Just Snap Out of It

A rare occurrence, I always enjoy sitting in the pew with my husband while someone else preaches.  This usually only happens when we are on vacation or attending a funeral or wedding at another church.

While visiting out of state on one of those particular Sundays, the sermon included snippets about the mental health of Christians -- particularly that they should not need Prozac.  "Should" statements can be damning and this one struck me as unsympathetic to the human plight of the Christian struggling with depression.

I can guarantee that there were Christians sitting in the pews on that day who struggle with depression on a daily basis, and probably some that take Prozac.  Depression among Christians is  controversial topic.  I've heard both sides of the discussion.  On one side you have Christians who categorize depression as a byproduct of sin alone with the merciless attitude that "if you are depressed then you're not in the Word enough, or in church enough, or praying enough, or busy enough".   On the other side of the issue, there are Christians who have firsthand experience with depression and know how it affects people and their families -- and these people know that drugs like Prozac are helpful and a blessing.

Depression is no discriminator of persons.  And it hits close to home for many of us.  My mother is one of those who deny their own depression.  And she suffers severely.  She says, "all I need is Jesus".  Well Jesus didn't keep her from locking herself in her bedroom for days at a time.  And Jesus didn't keep her from the mental and physical abuse she forced on me from as early as I can remember.  And at the age of ten, it forced me to be "the mother" to my four younger sisters -- my dad was on a ship half way around the world in the middle of the ocean.   My mother's depression and mental illness robbed me of my childhood.  In fact, as a child, we once knew a family in which the mother suffered tremendously to the point of hospitalization.  My mother's response to that was "she's demon possessed".  Well, I think we all know that demon possession is a far cry from mental illness.  At least that woman was addressing her reality and doing something about it.  Unfortunately, there's a negative social, and even religious stigma attached to depression.  So where's the balance for a Christian who suffers from depression?  And what is the Church's responsibility?

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders facing Americans today and Christians are not immune by proxy.  In the world of mental health professionals depression is a medical "disorder" -- an "illness".   It's not uncommon for the depressed person to hear comments like "just snap out of it", but depression isn't something that people can just "snap out" of.  It's as much a physical condition as an emotional, mental one.   Research shows that one in four American women and one in 10 men suffer from depression.  The statistics on men reporting depression  are probably under estimated because men are less likely to seek treatment for it.  So how do we address depression in the Church?  It's not really that tricky.

We live in a fallen world.  And depression has a lot of root causes that can be hard to extract in therapy.  But it is often a byproduct of  physical illness.  Chronic pain and life-threatening diseases like cancer or diabetes can certainly lead to depression.  Sometimes depression is caused by the suffering from sins that have been committed against us.  We live in a fallen world full of it -- sin.  And yes, sometimes the natural consequence of depression arises from our own sin. Not a statement that Carl Rogers and other humanistic psycho theorists would believe in to be sure.  But there is a remedy.

We may not have caused our depression, but we have to learn to live with it.  And like any other affliction that torments the human condition depression is not any different.  As long as we live in these sometimes seemingly cumbersome temporal bodies there will be pain and suffering. I never like to say "it isn't fair" because saying that disarms us and paralyzes us with an inability to function plummeting us into a deeper depression.  And that can prevent us from seeking help.

I think it's important for us to remember that being a Christian does not automatically make one immune to the physical and mental illnesses that go along with having a temporal body living in a fallen world.  We need to be a little more empathetic, merciful, compassionate, and loving toward our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering from depression.