What Is Depression? - Part 1
Depression is defined as a mental health disorder that
involves your thoughts, your behavior, your feeling, and your sense of
well-being. People who are depressed
feel consistently sad, anxious, and empty.
They can also feel hopeless, worthless, guilty, irritable, ashamed, sad,
lonely, withdrawn, restless, and have suicidal thoughts. They lose interest in activities that were
once pleasurable to them and they may overeat or experience a loss of
appetite. They may have problems with
fatigue, sleeping, concentrating, and making decisions. Withdrawal, isolation, experiencing
hopelessness and despair are some of the worst results of depression.
Biologically, depression is defined as a chemical imbalance
in the body. There is nothing organically wrong with the brain, but there is a
disruption in the normal function of the brain’s neurotransmitters, so that
they fail to secrete the correct balance of three chemicals: serotonin,
dopamine, and norepinephrine. The
homeostasis, or balance, of the brain chemicals is affected. Over a period of time, mental illness and
disorders are the result.
Science does not recognize just one cause of depression; it
says that depression is a result of a combination of factors. One factor may be heredity; a part of our
family tree can make your more susceptible to the riggers that interfere with
your brain’s chemical balance. Other
factors are environmental issues, psychological elements, or a side effect of
certain medications. However, one thing
science does not acknowledge is the influence of evil spirits, which are
the root cause of mental illness according to Proverbs 12:25.
Spiritual Roots of Depression
Science is all about the psyche (soul). But you many not really need more counseling for
your soul. Instead, you may need to get
rid of an evil spirit that is influencing your thoughts. You must decide not to be influenced by this
spirit anymore. The evil spirit may need
to be cast out and evil thoughts cast down in the name of Jesus so that they
can no longer torment you. Let me
explain what evil spirt I am talking about.
It is in God’s Word in Proverbs, Anxiety in the heart of man causes
depression, but a good word makes it glad. Proverbs 12:25 NKJV. Anxiety is
fear and fear is described as a spirit in 2 Timothy, For God has not given
us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind 2
Timothy 1:7.
In addition to fear, Henry Wright found that there are
several spiritual roots behind depression.
Self-accusations, self-introspection, self-hatred, and self-centeredness
are the enemies of someone struggling with depression. These spirts are coupled
with shame, guilt, and self-condemnation.
Self-pity is the glue that holds it all together. If you struggle with self-pity, then you are
struggling with your faith. Self-pity frequently
reflects the failure of something in the past that you are constantly reliving
and bringing into the present. Serotonin
can be depleted in individuals who do not feel loved and accepted. Feeling unloved and fear of not being loved is
a huge factor in depression.
In such situations, because of the spirit-soul connection,
the hypothalamus and other parts of the limbic system are then affected. Those glands responsible for regulating mood,
thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior.
Important chemicals the brain needs to function correctly are thrown out
of balance. All the enemy must do is
manipulate your biochemistry to create this havoc. He does it, once again, through the influence
of thought. His kingdom of darkness gives you a thought, convinces you that
this thought come from you, and then pressures you to agree. These are all lies from the evil one. In the case of depression, you brain will then
conform to those thoughts. A person
becomes one with the thoughts producing depression.
The problems with psychiatry is that it is the practice of
medicine apart from an understanding of how God has created us. Practitioners treat their patients as though
they had only a soul and a body. They do
not acknowledge or understand that we are also a spirit being because they cannot
see the spiritual realm. They do not
understand that a spiritual influence is the root cause behind 80 percent of
diseases and disorders of the mind and body.
Their efforts are hindered because they only treat the physical symptoms
and do not consider the possible root cause of the sickness and disease.
How do we minister to a person who has depression? We pray out the fears causing the
depression. This can include fear of not
being loved, fear of not being worthy, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment,
fear of confrontation, fear of failure, fear of the future, and many more. Most people have many of these fears and many
additional fears.
Understand, that this is a process. We can pray away many fears, but the person
will bring fear back into their soul.
The key to healing is to identify these fears that are brought back in
and pray them out until these fears are minimized to a point of not affecting
us anymore. This could be total healing
as well.
There is a wonderful scripture that promises eradication of
fear that causes depression. It is found
in 1 John: there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in
love. We love Him because He first loved us, 1 John 4:18-19. We must embrace this scripture and use
love to be healed from depression. We
must love ourselves as God loves us.
What does it mean to those who are standing in the gap for
those with depression? We are to love on
them over and over without no condemnation.
Conclusion
Why do we continue to seek mankind instead of God? Doctors, science, and mankind do not have
healing solutions for depression. We
have a choice in what and who we believe.
Believe in mankind or believe and act on the promises of healing God
provides in His Word. Amen and
Amen. Tony Sanchez 9-30-23
