Overcoming Depression

Introduction

This morning, we are going to wrap up our series on emotional wholeness by looking at how we can overcome times of discouragement and depression. If you have your bible, please turn with me to Psalm 69.

Psalm 69:1–6 ESV

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore? O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you. Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.

It’s clear that these opening verses describe someone who feels overwhelmed by the circumstances of life. Many of us can relate to these images of feeling like we are drowning under the pressures of life, where we can barely keep our head above the rising waters or feeling like we are stuck in a deep mire, where there is no foothold and you can’t seem to make your way out of the muddy mess. In fact at times, the more you struggle, the more you feel like you are sinking deeper. And needless to say, this is a horrible place for anyone to be emotionally and though your situation may be very different from what inspired David to write this Psalm, these emotions are familiar to many of us. There are countless ways that the trials of life can overwhelm us, an eroding marriage, a wayward child, a health crisis, conflict in the home, divisions in the church, the death of a loved one, prolonged unemployment, a toxic work environment. You get the picture, there are endless permutations to the troubles we can experience and usually it feels like it comes in waves. There is a period of tranquility and then the floodgates break loose. Not surprisingly, it is usually in response to a combination of these problems that people experience a mental or emotional crisis. On the less severe side, you’ll experience discouragement and a loss of heart. On the more severe end, it’s very common for people to fall into depression as they try to cope with the trials and tribulations of life. To that end, I want to look at two main points:

1. The origin of depression

2. The remedy for depression

Body

In our current views on mental health, we have been taught that depression simply a matter of brain chemistry and the imbalance of hormones like serotonin and dopamine. Therefore, if we get the right chemical balance in the brain, you can cure mental health issues like depression. In the age of science, this seems plausible, except for the fact that there is no conclusive standard for what a chemically balanced brain even looks like. But due to the power of big pharmaceutical companies, we have been sold this notion that depression was a result of these imbalances and that there are now drugs that can address our emotional problems. From that point on, anti-depressants like Prozac and Paxil became almost household names but when you take a closer look at some of the clinical data of these drugs, there is a startling fact that comes out, these drugs are barely more effective than the placebos that are tested against it. In a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, it was revealed that the company hid the fact that one study discovered that the placebo worked better, one study showed no difference, and one study showed mixed results. None showed proven effectiveness and yet in a leaked company memo, the internal discussion led to this warning to its marketers:

“It would be commercially unacceptable to include a statement that efficacy has not been demonstrated, as this would undermine the profile of Paroxetine.”

There are some people that are helped by these drugs but it’s debatable if it is the biochemical effects of these drugs that is helping or if it is just the idea that there’s a cure for our unhappiness that causes them to work. We all understand the power of suggestion, which actually points to the the immense potential of the human mind, that is why every single drug has to be tested against a placebo effect. And if you are wondering, how did these drugs pass through the FDA, it’s simply a matter running the clinical trials over and over until you get the results you want. I worked as a researcher for a start-up biotech company for 5 years until I got laid off due to bad clinical data that caused our stock to drop to nickels on the dollar. To my surprise, about three years later, the same drug I worked on with a few modifications passed and was immediately bought by Pfizer. The responsibility of the FDA is largely to make sure these drugs don’t harm the patients, it’s secondary concern is whether or not it is actually effective.

Oddly, some people get upset when I suggest that these drugs might not work as they have been advertised and that I don’t care about people’s mental health. Even if it’s a placebo, why not just let people enjoy the reprieve from their emotional pain? And the reason is simple, 75-80% of patients lapse back into depression, the other 20% probably would have gotten better without the drugs. But the real problem is that these drugs are not inert, inocuous substances, they do change the chemistry of the body which leads to obesity and the ensuing health complications and they are beginning to see a link between these drugs and higher rates of suicide and violent crime. I wonder if some of the aberrant behavior that we are seeing in our society is not at least partly a result of the side effects of anti-depressants. One doctor has gone so far as to say that if you want to use something for the placebo effect, then at least use something that is safe. Even from an anectodal standpoint, if these drugs were effective, we have to ask the question of why rates of depression are increasing when anywhere from 13-15% of Americans are taking anti-depressants.

And it’s precisely because I care that I brings these matters up because I would rather you experience genuine healing and joy in your life rather than rely on science that is largely unproven. It’s humbling then to look at the timeless truths of the Bible and realize that it may have more answers for the causes of depression than the best medical research out there. It seems incredibly naive and reductionistic to simplify our human capacity to feel deep, gut wrenching sorrow and make it nothing more than a chemical mixture gone bad in the brain. The Psalmists believed that emotions that were this deep didn’t come from just the head or even the heart but that it emanated from our very soul. As we read last week:

Psalm 42:11 ESV

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

As Pastor Andy shared in a previous message, the soul is the immaterial essence of our being that includes our thoughts, our emotions, our spirit, and our will. It lies at the core of our existence and anyone who has seen a dead corpse at a funeral understands intuitively that a physical body is nothing without the soul that gives it life. It would make sense and it seemed to make sense to the Psalmist that something as complex as depression wasn’t just a matter of wrong thinking or even wrong feelings but something that was wrong within the soul. In other words, you can’t just address depression by just looking at what is going on in the brain, you also have to look at what’s going on in the heart, in the spirit, in the will, the body, and even your relationship to other souls. So from a Biblical perspective, it’s better for us to talk about the health of our souls even more than our emotional or mental health.

