How to Handle Your Emotions (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (13 page)

The same is true for the human heart. When “pressed down” due to normal pressure from normal situations (
situational depression
), your heart is designed by God to rebound once the pressure is removed. However, if you live under the weight of heavy pressure for long periods of time, your heart can enter into a state of depression. Realize that Jesus cares about your heart and knows that you are especially vulnerable when you are heavyhearted. That is why He gives this word of caution:

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap”

(L
UKE
21:34).

•
Depression
literally means a condition of being pressed down to a lower position (as in a footprint).
¹

•
Depression
can refer to a state of decline and reduced activity (as in an “economic depression”).
²

•
Depression
can describe an emotional heaviness that weighs down the heart. The apostle Paul used the Greek word
bareo,
which means “pressed or weighed down,” to describe the immense emotional pressure and severe hardships that he and Timothy suffered at the hands of those who opposed Christ.
³

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death”

(2 C
ORINTHIANS
1:8-9).

Depression is considered a
mood disorder
because it has a disturbance in mood as the predominant feature.
⁴
In ancient writings, the earliest reference to what is meant by our word
depression
was the word
melancholia
(literally “black bile”). The assumption was that the melancholy person had an excess of black bile, which resulted in depression. In the second century
A.D.
, the physician Aretaeus referred to his melancholy patients as “sad, dismayed, sleepless…They become thin by their agitation and loss of refreshing sleep…At a more advanced state, they complain of a thousand futilities and desire death.”
⁵

Even today
melancholia
is defined as “a mental condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and often hallucinations and delusions.”
⁶
This could be said of those who suffer during this dark night of the soul:

“For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness”

(J
OB
24:17).

•
Depression is the psychological term
that pertains to the mental, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of a depressed person. (
Psychology
is the study of the mind as it relates to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, focusing on
why
people think, feel, and act as they do.)
⁷
For example, those engulfed in the dark waves of depression feel desperately alone and often blame God for their plight.

“You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend”

(P
SALM
88:18).

•
Depression is a psychological state
that exists when the heart is pressed down and unable to experience joy. Those suffering with depression feel trapped underneath a dark, pervasive canopy of sadness, grief, guilt, and hopelessness.

“Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night”

(J
OB
5:14).

•
Depression is a psychological condition
that impacts the whole person: body (the physical), soul (the mind, will, and emotions), and spirit (the source of our deepest inner needs for love, significance, and security…and the need for God Himself). Many who are depressed feel as though this verse describes them:

“All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger”

(E
CCLESIASTES
5:17).

•
Depression is an umbrella term
that covers feelings ranging from mild discouragement to intense despair.
⁸
No matter what the degree of darkness, the Lord wants us to rely on Him to provide light.

“You, O L
ORD
, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light”

(P
SALM
18:28).

The following four categories show an escalating intensity of depression. In general, depression could be divided into two categories:
situational
and
chemical.

•
Situational depression
exists when a painful situation presses the heart down for a period of time.

•
Chemical depression
can occur when the body chemistry does not function properly. A person can have either type of depression or both types at the same time. During the heavyhearted times when hope seems elusive, emotions feel flat and the heart feels sick. Solomon, the wise author of the book of Proverbs, explains that

“hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”

(P
ROVERBS
13:12).

(The four types of depression described below are not listed in this order
in a diagnostic manual. The order given here is intended to show the increasingly negative impact of the different degrees of depression.)

1.
Normal Depression

•
Is sometimes called situational depression or reactive depression

•
Is an involuntary sadness based on a reaction to painful life situations

—Normal problems
of life press down the heart for a short period of time (for example, rejection, failure, illness)

—Transitional stages
of life often press down the heart (for example, adolescence, empty nest, midlife crises, major moves, menopause, retirement)
⁹

When severe troubles fell upon God’s servant Job (the death of all his children, the destruction of all his possessions), one of Job’s friends made this observation:

“Now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed”

(J
OB
4:5).

2.
Masked Depression

•
Is hidden depression (for example, repressed memories of physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse)

•
Is a state of enduring sadness based on unresolved, buried conflict

—Painful feelings are denied or covered up; therefore, recovery takes longer because of failure to work through the pain

—Relief from emotional pain is unconsciously found in excessive busyness, activities, addictions, or other alternatives

The Bible describes how hidden hurts still result in heartache:

“Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief”

(P
ROVERBS
14:13).

3.
Neurotic Depression
¹⁰

•
Is a minor mental and emotional
depressive disorder
classified as Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood, meaning that the depression results from failure to adjust to a distressing situation

—A person with neurosis has a disorder, meaning that normal activities of daily living are impaired

—A person with any depressive disorder has “clinical depression” and needs diagnosis and treatment based on direct, ongoing observation

•
Is a prolonged state of sadness lasting longer than the normal time frame expected for emotional recovery—based on “stressors” (for example, loss of a loved one, a financial or work crisis, retirement, or a biochemical condition)

—Symptoms interfere with normal work and social functioning

—The cause can usually be traced to an identifiable, precipitating event

The psalms reflect the pain of prolonged sorrow:

“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

(P
SALM
13:2).

4.
Psychotic Depression

•
Is the most severe type of depression under the classification Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
¹¹

•
Is based on dissociation or a loss of contact with reality
¹²

—A psychosis is an extreme state of depression

—A psychosis is usually accompanied by hallucinations and/or delusions, making those who are psychotic a potential danger to themselves or others

Those afflicted with a psychotic depression can identify with the terror, despair, and skewed perspective described in this Psalm:

“My days vanish like smoke…My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food… I
lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof…I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears…I wither away like grass”

(P
SALM
102:3-4,7,9,11).

Every year, new maladies, as well as new medicines, come on the scene. So, how “new” is depression? As far back as the fourth century
B.C.
, the famous physician Hippocrates gave the first clinical description of melancholia, including the erratic mood swings of what is called
bipolar disorder
today. Yet over 500 years earlier, the psalmist, King David, gave this vivid description of his emotions during one of the most severe storms in his life:

“My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught… My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, ‘Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest—I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm’”

(P
SALM
55:2,4-8).

The three divisions of mood disorders are:
¹³