Now we’re ready to turn the corner from analyzing how we got into depression, to climbing the upward path out. Let’s start by looking at the final two prerequisites for overcoming depression.
From Slaying the Giant by Dr. French O’Shields:
#8 Assume Responsibility and Exert the Effort to Help Yourself Overcome Your Depression. After I was finally able to acknowledge and admit I had allowed myself to become depressed and therefore must be accountable for it, I discovered something extremely helpful in this. Only after my admission was I able to see it.
Up until now I thought I was dependant on someone else to get me out of my depression. If I could just find the right person, the right therapist, the right doctor, then he would be able to get me out of this horrible pit. Since all of my efforts to find just this right person had failed, my hopes of recovery dimmed. Dimmed because the logical conclusion of my thinking was: if I can’t find the right person, then I can’t recover. […]
As long as the depressed person denies any responsibility for getting himself in and out of depression (as almost all depressed persons do), then he can only conclude he is a victim of depression. As a victim, he sees himself having no control whatsoever over his becoming or overcoming depression because of his circumstances, the actions of others, or some satanic force and therefore there is nothing he can do about it.
There are few things more damaging to the depressed person than this victim complex. It essentially means he is likely to stay in the pit of depression.
This principle applies to so much more than just dealing with depression. I can – and must –apply this principle to my struggles with disorganization. Either I can keep blaming my ADD and feeling like a helpless victim, or I can accept the responsibility for my actions and work towards improvement. Weight loss is another example. I can feel like over-eating is just an uncontrollable compulsion and that exercise is just “not my thing” and stay chubby…or I can seize control of this body that is supposed to be mine and get healthy!
I’m not going to say that we will never have help on our journeys. But what I will say is that if we are not willing to take steps- baby steps if necessary - out of depression, no human can drag our limp bodies out. God can, but I’m not so sure He will. Perhaps He says to us, like Jesus said, “Do you want to get well?” and then “Get up and walk”.
And the final prerequisite…
#9 Embrace Hope […] To embrace hope is to deal by faith a death blow to hopelessness. To embrace hopelessness and despair is to consider God a historical figure only. To embrace hope is to believe God is today the same as He has always been and continues to extend His love, care, and power to all who call upon Him.
I will not say that depression is a sin. In the very first post of this series I observed that even Jesus got depressed – and we know He never sinned. So depression is not always a sin. But for the Christian, despair most certainly is a sin. Despair is an abandonment of faith and a denial of the many, many promises that God has made to His children.
Hebrews 11:36 For without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that comes unto God must believe that He is and that He is rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Romans 5:2b-5 …we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our affliction, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
So take heart! You will not live in the shadows forever. Our Shepherd leads us through the valley of the shadow and out to the sunny green pastures where there is refreshment and rest! Have hope!
Note: In the next day or so we will begin the practical exercises for overhauling our faulty thinking. You will need a new notebook or journal (I just got a plain spiralbound myself), a pen, and a Bible…. And HOPE!
girl — you have really been helping me — I am loving everyminute that I sit here and read! Keep posting I am coming back in spurts to read - take notes - ponder - and write —
Number 8 really really got to me……
Comment by Maria — October 11, 2006 @ 7:05 pm