Depression

This system is about to be destroyed and so we are feeling the effects of being further and further away from depression. Well, what are some of the causes of depression?

There could be many different things. We could be depressed over our physical condition--maybe we're not able to do what we once were or we're sickly. Could be an imbalance—if the chemicals in our brain are affecting us. Or perhaps we've had some financial reversals or a traumatic loss such as the loss of a loved one to death--or the loss of a job that we thought we'd have until we retired and one day they just let you go.

It could be that you were an innocent victim to abuse when you were younger, or even somewhat as an adult. It could even be that we're disappointed by our own shortcomings, our own sins. Maybe we've done something in the past and because of that we continue to feel that gnawing at us and causing us to feel depressed.

Well, Jehovah God has given us an education and he's provided information for us on how to deal with depression. At Isaiah 50:4 there it reads this way: "The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has given me the tongue of the taught ones, that I may know how to answer the tired one with a word." So we have to know how and God has done that through his organization and through the scriptures. And when you look at the Watchtower and Awake magazines and you go back for some years or so you see that those magazines have been in the forefront on information on depression.

It's amazing that they were talking about it before others even really recognized it as a real malady. So have we taken advantage of those articles? What we're going to do this is highlight some of the specific points they make through the years

We can't cover all twenty-some years, But we are going to highlight some very specific key points that are made. For instance if you're suffering with depression, the first thing we must recognize is that with Jehovah God there's always light at the end of the tunnel. When we're depressed we feel bogged down, sometimes as if we're just drowning in a black hole unable to get out. But it's true with some depression it may carry on right until the end. But there's that light at the end of the tunnel or perhaps we can do things suggested that will alleviate it a little bit or even get rid of it in this system.

Well, how would you describe depression? Here's how one doctor described it. He said, “Sometimes I use the analogy of a calculator. If the batteries get run down, no matter what numbers you punch in you will not get a reliable answer. So I tell someone suffering from major depression that his batteries have run down temporarily--he's going to get some strange ideas and come to some weird conclusions but that will only be while the disturbance is there—when the problem goes things will be better.”

You see this doctor deals with depression all the time so he has an understanding of it. Have you ever had a calculator that runs only on batteries that are wearing down? He's right, you can't trust it. You see it comes up with all kinds of numbers.

What's interesting about this doctor, he doesn't just appreciate depression, he appreciates what Jehovah's people endure in this system. You see he's our Christian brother and an elder in the congregation. He knows what's always been stated, that if you are depressed--and we want to make this very clear--it is not a spiritual problem.

You are not morally weak. You see it's just a part of this wicked system that we're all trying to cope with. It's true that spiritual problems and so forth could accompany depression if we haven't taken ahold of all God has given us. But you see we're not bad people. You're not a spiritual failure. You don't have mental weaknesses. Instead we're trying to cope.

You see Jehovah God knows that even if we're depressed we can only do so much in that condition. So he doesn't hold it against you that you should be doing more and this and that. He understands why that's the case.

While we look at depression, and we understand that it doesn't mean that we're a spiritual failure, we should be able to talk about it and not be embarrassed.
At Proverbs 12:25 it says, "Anxious care in the heart of a man is what will cause it to bow down but the good word is what makes it rejoice." So you notice no one here knows the anxiety in your heart, only you do as well as Jehovah God. And that anxiety is going to do what to us?

If it continues to build it is just going to bow our heart down. We just can't take it all. So we need to talk about it. Many who have talked about their feelings have found out that they're very normal. The weren't odd and they weren't bad people, but these were feelings that others naturally have. It also served to relieve them because now all those things aren't bottled up within us and causing us to feel worse.

And then you notice at the end of verse 25 in Proverbs it says "the good word is what makes it rejoice." So now that we share this, we get this out, now others can give us good words and fill our heart back up with other thoughts. Makes sense right.

Often when we're depressed we get in a cycle of thinking some of the same thoughts, often negative, about what we're not doing, what we don't have, what we're missing in our life instead of thinking positive thoughts as well. That's where these good words come in to assist us.

At times some have been so depressed they felt others around them, their family, their friends, were better off even without them—feeling just completely worthless. But from God's point of view none of us are worthless. Look at John chapter 3. This helps us. At John 3: 16 it says, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten son in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

So the idea of personal worthlessness stabs at the heart of the truth of the Bible's teaching of the ransom. You see Satan the Devil is the one who wants us to feel worthless, that we can't serve our God, don't pray to him, you're not worth it. He's trying to put that wedge between us and our heavenly Father.

All of us have worth before God. He gave his only-begotten son, a tremendous cost he paid by letting his son die in our behalf. To Jehovah, life is precious. That includes your life. What's more, Jehovah God knows you by name, he knows everything there is to know about you and he still loves you.

