Can you overcome depression using the Bible?

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marks

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Some has responded with positive affirmation of God's healing powers.
The reading of the Bible has it own power...of course that comes from God.
If we can be there for somebody of course we should be happy to do that.
Yes, I think I need to change my answer. Sometimes I'm too quick on the trigger!

Reading the Bible, meditating on it, DOES work to rewrite our minds according to the new creation. If we are born again, then yes, the Bible delivers God's power into our lives.

Much love!
 

Grailhunter

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Sometimes I'm too quick on the trigger!

Welcome to the proud crowd.

Reading the Bible, meditating on it, DOES work to rewrite our minds according to the new creation. If we are born again, then yes, the Bible delivers God's power into our lives.

The power of God's word...I am a firm believer in....But you have to be a believer in it.
Then again, LOL I think sometimes you need God's help to pick the right doctor LOL
 

Enoch111

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I personally find advising someone with a mental illness who is taking medication for it to stop their medication to be ignorant and irresponsible.
Since you do not know who is on medication, what kind of medication, or anything else about other posters, there is no need to bring that up.
This thread is what the Bible has to say about depression. And I showed you what the Bible has to say. So it is your comment that is ignorant and irresponsible.
 

Enoch111

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It's about mal-formed parts of the brain, which alter the chemical balance, processing ability, memory storage and retrieval, which parts do which tasks, how the two hemispheres "talk" to each other.
That is not even the clinical definition of depression. Here is what Mayo Clinic has to say:

"Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel as if life isn't worth living. More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn't a weakness and you can't simply "snap out" of it. Depression may require long-term treatment. But don't get discouraged. Most people with depression feel better with medication, psychotherapy or both."

As you can see there is no reference to God or the Bible.
 

marks

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Depression occurs when we focus solely on ourselves and our problems
That's not in the Bible, and that does not describe depression, unless you are talking about the transient sadness everyone feels from time to time.

If this is the 'depression' you are talking about, that's apples and oranges.

Much love!
 
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marks

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That is not even the clinical definition of depression. Here is what Mayo Clinic has to say:

"Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel as if life isn't worth living."

More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn't a weakness and you can't simply "snap out" of it. Depression may require long-term treatment. But don't get discouraged. Most people with depression feel better with medication, psychotherapy or both.
Do some more research.

You've got a lot to learn about this.

You've got some terms and descriptions. There is a lot more to it.

The 4 Ways Depression Can Physically Affect Your Brain

Adverse childhood experience patterns, major depressive disorder, and substance use disorder in older adults - PubMed

The Role of Adverse Childhood Experience on Depression Symptom, Prevalence, and Severity among School Going Adolescents

When an individual is exposed to a stressful situation, the fight, flight, or freeze response floods the brain with corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH). This response is normal and protective in stressful situations [2]. However, if a child is continually exposed to ACEs, the brain also continually produces CRH, and this process results in the child being in a permanently heightened state of alertness, unable to return to the recovered state. Therefore, the child or adolescent is always at an increased level of stress [8, 9]. In this heightened neurological state, the adolescent is unable to think rationally and it is physiologically hard or impossible to learn.

Most recent kinds of literatures also showed that stress is most often associated with aversive states, which induces the release of hormones and neuropeptides including dynorphin, which activates kappa opioid receptors (KORs) in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Prolonged KOR signaling in response to chronic or uncontrollable stress intern can lead to the persistent expression of behavioral signs that are characteristic of human depressive disorders [10–12].


You're a smart guy, don't be concerned over the terminology, you'll pick it up as you go along.

Maybe this is an easier "starter":

What Is the Chemistry Behind Depression?

Happy hunting!
 

April_Rose

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I didn't read through this thread but this is my method of overcoming depression. :D




 
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Mark Balicki

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What does the Bible say about the subject of overcoming depression?


What are your thoughts? I know Elijah suffered depression, so it is pretty clear that followers can be in pain. How we overcome that suffering is what I am seeking in this discussion.


How has Jesus helped you overcome your weaknesses?


Praise God and all glory to Him.


I have come to believe depression many times if not all the time is us pushing against God's will for His creation or His will for your life. In other words the way God has made things to work we are going against it through our thinking and(or) actions (and usually partaking in sin to do it). The way God made things to work is not going to change. So if you are pressing into something not right with the amount of force you apply it is pressing back against you. God does not change. God can not be moved from what is right. Thank God if you are still searching for the answer to this it tells me God has not forsaken you and allowed to go on to your destruction.

Going against God's will for our life can cause anxiety, mental disorders, even chemicals changes within your body and physical debilitating symptoms. Like a person who is sinning eating sugar/abusing his or her body all the time eventually it will affect the body in debilitating ways and bring on diabetes. And seeking to self medicate with some other lust or not right pursuit does not make it subside but increases the stress on you. What a miserable way to live.

We are seeing an ever increasing amount of people suffering from this today, because people are trying to push through the very fabric of what God created in order to have their own will prevail. It may appear you have everything from the outside but you will suffer tremendously on the inside. Soon we will see the outcome in growing violence against God creation, his people and what is right, because it is the only feeling that makes those suffering feel something. God will not be moved and we will suffer and eventually suffer desolation and His wrath one day.

If you want to escape depression you must realize you may not be able to change your circumstances but you can ask Jesus to save you, help you, and repent. God can change your outlook. Plus the nagging voices of demons that accompany depression coming to you morning, noon and night is so tormenting. Being in that state opens your life up to demons plaguing you, even despairing of life itself, because you have given right to them be their because of your sin and rebellion. I know this is not the way most want us to look at this
May you find peace in God.
 
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Robert Gwin

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What does the Bible say about the subject of overcoming depression?


What are your thoughts? I know Elijah suffered depression, so it is pretty clear that followers can be in pain. How we overcome that suffering is what I am seeking in this discussion.


How has Jesus helped you overcome your weaknesses?


Praise God and all glory to Him.



That is a tough one to answer Chris, personally I think the Bible is very comforting, but depression is part of being human. Some people have an extremely difficult time coping with it. I believe all of us are depressed to a degree at times, but it drives some to lose the desire to live.

The Bible gives us a real hope for the future sir, and to me there is nothing that battles depression more that having that hope. True friends help immensely, but sadly most severely depressed people will not let others encourage them. It is truly a disease in their aspect, and most likely if anyone can help it would be the medical profession. They do administer drugs for that, and they seem to be effective. When God's Kingdom comes, depression will long be a thing of the past, but it is truly a problem now. For some, that is their "thorn in the flesh". 2 Cor 12:7