Are Bible Verses Useful for Depression?

intro

from faithforwards*

"Any suggestion for a way to “feel better” feels like salt in a wound; we know for a fact that nothing will work."

S. Th. I-II Question 38. The remedies of sorrow or pain
http://newadvent.org/summa/2038.htm

Technically, depression is perhaps rather the passion of despair, but it is coupled with pain and sorrow.

"That’s where the verses can get dangerous, in the following three ways."

Let's see.

1) "Bible verses keep us from seeking treatment."

"When we believe that depression can be overcome by thought changes, we ignore the fact that clinical depression is a medical issue, an imbalance in brain chemistry. People generally don’t offer someone with a broken leg some Bible verses to heal it; they help that person seek medical attention, and perhaps provide some verses to help the patient’s mood throughout recovery. Depression should not be treated any differently than another physical ailment. It’s not just “being sad”, and it’s not a choice."

Believe it or not, if someone has a broken leg, reading Bible verses to him may be a very good treatment. PROVIDED this helps him to keep the leg still during the time the leg needs to recover, since otherwise he probably needs plaster.

If you can't get a doctor, if you need to keep someone's leg still for two weeks, if it means he has only the boy scout first aid around the leg, well, read him the Bible and some more books for the two weeks he has the leg in bed.

He'll still need sth like the boy scout first aid in order to keep the broken spot from dislocating while he gets to the toilet, unless you also help him lift his butt without moving the leg, but that might be a bit over the top for you. And yes, I mean like put a chamber pot under his butt, wipe it and pull his trousers up, while he is holding his body up with both arms against the bed (he might better do some stuff, right, as long as it doesn't mean moving the leg around, or even that, if you make that boy scouts' first aid bandage with a piece of wood, and change it, so the leg can breathe too).

There are lots of imbalances in the brain chemistry we deal with without going to the doctor, like going to bed if we are drunk or like drinking coffee if we are very tired and can't go to bed or have to get up from it.

The treatment should normally be there to help the organism's self recovery - not to substitute for its functions.

Going on antidepressants may be as bad as ... systematically keeping awake on coffee instead of getting the needed sleep.

There are reports antidepressants have triggered violence and even suicides.

Ask CCHR about it.**
http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/education/anti-depressants-booklet.pdf

[Considering the kind of fines CCHR may face if the claims are fraudulent, I don't think they are. Note, I am NOT recommending Dianetics. That is another matter.]

So, the natural way of dealing with it would be kind of parallel to keeping the leg still while it is healing.

Note, loneliness, unless when it is undesired, is not always a depressant, which means actively looking for some loneliness in which to concentrate on sth else than you (as much as possible) is not bad.

This means, take days off, if you like. While you miss out on some company, there are things which can worsen the depression which you can avoid.

2) "Bible verses make us feel worse about ourselves."

"If the message we get from the Bible is to simply tough out our feelings or have more faith, we believe that depression is just a tough time to overcome. A little more hard work or a little more surrender to God will get us through; therefore, reason points out, if we’re still struggling we must not be faithful enough or hard-working enough. In the depression thought cycle, we already feel worthless or stupid. Adding faithless or lazy to our descriptors further damages our self-esteem."

T h i s doesn't come from Bible verses, but from believing a "tough time" is either punishment or just a beginners' ailment in the Christian life.

In this earthly life, we can expect tough times right up to the end.

Not getting that is having a heretical view of Christianity and of the Christian life. I heard someone speak of "prosperity gospel", even before I converted to Catholic.

3) "Bible verses make us more suicidal."

"Some of these verses encourage neurotypical people by promising that suffering is rewarded in the afterlife. They focus on the vision of heaven: celebration, peace, new bodies, golden streets, and most importantly, no pain. If a person with depression is having even mild suicidal ideation or fleeting thoughts of death, heaven sounds awfully tempting. Why would we continue our anguish here on Earth when we can be pain-free with God? The amount of suffering we’ve done, it seems (and in this state, remember, the suffering seems to have occurred every day of our lives), promises a pretty good pile of rewards stacked up in heaven. Once that imbalanced person realizes that suicide is in fact not an unpardonable sin (because God forgives everything, Romans 3:23), the pathway opens further."

You know, C. S. Lewis' description of Hell saved me from suicide during a short but severe moment of what could be viewed as teen depression - back then.

Romans 3:23 does not at all mean all you do from now on will be forgiven, it means all start out as sinners. Some Protestants, or perhaps all, say "we are all sinners" - no, we have all been sinners. Mind the tense! After forgiveness, we are no longer sinners, until we sin again, hence avoid becoming a sinner again - especially the sin which, if successful will not allow you time to repent.

This is different from small sins which in this life cannot be avoided. Those do not make you a sinner again. Suicide is not a small sin, it is, along with abortion, one of the worst types of murder.

And also a sin which if only an unsuccessful attempt will leave you with physical scars, as likely as not, which will make your situation even more hopeless.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Sts Julian and Basilissa
Martyrs, Virgins and husband and wife
and companions
9.I.2018

* faithforward : How The Bible Can Be Damaging to People with Depression
January 5, 2018 by Guest Contributor
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2018/01/bible-can-damaging-people-depression/

** I'll give you a quote at the end of the piece:

“Given the nature and potentially devastating impact of psychotropic medications...we now similarly hold that the right to refuse to take psychotropic drugs is fundamental.”
Alaska Supreme Court, 2006