Look at his view of us as humans at Psalm 103. Think of yourself now, don't think of others as you read this, but think of how Jehovah God feels about you. Psalm 103:8-10: "Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness. He will not for all time keep finding fault, neither will he to time indefinite keep resentful. He has not done to us even according to our sins, nor according to our errors has he brought upon us what we deserve."

Jehovah hasn't given any of us what we deserve. We're all imperfect and we Sin many times but you see he doesn't hold that to account, he doesn't keep finding fault.
Sometimes as God's people, we beat ourselves up. We set the bar too high and we constanty think about what we're not doing and how that's going to displease God. But you notice He doesn't keep resentful to time indefinite.

Maybe we've sinned, committed a gross sin, but if we've come forward to the congregation through the elders as we should, that was the relief. We've gone to God. Now he says move on. If we've done something and haven't come forward, that's going to be a burden until we do.

I appreciated an article in an Awake about a sister who had given up her son at a young age and both of them had contact with the truth. He came into the truth and is serving as an elder in a congregation and they were going to meet for the first time. As you read the article, it shows that she was just scared to death about what her son would think of her.

Do you remember his first words to her? He said, "Mother, the truth is not about the past, it's about the future." And so that's true with us. Don't keep beating yourself up about the past. Let's move on and look towards the future.

We have to remember that since Jehovah created everything, he has the greatest mind in the universe. That means he has the greatest sense of what is right and what is wrong and what does he say? He is not going to keep badgering you, not going to keep finding fault. Isaiah 55:7 says that Jehovah forgives - in a small way? NO! In a big way? NO! It says in a LARGE way. Jehovah continues to forgive and so we must remember that.

Now what if our depression lingers--what can we do? Well, perhaps now it's time to seek medical assistance, assistance that we can't give ourselves. Whatever choices we make should always be in harmony with Bible principles. Medication and so on does have its place and many have been helped that have suffered from depression for some time.

We also have to remember something else. None of us are a superman. You can't do it all. We all have limitations. Sometimes that's hard for us to believe. Sometimes we say, "Oh, I think I'm going to do this. Maybe someone says I don't really know if you should do that and we say, "Oh, you think so? I'd really like to. You see it's because we have that desire to keep doing things, but we can't.

We all have our weaknesses, our limitations, but we all do something well, too.For instance does something better than others. We all do something well. Which brings us to what God expects of us. Matthew 22:37 shows there we must have whole-souled service to worship him with our whole heart and our whole soul and our whole mind.

What does whole-souled service mean? Some have thought that that meant they had to pioneer and they felt guilty because they couldn't. That's not what that means. If you have the circumstances to do so, yes, by all means you should. That's living up to your dedication to God and being whole-souled. But if we can't, Jehovah understands that.

It also means we don't compare ourselves with what others are doing and try to compare ourselves with men. Our faith is in God, not in men, and so we are worshiping him. So that means we worship God with what we can. You see whole-souled service has little to do with numbers or amounts. It has to do with our heart condition, our relationship with our heavenly Father. So as we serve him we're going to do all we can--but that's all we can do.

For instance, let's say that I was going to serve Jehovah God with Brother Smith's strength or Brother Miller's strength...I can't do that, can I? You see that's physically impossible. I have to worship God with my strength. That's what we all have to do, worship God with all we have. And we've been helped to see through the Watchtower and through the scriptures that whatever our best is, we're going to give it to God. If you do that, no matter how your circumstances change, your relationship with God will remain strong and firm.

Many times though when people have been depressed, they've been told by others it's a spiritual problem. You need to get more active. You need to study more. You need to get out in service more or have you thought about pioneering? Now that poor person who's depressed--how do they feel now walking away from that conversation?

Right now it's even worse. But our worship to God does have its place to help us cope with depression. That was true with one dear sister. She had lost her husband to death and they were in Bethel at the time.

Before that they were special pioneers, traveling in the travel work as well and they had lived a long life together. It was only natural that she would suffer some depression over his loss and it became quite deep for a bit. Then she got back into her routine and got back out in the ministry.

She had one specific call that really encouraged her because she was realizing she was talking about the faith, the hope of the future and she wrote this to a mutual friend. It's an interesting way to look at the ministry. She said, "I can truly say that field service is medicine for the emotion and the inner boost we all need." Isn't that an interesting way to look at the ministry--like medicine for the emotion?

You know if you think about medicine, if you've got a prescription--50 or 100 pills or whatever--are you going to take all that medication at once? No, you're going to overdose. Are you going to stop taking your medication before you're told to? Better not do that. Many have tried that even--those who have been depressed. And what happens? They get back where they were and sometimes even worse.

The proven way to have a medication be effective is to take it in its prescribed doses over the period of time that we're told. And that's the way our worship to God must be, our ministry. We can't go from doing nothing to getting in 80, 90, 100 hours. Because what's going to happen? We're going to overdose and we're going to crash. Many who have been depressed have told me it's either all or nothing. So we either do it all or we don't do anything. What did that doctor say earlier? Sometimes you get some strange ideas when that calculator is worn down. So what we need is some consistency here.

