The Nature of Depression

Millions of people in the world suffer from depression and from different types of depression. Depression is often thought to be something as simple as sadness, gloom, or sorrow. The thing is, though, depression is not as simple as sadness, gloom, or sorrow. Depression is something that stays with a person and affects their life. Sorrow can and does, in time, fade away, but depression, even when the edge has been taken off through counseling or possible medication, lingers; it just does not control your every day life as much as it did before you got help.

Depression is a mental illness, first off. It is not something that can be taken care of through prayer alone, if you are a praying person. Prayer CAN help, however, by simply easing the burden but you still need to seek help. Not because God has abandoned you but because, perhaps, God did put counselors and medicine in place to help you.

Depression can often result from traumatic childhood events, a death, a break up, divorce, a splitting of families, job loss, age, sickness, or other mental illness. This is why sorrow and gloom do go hand in hand with depression but while depression is not the exact same; depression can result from sorrow. And depression, or any pain, is not trivial and should be met with compassion not annoyance or anger.

Depression is something that comes from a deep place within us, when we have been strong for far too long, when we have felt too much pain, and have finally reached our breaking point. Depression is something that can be physical and even spiritual as well as mental and emotional. To overcome it, a strong support system is needed and so is a lot of love and patience. Also, an effort to discover the triggers should be made as well as an avoidance of the triggers until the person who has the depression brings them up.

Depression is not something that results from a lack of faith, strength, love, honor, or makes you less of a person. DO NOT EVER BELIEVE THAT. Depression is an insidious illness and it is one that must be met with kindness and help for the person that does have it.

If you suffer from depression, regardless of what the voice of depression tells you, you are not alone. You have value and you are priceless and irreplaceable. There is only ONE of YOU. Don’t give up.