HELP! SOMEONE I LOVE HAS DEPRESSION
By Jim Winter
Day One. 64 pages. £2.50
ISBN 978 1 846 254 604
The author of this excellent little booklet was once a jewellery repairer and likens helping a depressed person to teasing out knots in a fine silver chain using two pins and much patience. It’s an apt analogy at the start of this concise, practical and scriptural aid for both the depressed and those caring for them.
The first chapter on understanding depression, considers what distinguishes a depressed mood from a disease state and explores briefly five key indicators of a depressive illness – emptiness, energy loss, self-pity, giving up and negative colouration of life, and then four common causes of depression – guilt, fear, circumstances of loss and, importantly but often forgotten, various physical diseases. Three categories of possible help are then described as spiritual ministry, psychological treatments especially cognitive behavioural therapy, and medication in the form of antidepressants.
Spiritual considerations
Various Christian considerations of spiritual elements of depression comprise the next two chapters. Demonic influences, the effects of depression on assurance of salvation, depression as suffering, weariness, conviction of sin and challenging thought patterns are each briefly discussed from a scriptural perspective before the author tackles the possible positives of depression – ‘the Lord’s choicest wines in the cellar of affliction’. As someone who has had severe depression myself and counselled many others enduring it, I found this section particularly insightful. Jim explains how depression can give us a renewed understanding of God’s sovereignty, changes our priorities, humbles and sanctifies us and gives us a sensitivity to mental suffering in others.
The final chapter is full of helpful practical tips to help both the depressed and their carers to tease out the knots of depression’s chains. I am passing my copy on to a carer I am currently praying for. It deserves to be widely circulated.