We need to do just what we can within our limitations at the time and just keep doing what we can--not trying to do what others are doing or what we ourselves think we should. We have to do what Jehovah is telling us to do within our heart and so we do so.Now there are other things that can help. What about those who are not depressed?

How could you help someone who is depressed? Well, that can be very challenging. For instance, if someone came in the hall this on crutches and their leg was in a cast we'd say they must have broke their leg.We'd go "How are you? What happened? Do you need a chair, here, let me turn this chair around. What does the doctor say? Well, now don't you do anything more than you should now, take it easy, take it slow."

Now contrast that with what we said earlier when someone is depressed--"You get out in service, get going." Do you see the difference? We can see a physical problem. There are those who come into our Kingdom Halls who are depressed with huge smiles on their faces--you'd never know it--but inside they're truly affected.

That's why as servants of God and as a spiritual family we have to help each other.
At 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 it shows us what we need to do.Some have thought well maybe it's just a personal thing and we should just let them cope with it or deal with it. But look at verse 14: "On the other hand, we exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, speak consolingly to the depressed souls, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all." So you notice here he's exhorting us.

This isn't just a passive thing--you know, do it when you think you can. He's telling us to get in there and speak consolingly to them, to give some support to the weak. If we're doing that, that means we are going to avoid saying insensitive things like, "Snap out of it! What's wrong with you? Boy, you never acted like this before. Buck up! Let's get together here."

You know one brother did that to his wife. He told her, "You know you're a strong woman, you're just going tohave to take it and snap out of it." She was a strong woman all right. She let him know exactly where he stood with a comment like that. And it was put in the Watchtower for us to learn from.

You see the brother admitted that both he and other friends in the congregation were guilty of perhaps prolonging his wife's depression because of the insensitive remarks they were making, making her feel worthless as though it were her fault that she was feeling that way. It reminded me of Job and his three false comforters.

When you think of that poor man Job, all he went through, just amazing. Here he lost all his riches, all his herds, his flocks, his cattle and so on. Then when he loses all ten children, all at once, in a violent windstorm--and remember, he was told these things one after the other.

Can you can imagine the emotional impact--then he had himself attacked from head to toe with boils. As he sat in a heap of ashes his boils were oozing and he would take that pottery, and would just scrape all of that off. The dogs would come and lick his wounds and he just smelled horrific.

Then his three false friends came and what do they do? For seven days they just do this (sigh). That's it. They just stared at him for seven days. Remember that drama? How it showed they would moan and groan and shake their heads? There was no comfort there.

Imagine being looked at with such pity. And then they finally speak. Here comes the encouragement! Wrong again! If you would look at the first 31 chapters of Job you see that what these men did now was go out on the attack. They would tell Job: "You know, Job, when you were feeling good, God was blessing you. in fact, we would come to you and you would counsel us.

But now it's apparent, Job, that you're a sinner. You've sinned and God is punishing you." Do you feel that weight getting stronger? Then his wife comes and she says, "Curse God and die!" Now we don't know much about Job's wife but anyone who knows that story knows what she said, right? We don't do this-- but let's just do it for this one time--let's go back and let's rate Job's wife spirituality. From zero to 10, where would you put her?

Curse God and die. I hear many going zero. Think again! Think again! What did Job's wife lose? Didn't she lose all of her riches, her animals, her flocks, her herds? What would the loss of one child do to a mother, let alone the loss of ten--all at once? One sister after taking about it, came up to me and said, "You know, I've lost a child. It's like a piece of me that's been ripped apart."

I said, "Not much room in your heart left is there?" She says, "No. It's just sad."
So imagine the pressure that would put on a woman's emotions. Then the support she needs is from her husband.Now, look at his condition - he's withering away. There's nothing she can do. She must be so frustrated to watch him.

So she reasons and she says, "Curse God and Die!" What did that doctor say earlier? When we're depressed we get some strange ideas? We come to some weird conclusions? Imagine how depressed that dear woman must have been. You know the bible indicates for us that she was a very spiritual woman because when Job received all of his blessings, who received them with him? It was his wife.

She bore him those ten children and she benefited in the reward. You see Jehovah knew what she too was going through. So it helps us see the need to be supportive of those depressed, not to be quick to judge and to make sure that we're not just saying insensitive things.

Another key point is mentioned for us at James 1:19 where we must be swift about hearing and slow about speaking.Jehovah God has given us all two ears and one mouth. We remember to use those in that priority at times.People don't always want solutions--and some men have tried that. Their wives tell them something and the husband gives them the solution and the wife says you know you're not listening. And the husband thinks, now wait, I just told you--what do you mean I'm not listening?

