A dear friend wrote me this morning about coming to realize that she may be dealing with depression in her life.  She cycles between great spurts of super-achievement and then spurts of missing her deadlines and being unable to function.  She specifically asked me to write about her struggles that others might be helped.  Boy can I identify a little with her pattern

I shared with her a story from my own life that I'm going to share with you.  When I was pregnant with Jacqui 21 years ago, I experienced a chemical depression that was triggered by a hormonal imbalance.  For the last four months of my pregnancy I felt as though I lived in a deep mountain valley surrounded by high mountain peaks that blocked the sun for most of the day.  I felt like I was living in a shadow when the rest of the world was living in beautiful sunshine.  I was thrilled to be pregnant, all was well in my life and yet I was depressed.  It made no sense to me at all.

No amount of "straightening out my thinking" would work.  No amount of praying seemed to lift it.  I tried everything that I could think of or knew to be helpful, all to no avail.  The Lord did send a dear friend who was a Pastor to pray for me who didn't know what I was experiencing.  Without my telling him what was wrong, he spoke a word of comfort that let me know that God knew my need.  But still the darkness didn't lift.  I resigned myself to living in the shadow and when I gave birth to Jacqui, within three days it was over.  I felt like a new person.  It was as though a gentle breeze blew the clouds away and the sun began to shine again.  In retrospect I should have told my doctor about what I was experiencing rather than just "tough it out."  It's possible that they could have done something to ease my suffering.

What I learned in that episode is that depression is real.  When it is due to a chemical imbalance it is overpowering and colors all of your perceptions of life.  I want to encourage any of you that are experiencing a depression so deep or so regular that you feel powerless to overcome it to seek medical help.  There is no shame in the diabetic taking insulin to avoid going into a coma.  There's no shame in the heart patient taking nitroglycerin to prevent a heart attack and there should be no shame in the individual that needs help to restore a chemical balance that affects their mind and mood to seek help either.

Being depressed when you lose a parent, a job or life drastically changes is understandable.  We all face great periods of emotional trauma in life and depression often accompanies those losses.  But f your depression isn't tied to circumstances, and especially if there's nothing in your life that should warrant your being depressed, that is a very important clue that you may need medical help to overcome it.  Please understand that I am not an expert on this subject, and I can only share what I've learned though my own life experience, but I hope it will be helpful to you.

For the rest of us that struggle with occasional bouts of the blues, I want to share a few things that I've learned to apply over the years.  For the most part I am a very even-keeled emotional being.  I don't even get PMS very often.  But when I overwork (and those of you who know me know how prone to that I am) I can easily get "blue."  I tend to be a momentum creator.  I get on a roll.  I can turn out incredible volumes of work in short periods of time… but I've also learned that that kind of productivity comes at a great price.  The day I hear myself say "This is so much fun I could work like this forever!" is the day before the inevitable crash!!!!  Once I connected the dots of this behavior and told my family about it so that they could help me to recognize the warning signs, I've begun to experience it less often. 

Rest… relaxation… restoration… these are important to our body, soul and spirit.  When we overwork any of these parts of ourselves, we're more susceptible to episodes of emotional weariness. 

In the bible, there's a story that depicts this very clearly.  It's found in 1 Kings 18:16 through chapter 19.  Elijah was threatened by a very evil queen, Jezebel and stood up to her and her 400 prophets.  He saw God do mighty miracles , he defeated these prophets, brought rain after a severe drought and should have been riding a high, but instead he sank into fear, despondency and depression.  He ran away out into the desert, sat under a broom tree and said "I have had enough, Lord, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."  Another modern translation of this might read "Lord, I want to die, kill me.  Life has lost its meaning, I'm useless, I'm the only one that's still serving you and I'm just plain tired of living." Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. 

The wonderful part of this story is that God didn't lecture him, He didn't punish him, He didn't even tell him how disappointed he was in him.  Instead he sent an angel to feed him heavenly food and he let him sleep.  Twice, the angel gave him food and had him rest.  Once his body was restored, then the Lord set about to restore his spirit by revealing himself to Elijah.

God created us and He understands our human frame better than we do!  Depression can be triggered by anxiety, stress, and worry.  It can be triggered by poor eating, sleeping and physical care of ourselves.  Depression can be triggered by isolating and not sharing our burdens with friends or family.  All of these areas are things that the Lord instructs us on how to avoid in scripture.  He teaches us to cast all our burdens on Him because He cares for us.  He instructs us to care for our bodies because they are His temple.  He teaches us to gather together with other people to share our burdens and our joys by laughing with one another and crying with one another.  He also instructs us to confess our sins one to another that we might be healed.  It should come as no surprise to us that when we follow the "manufacturer's" advice on how to maintain optimum performance we function better!

Tomorrow I'll share some more life skills that can help us to live a richer, more joy-filled and less depressed life.  For those of you that are a little "blue" I'm praying for you and sending a hug your way.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts