Depression

At the root of depression is selfishness. The focus is always on oneself. "Why isn't MY life better? Why can't things be better for ME?"

Jesus tell us to deny ourselves and take up our cross. Why? Because Jesus knew that the best thing for us is to not think about ourselves, but to forget about ourselves and sacrifice all that we have. The more we try to make ourselves happy by focusing on getting things for our self, the more we become UNHAPPY. The more we focus on making someone else happy, the more we ourselves become HAPPY.

The goal is really to never think about oneself, either for good or bad.

Rom. 12:3 says, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."

The reverse is also true, do not think of yourself more LOWLY than you ought to either. What did Jesus say? Love your neighbor as YOURSELF. This means you cannot love someone else until you love yourself as well. Amen? You have to love yourself SO THAT you can love others. But don't love yourself TOO much lol at the expense of not seeing others because you only see yourself.

We need to have a healthy self-confidence but not arrogance. We need to have a healthy humility but not think of ourselves as scum.   May God give us wisdom in this. :)

Balance is the key in everything. Find the mean. Find the middle ground. Then you will find what is best.

Do not over congratulate yourself for everything you do but don't overly berate yourself either for mistakes that you make. Realize that everyone makes mistakes so it's ok, but at the same time realize that you are not perfect by any means and you too make mistakes.

Depression comes from lies from Satan; when he causes us to think we are less than we are or that we are more than we are.

What depression also comes from is an overly high view of oneself. I know because I have struggled with this. It comes from thinking we can conquer the world and when we don't, what happens? We get depressed. We loose heart. We want to give up. We get angry at ourselves.  Depression really is anger at oneself. 

Depression is arrogance under the mask of self pity in reality. It is anger over our inability to be perfect. 

Critical people who are super critical of themselves are highly arrogant. Why? Because they expect SO much from themselves, as if they were a super human. They think they are capable of way more than they are. So they raise the bar, expect too much from themselves. They stay super busy and try to accomplish too much at once and then what happens? They burn out. They fall apart. They crash and burn. Thus, they get depressed.

Depression is also one's body telling them to SLOW DOWN.

This is why anxiety and depression often go hand in hand. The person is overly anxious and trying to please as many people as they can, like the magician spinning 10 plates at a time.  But no one has the energy to keep up this act forever. So they crash. They find one day that they can't get out of bed. They want to give up. They want to fold on life. And rightly so because they have been wearing themselves out trying to save the world and make everyone happy, as IF they themselves really could make everyone in the world happy. They believe the lie that if they do this, this and that everyone will be happy. That is a lie from Satan because that is impossible.

Did you know that no matter what you do 10% of the population will not like you? This is sad but freeing in a way because it helps you realize that you just need to give up trying to please everyone ....because it will NEVER work.

What this person needs is to realize they cannot save the world. The world will not blow up if they just chill for a day. They need to take a Sabbath and commune with God. They need to rest in God's love for them and really REALIZE that God loves them no matter what they do. They don't have to conquer the world for God to love them.

On the other hand the best cure for depression is to go out and help somebody else, not everybody, but somebody.   Do this within reason. Just focus on helping one person at a time so you will not overwhelm yourself again. :)

Do something for someone else.   Writing this blog helps me with that because I like to think these blogs are helping people. I hope God is using them to help people anyways.

The moment you feel the most like doing nothing is when you MOST need to do something, not everything, just something.

Another great cure is to join a small group at church. :) Make some friends. Get support so you don't feel so alone and isolated.

I used to have a pamphlet in my desk of 101 Ways to De-stress Your Life. I will share some of my favorites:

Take a bubble bath

Call a friend

Play with a pet or someone else's pet :)

Watch children play on a playground

Get a massage

Watch a funny movie

Go fly a kite

Go for a walk

Give a homeless person a burger

Write in a journal

Listen to inspiring music or worship music....

I hope you can find GOOD things to bring you up when you are down.  

Because if you don't, what happens? 

That is when people run to alcohol, prescription drugs, substance abuse, or other destructive behaviors. 

Be careful with how you handle your stress, anger and depression. 

Jesus came that we may have life. 

So go do things that bring you LIFE! Amen? Amen. :)  Grace and peace be with you! :)