I think it can be different for everyone. For me it's something that suffocates you. It gets between you and God and tries to keep you apart. You need the love and support from the people that love you to break through and help you feel God's arms back around you. It's definitely not a place that you want to be. But you have to struggle to get through. And only through God can you get through.
"a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason" That's the easy way out, quoting dictionarys. I think that part of depression is not trusting God and/or coming to him with our troubles. I agree with anonymous. I'm just not as eloquent. Or mysterious, for that matter.
Okay Anonymous. Sherlock, you definitely took the words right out of my mouth! I was going to do the same thing! but yeah, that's what depression means. sad things happening, such as being seperated with God.
–noun 1. the act of depressing. 2. the state of being depressed. 3. a depressed or sunken place or part; an area lower than the surrounding surface. 4. sadness; gloom; dejection. 5. dullness or inactivity, as of trade.
Imagine a straight horizontal line through the center of a blank piece of paper. The line is neurtral emotion (neither good or bad, positive or negative).
Above the line is positive (good) emotion.
Below the line is negative (bad) emotion (though not all negative emotions is bad. Grief is not bad, but it's still "negative")
Plotting your own emotions with a pencil, where do your normal flow of emotions run?
With me, it's a fairly regular line just above neutral with spikes way up into positive and brief spikes all the way to despair (very brief, less than a minute). I'll trend higher for long stretches, but it isn't sustainable. My usual is just above neutral.
I suspect this is chemical reality in my brain. It can be manipulated by what I eat and probably through exercise (though I wouldn't really know, now would I?), making my brain produce more endorphins.
Now, the question: What impact should this have on what I do?
I tend to believe it is almost all chemical, but like a true Calvinist, that doesn't get us off the hook.
The very fact that we can acknowledge that it's chemical dismisses the "pre-destined" aspect. While overcoming it - choosing to do what we don't feel like doing - is difficult, we do not have to be guided by emotion (or chemically derived emotion). Still, CHOOSING to act on something we don't inherently, emotionally buy is a long-haul kind of thing.
I knew a schitzophrenic who unlocked the key to knowing what was real and what was a figment (his figments had a symbol attached, a clock or ticking or something rhythmic, I don't recall which). While his visions seemed vividly real, he intellectually knew they weren't and acted on that known but not felt truth. I can't imagine how exhausting that is.
Some might indicate faith is the same thing; acting on what you believe to be true rather than what you feel to be true. Is it?
It is definitely related to chemicals any women over 30 could tell u that. None the less I am still always accountable to God for how I choose to react to the thoughts and emotions coursing though me at any given time. Knowing there are 3 days out of each month where I think it's better to lock myself in a cage than to verbally assault a family member, (never excusing the sin, should it arise), the positive is that I know those days will be spent seeking God's mercy and grace for strength enough to come out on the other side of the fog without a wake of destruction behind me. And then being able to see that even in THIS my God is amazing and faithful :) Isn't He great!
You could be describing me except I don't always seek God to help me, I seem to give in to the helplessness. (Rob, that wasn't me that wrote that last one.)
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I think it can be different for everyone. For me it's something that suffocates you. It gets between you and God and tries to keep you apart. You need the love and support from the people that love you to break through and help you feel God's arms back around you. It's definitely not a place that you want to be. But you have to struggle to get through. And only through God can you get through.
"a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason"
That's the easy way out, quoting dictionarys. I think that part of depression is not trusting God and/or coming to him with our troubles. I agree with anonymous. I'm just not as eloquent. Or mysterious, for that matter.
Does chemistry play a part? Big part, little part, no part? Or is it the whole enchilada?
Hormones do!
Okay Anonymous. Sherlock, you definitely took the words right out of my mouth! I was going to do the same thing! but yeah, that's what depression means. sad things happening, such as being seperated with God.
–noun
1. the act of depressing.
2. the state of being depressed.
3. a depressed or sunken place or part; an area lower than the surrounding surface.
4. sadness; gloom; dejection.
5. dullness or inactivity, as of trade.
Wierd.
Hmmm,
Imagine a straight horizontal line through the center of a blank piece of paper. The line is neurtral emotion (neither good or bad, positive or negative).
Above the line is positive (good) emotion.
Below the line is negative (bad) emotion (though not all negative emotions is bad. Grief is not bad, but it's still "negative")
Plotting your own emotions with a pencil, where do your normal flow of emotions run?
With me, it's a fairly regular line just above neutral with spikes way up into positive and brief spikes all the way to despair (very brief, less than a minute). I'll trend higher for long stretches, but it isn't sustainable. My usual is just above neutral.
I suspect this is chemical reality in my brain. It can be manipulated by what I eat and probably through exercise (though I wouldn't really know, now would I?), making my brain produce more endorphins.
Now, the question: What impact should this have on what I do?
just an inch below the line, nice and steady....
Pessimists are never dissapointed.
Sometimes I'm above and sometimes i'm low. I'm basically everywhere!!! rofl.
Well, Ray is developing drugs for depression, so there must be something chemical about it, I suppose. -Tracy
I tend to believe it is almost all chemical, but like a true Calvinist, that doesn't get us off the hook.
The very fact that we can acknowledge that it's chemical dismisses the "pre-destined" aspect. While overcoming it - choosing to do what we don't feel like doing - is difficult, we do not have to be guided by emotion (or chemically derived emotion). Still, CHOOSING to act on something we don't inherently, emotionally buy is a long-haul kind of thing.
I knew a schitzophrenic who unlocked the key to knowing what was real and what was a figment (his figments had a symbol attached, a clock or ticking or something rhythmic, I don't recall which). While his visions seemed vividly real, he intellectually knew they weren't and acted on that known but not felt truth. I can't imagine how exhausting that is.
Some might indicate faith is the same thing; acting on what you believe to be true rather than what you feel to be true. Is it?
It is definitely related to chemicals any women over 30 could tell u that. None the less I am still always accountable to God for how I choose to react to the thoughts and emotions coursing though me at any given time. Knowing there are 3 days out of each month where I think it's better to lock myself in a cage than to verbally assault a family member, (never excusing the sin, should it arise), the positive is that I know those days will be spent seeking God's mercy and grace for strength enough to come out on the other side of the fog without a wake of destruction behind me. And then being able to see that even in THIS my God is amazing and faithful :) Isn't He great!
You could be describing me except I don't always seek God to help me, I seem to give in to the helplessness. (Rob, that wasn't me that wrote that last one.)
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