Pastor, Say It Ain’t So – Dealing With Depression
Photo Credit: By Lloyd Morgan
The other day I was on Twitter and was bothered by what I saw. I follow a lot of pastors, as they typically provide words of wisdom and encouragement. One pastor really disappointed me though and I won’t reveal his name, as I don’t know him personally or why he feels the way he does. He went on a Twitter rant about depression and Christians.
This pastor commented in multiple tweets that “Christians should not take medication to help them combat depression because it was of the devil” and “depression was due to a lack of faith.” How can someone who is supposed to be a man of God tell people they are suffering from a mental disease because they don’t believe like he thinks they should? He might as well tell people who have cancer that they have it because of their lack of faith. Seriously?! It’s people like this who annoy me and make me understand why people don’t like Christians.
I am very close with two people who suffer from depression and medication has greatly helped them. Depression is caused by altered brain structure and chemical function. Neurotransmitters (chemicals in the brain) become unbalanced. You can’t will yourself out of depression. Depression is not a weakness either. The first step is being diagnosed and realizing that depression can be treatable – it’s not something they have done or not done and they are not a failure if they deal with it. About 121 million people around the world suffer from depression in some form.
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Scott Couey 