What You Need to Know about Depression

The Causes 

What you also need to know about depression is that it can be inherited through our genes and be part of our temperament type. If we are a deep thinking, deep feeling, artistic, perfectionist, we will most likely struggle with depression.

If we were raised in an environment where one of our parents reacted to disappointment and stresses by means of depression it is most likely that either we or one of our siblings will learn this means of responding to anxiety.

Poor diet contributes to depression. People who consume large amounts of sugar or caffeine may find themselves craving more or depressed when the sugar or caffeine high wears off. Lack of exercise and insufficient sleep also feed depression. 

If a person struggles with low self-esteem or poor self-image, he or she will undoubtedly battle depression. If our self acceptance is based on what others think or say about us, we will live with daily anxiety and despair.

If we carry damaged emotions from childhood trauma, we will respond to adult situations through the emotions of the wounded child within us. We will find relatively mild circumstances to be overwhelming, resulting in hopelessness and depression.

False guilt often accompanies such after affects of childhood trauma. Adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect often carry around false responsibility for what happened to them. They feel guilty for not preventing it, for not being lovable enough to prevent it from happening in the first place. False guilt leads to a feeling of helplessness and depression. 

When we have not dealt with, or taken the time to heal past wounds, we will be susceptible to feeling-flashbacks. Present experiences tap into an immense reservoir of past emotion resulting in excessive emotional responses. These occur when the pain of past wounds travel forward and connect themselves to present situations. When more emotion is expressed that what the situation calls for, we are experiencing a feeling-flashback.

Loss is a major contributor to depression; in fact depression is recognized as one of the phases of grief. If we do not allow ourselves the privilege of grieving our losses as we experience them, eventually, the combination of such losses will merge into one major loss. The resulting severe depression will debilitate the sufferer and produce a need to grieve each of the past losses individually.  

Another major concern that causes depression is  habitual sin. Few are the individuals who are more miserable than one who loves the Lord, yet gets himself caught in one of Satan’s traps. Such individuals find themselves in bondage.

This is how Satan works in the lives of God’s children. He tempts them mercilessly until they give in, and then harasses them ruthlessly with feelings of worthlessness, shame and disgrace. His goal is to move his victim beyond guilt to the point of shame so that they become enslaved to him.

Our perception of our Heavenly Father affects our emotional and mental health. If we have a faulty spiritual belief system we will short circuit our relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we do not have a healthy understanding of who God is, and who we are as His child we will not be able to trust the love of our Heavenly Father. We will limp from crisis to crisis wondering if God truly is good and if He really does care.

How is your relationship with your Heavenly Father?     

Ask yourself:

• How does God feel about me as His child?
• How does God feel about me when I am on my knees?
• How does God feel about me when I have disobeyed Him?
• How often do I tell God I love Him?
• How often do I thank God for loving me?

A healthy spiritual life will require an in-depth study of the love God has for us. We will need to bathe ourselves daily in Scriptures that confirm God’s love through Bible study, memorization and meditation.

The best way to build your self image is to put your name in Scripture verses that express God’s heart for His children; then meditate on them and interact with them. This should be a daily practice for no less than one year until these beliefs become part of who we are. My book, “From Victim to Victor” provides a plentiful source of such Scripture verses.

When we feel secure in God’s love, we will learn to love and accept ourselves the way He made us. Then we will not be concerned about other people’s opinions or attitudes toward us. Freedom from “people-pleasing” opens us up to become the unique person God created us to be.

Unforgiveness is a major root cause of depression. Unforgiveness eats at your soul like a cancer burrowing you deeper into depression. When we don’t choose to forgive, all our other relationships will be contaminated by our bitterness, and we will inevitably hurt those we love most. When we choose to forgive, we are opening the door to allow God to change us as an individual.

Depression is caused from long-lasting stresses in all areas of our lives. Over- extension of ourselves, painful memories, low self-worth, interpersonal relationships, change, death of a loved one, financial reversal, deteriorating health, destructive compulsive behaviours, addictions and unforgiveness all contribute to depression.

These stresses causing excessive anxiety for a prolonged period of time sometimes result in the depletion of chemicals in the brain. The outcome is diagnosed as clinical depression and is treated with medication.

The Cures for Depression

For those suffering with depression, there is much you can do to bring healing to your memories, thoughts and emotions. Even for victims of clinical depression, the medications become more effective once the emotional baggage is dealt with.

 -Seek help in learning how to hand stress in healthy ways

-Maintain a healthy diet, get sufficient rest and exercise

-See a counselor or join a support group for help in dealing with past emotional trauma

– Forgive and ask for forgiveness promptly

-Build your self-worth through meditating on Scripture of your Heavenly Father’s love for you

-See a doctor to determine if medication is necessary

-Seek out a good naturopath or homeopath

The following is an excerpt from my book, “From Victim To Victor”.

The Road toward Healing

• I committed myself to doing the work. I made getting well my full-time job.

 I prayed daily for healing and had several people praying for me as well.

 I studied Scripture to find out who God is and how He feels about me as His child. I totally immersed myself in Scripture, believing that God would use it to transform my mind.

 In my journal, I examined individual verses—line by line, phrase by phrase, and word by word. I personalized them by inserting my name in them, interacted with them (out loud), and applied them to my life. I found this way of studying very helpful in getting the Word into the deepest level of my emotions.

 I went back and revisited my old wounds with a counsellor.

 I forgave those who had hurt me. I asked God and my family to forgive me, I accepted their forgiveness, and I forgave myself.

 I wrote in my journal about my feelings relating to my healing journey and everyday situations.

 I played praise music while I was trying to get to sleep so that my thoughts were kept under control.

 I studied, underlined, and made notes on many, many books on various topics and issues concerning my healing journey. These books were personal stories, or were written by counsellors, doctors, or pastors, giving counsel on various topics and treatments that worked for them.

 listened to tapes with helpful sermons for my situation.

 I meditated on and committed to memory verses on God’s love for me. I carried my list of verses with me wherever I went so that I could read and meditate on them (out loud whenever possible), whether going for a walk, riding on the bus, or waiting for appointments.

12. I did word searches in Scripture on my individual needs and issues—love, comfort, hope, healing, anger, forgiveness, and many other topics—using a concordance. (Now that I have a computer and the internet, I simply type my topic into Biblegateway.com and get all the verses in the Bible on that topic. I then read through them and copy and paste the ones most helpful to me into a word document to use as a Bible study).

 Recovering from depression is a long difficult journey, but with the help of your Heavenly Father, you too can have a healthier, happier life.

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God,  for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. Psalm 43:5