension in addition to the spiritual/emotional/mental aspects. Physical problems need physical solutions. Read this carefully - out loud if you need to.
There is no shame in getting help when you need help.
That said, let’s move on to Chapter 11 entitled The Real Cause of Depression. In an earlier chapter, Dr O’Shields lists four common trigger events which can precipitate depression. These are:
1. A Major Loss
2. Being Betrayed, Wronged, or Rejected
3. Bad Decisions
4. Major Disappointments
In Chapter 11 he goes on to say,
Statistically about one out of every nine persons will experience clinical depression sometime during his life. This means about 90% of the population will never experience clinical depression. […]
Surely everyone, not just the 10% who become depressed, has one or probably all of these four situations occur in their life. If 100% experience these things but 90% never become depressed, then obviously these four situations are not the cause of depression. They may be the stimuli that spark its appearance, but losses, betrayals, bad decisions, and disappointments do not cause depression. […]
Depression is a matter of perception, the Lord kept revealing it to me. Yes! Clearer and clearer it became. Depression is a matter of perception. “Lord, what does perception mean?” I asked. He gave me the answer. Perception is the way you see things to be. […]
Why do you have a wrong perspective? Because of faulty thinking. Thus, the bottom line: the real cause of psychological depression is faulty thinking. Your thinking gets messed up.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you so far? Well, if you’re depressed and it doesn’t make sense to you hang in there. Because as we’ll see in a minute, we depressed people don’t think straight anyway. 
There are four steps in the cycle of faulty thinking which leads to depression.
1. When you begin to feel depressed, your thoughts turn negative. This initial depressed feeling may be the normal depression all of us experience from losses that result from inevitable change. As you harbor, believe, and accept these negative thoughts, your thinking becomes increasingly negative. […]
2. You become absolutely convinced that things really are as you perceive them to be. […]
3. The negative thoughts that mix up our thinking and feed our depression always contain gross distortions. No matter how convinced we are that things really are as we perceive them to be, they usually are not. The negative perceptions of hte depressed person are almost always perversions of reality. The Bible calls this “deception”.[…]
4. The steps in this process feed on each other and thus become a vicious cycle. The more negative our thinking becomes, the more distorted it becomes. On and on the cycle goes, and with each cycle you slip deeper into the pit…
I was slipping into that pit a few months ago. I tend to get a bit depressed after each move (we move every three years) and this one was particularly bad. I was seeing myself as more and more hopeless. I felt like my husband didn’t love me, like I was the world’s worst mother and I was ruining my precious kids, like God would not help me because He didn’t love me like He loved other people (yes - I know this is ludicrous -that’s my point)… I began thinking about killing myself and - since I knew I couldn’t do that - hoping God would do it for me. Yet, at the same time I was rather longing to die, I was horribly afraid that I would. My thinking was, obviously, very distorted. And it’s not completely clear yet, though I am very hopeful that I am headed in the right direction now.
Do you see your own thinking in this post? If you are nodding yes, give yourself a big hug from me. Then pray and ask God to prepare you for the next few posts (and ask that He anoint me to write them, while you’re at it. 
) and the work that is to come for each of us. We are ready to start on the climbing path up and out of the pit!
I’ve had the clinical kind of depression - it’s a beast as you think you’re going nuts and while you truly WANT to behave better, you just can’t seem to. I prayed my heart out during that time. I also cried almost daily. My husband didn’t know what to do because whatever it was, I was upset. My kids were noticing and I was realizing that my “control” of the situation was beginning to crumble in public as well. Admitting that I needed to talk to a doctor was incredibly humbling. I wasn’t on meds for very long (my doctor believed I wouldn’t need them indefinitely and she was right) but I was a completely different person immediately when I started taking them….actually, it would be more accurate to say I was myself again. I’ve been off the meds for more than 2 years but if I ever start to head back to that place again - I’ll make a call a lot sooner than I did before.
I’ve also had the…what did they call it…yes, psycological depression. Circumstantial usually for me, circumstances that I’m not choosing to “live above” (or I’m angry at God for) so I wallow in my own self-pity which of course tattoos a huge neon sign on my forehead that says, “hey Satan, I’m primed for you to do some damage now.” So he gets a foothold and enter the demons of lies, deceit, negativity, anger, frustration, anxiety….the list could go on.
There really is a big difference between the two but I probably wouldn’t have believed that had I not experienced both.
Comment by Blair — October 3, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
I’ve had both too. Though both are actually clinical depression - at least by the definitions in this book. It’s a matter of severity. Have the psychological long enough and you will have the physical as well.
It’s been a LONG time since I did the Prozac thing. I had a breakdown in college (long story - not due to academics but other stuff) and ended up at home crying all the time. I told my parents they should hire me out to water lawns I cried so much.
I was on Prozac for three months - and it helped. My (secular) therapist wanted me on it for life. Ick. I got a little better and quit the meds. Then I got saved and got a lot better!! I have flirted around the edges of the pit on and off for years. The episode I went through a few months ago was as bad as it’s been since before I got saved. If it had gone on much longer, I would have needed the meds. I knew it was a possibility that was looming…
I think starting the weight loss program -what with the eating right and exercise and all of you - has helped pull me up somewhat. I am really excited because I believe that the principles/exercises in this book are going to get me all the way out and maybe never to return!
Comment by blestwithsons — October 3, 2006 @ 8:51 pm