The point is she didn't want a solution, she wanted someone to listen. That's true with the depressed sometimes. That's what they want. Psalm 65:2 helps us to see that Jehovah is the hearer of prayer. He's the example that we have to follow. Have you ever thought about that? Jehovah God does not have to be the hearer of prayer-- he could have asked Jesus Christ to be the hearer of prayer. He could have
assigned different angels and told them you're the hearer of prayer. Instead he says, "No. I'm the hearer of prayer. "

He wants to hear. And he listens to us time and again, the same problem day after day. Don't stop telling him. Remember that's what Satan wants. He wants you to think well, I've already told Jehovah this, I better stop. You keep telling him because he's the Hearer of prayer. He's chosen to listen to such things.

1 Peter 3:8 shows that we must have fellow feeling for each other. That's how we can help the depressed - by showing fellow feeling or feeling like your fellow. If you haven't been depressed though, you may wonder how can I feel like them? Well, that's where empathy really comes in. One definition of empathy is to enter into another person's feelings through the imagination. You don't know how they feel but you can imagine it.

Here's what one brother said about his depression. He said “depression is like swimming out in a lake. You get halfway between the shore and the raft and you get a cramp in your leg. You go down in the water, you try to breathe, but all you take in is water, not air. You can't help yourself. You're all alone. You're done. It's just a helpless feeling.”

Now, imagine if someone were in that condition and you throw them a life preserver. It's going to take all their strength--perhaps just by their fingernails--to hang on because you're exhausted when you're trying to save your life in water, then you get them to the shore and what happens? Now they cough and they just lay there exhausted.

If you've known anyone who's been close to drowning, they'll tell you that that's an experience that lingers.Many of them won't even get near water afterwards and they have nightmares about it for some time. I've gone through that as a child so I know the feeling. That's the way depression is.

You feel all alone like you're drowning there in the water, unable to help yourself, just going down and it just lingers. Many of the friends, if they could, would snap out of it. But they just can't. You see, it's the condition of these last days.

So instead of telling people to do things like that--snap out of it and so on--speak with understanding. Look for a point you can commend them on. Continue to encourage them. Let them know you're trying to understand how they feel, and then remember to use the right words. That's so important in showing fellow feeling.

Elkanah was one who used the right words. His wife could not have children, Hannah, you may remember. The Bible says she was quite depressed over it. What made it worse was his other wife, Peninnah, could have kids. Said she would vex Hannah every day.

You can almost hear her: "You know, Hannah, it's too bad you can't have children. Of course, Elkanah loves me more because I've borne him these children."

Maybe the next day her children are out playing and she looks at Hannah and says, "Oh, too bad you don't have children. They could play with my children."

And she would continue to make comments to her.

Well, this poor woman is quite depressed. What would Elkanah do? Let's look at it at 1st Samuel chapter 1. A part

Of course, Jehovah did bless Hannah because later she gave birth to Samuel, but let's look at verse 8 and just the first portion: "And Elkanah her husband proceeded to say to her: "Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you not eat, and why does your heart feel bad?" So why does he ask her these questions?

Well, first of all, he's showing fellow-feeling because if you note he never accuses her of anything.He doesn't say--snap out of it, this is all wrong--no, he's just questioning her because often our thoughts, when we're depressed, key in on some of the same negative thoughts and so now he's trying to reason with her to bring her out in her thoughts to think what has brought me to this point.

Sometimes when we're depressed, we don't want to be around other people. We don't just not only want to come out of the house, some don't even want to come out of their bed they're so depressed. So he's trying to reason with her. And then look at the last question: "Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

Now why does he say that? That's a strengthening question. You see she's thinking about what? I don't have children. I don't have any children. This is what's depressing her, but she's forgetting what she does have and that's a loving husband and so he's giving her a reason for joy.

And that's what we must do. Can you do that? I know we can. We must help our family members, our spiritual family here, to remember what they do have, not just what they don't. Let's give them a reason for joy. You can see how Jehovah God has educated us through the magazines. Continue to do research on that. There's so much material that is so helpful to us.

We know in the future there will be no more depression, we'll be made sound, and there will be no reasons for depression in that new world. Until then, we have to continue to build each other up, continue the battle with depression because soon, one day in the future, there will be no depression and we'll live forever in that peaceful world because we have won that battle once and for all.

At this moment my mother is in the hospital I feel fighting for her life and I'm sad for other reasons because she received a blood transfusion. You might wonder why should I be upset. Well, that's another subject in itself but to make a long story short. The command to abstain from blood was not a mere dietary restriction but is a serious moral requirement, as is seen by the fact that it was as serious to Christians as abstaining from idolatry or fornication. Acts chapter 15 comes to mind in connection with Blood. As mentioned that's another issue which I can discuss later.

Till tomorrow.