Psalm 19:7 ESV

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

Psalm 25:12–13 ESV

Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land.

Proverbs 16:24 ESV

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

The scriptures talk repeatedly about our souls needing to be restored, meaning it can actually be damaged, and I believe depression is a symptom of a soul that has become sick, which begins to take away the vitality of life from deep with that person. And that is the saddest thing, seeing the joy of life being drained out of a person’s very being. That is the way I’ve experienced depression and the way I’ve seen it damage the souls of others. They no longer feel like the person that you once knew. And it’s here that science does give us some hints to the more practical reasons for how depression enters into the soul. It has long been accepted in the medical community that anxiety and depression are linked together. This is why the same drugs are prescribed for both anxiety disorders and depression. In some ways, it’s like a how a runny nose and a cough are two sympoms linked to a cold. And here is the way I think anxiety and depression are linked.

Anxiety is a result of of stress or acute trauma, it may be in the conscious or subconscious, but I think we can all agree that this is the very definition of anxiety. Anxiety comes from some negative life event, whatever that may be and as I shared there is a countless list of negative life events. After a prolonged time of anxiety, weeks, months, or years, you begin to lose hope that life will get better, that you will feel better, and that’s when the more dangerous types of depression set in. We are not talking about seasonal affect or simply an occasional blue day here and there. We are talking about a soul sickness that robs you of life itself becasue it takes away your hope. It’s no concidence that the Psalmist speaks to his soul and

Its interesting that in the psychiatric handbook the symptoms of depression are the same as the symptoms of grief, especially the grief that one feels after losing a loved one. In his book Lost Connections, Johann Hari points out that psychiatrists make an exception for grief over the loss of a loved one when they are trying to diagnose clinial depression. But he does pose this important question, don’t humans experience loss in countless ways in life? Divorce means a loss of a marriage. A recession means a loss of financial stability. Divisions in the church means loss of friendship. A pandemic means the loss of years on our lives. Let’s not pretend that we haven’t all lost something over the last few years. And how we deal with our losses is critical to the maintence of a healthy soul.

Sadness and sorrow can be a good thing and moreover, it certainly can be redeemed. I love this quote from the the book “A Grace Disguised” by Jerry Sittser.

It is not therefore true that we become less through loss — unless we allow the loss to make us less, grinding our soul down until there is nothing left. Loss can also make us more. I did not get over my loved ones; rather I absorbed the loss into my life until it became part of who I am. Sorrow took up permanent residence in my soul and enlarged it … One learns the pain of others by suffering one’s own pain, by turning inside oneself, by finding one’s own soul … However painful, sorrow is good for the soul … The soul is elastic, like a balloon. It can grow larger through suffering.

There are so many causes of depression because there are so many ways we can experience loss in this liife but fortunately, they all have the same remedy.

Psalm 23 reminds us of this simple fact:

Psalm 23 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Martyn Lloyd Jones in his book on spiritual depression mentions some key principles that will help you overcome bouts of depression.

If you have a history of depression before conversion, you’ll continue to struggle with that afterwards. Some personalities are just more prone to become depressive.

You need to make sure that you are speaking truth to yourself and not allowing your circumstances to speak to you.

You have to allow truth to control your emotions and not have your emotions dictate to your truths. (Note that I didn’t say have no emotions)

Jones calls this the essence of wisdom from the Psalm and I couldn’t agree more. “You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’—what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.”

2. Challenge yourself to do what is rational. For the Christian, the only rational thing to do in times of crisis and the emotional and spiritual pain that comes along with it is to “Put your hope in God.” You have to preach and proclaim that that to yourself as if your very life depends on it because it does. Even though things may not seem all that hopeful, we can be sure that God has a reason and a purpose for all of this and that should be our light at the end of this dark tunnel.

3. Remind yourself of the certainty of your salvation and relationship with God, that God is your ever present help in times of danger.

I want to close with the parallel Psalm of the one that we read to begin our message:

Psalm 40:1–3 ESV

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:16–17 ESV

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!

Conclusion

As Christians, we know that our most effective witness to the world is how we love and how joyfully we live. If we are able to love in spite of the pain that we have to endure and if we can be joyful in the midst of adversity, that goes a long ways in being the light of the world. Despite all this talk about authenticity, no one is going to be attracted to our faith just because we are genuinely miserable. As a non-Christian into my twenties, I was drawn to Christianity because there was a tangible difference in the way people in the church loved one another and how joyful they seemed. To be honest, I didn’t care how well they grieved that is just Christian to Christian talk. What I was drawn to and what I’m fairly sure the world will be drawn to in times like these is how well we overcome that grief and fight through emotional obstacles like depression.

There is so much more we can explore in this subject but we will have to put a bookmark here and pick up the discussion in the future. I pray that what little I was able to share has given you some hope and provided a biblical perspective on emotional health. I do plan to spend my sabbatical doing some research on the intersection of trauma, emotional health, and our spirituality.