LIVING WITH FAITH AND DEPRESSION
Brennan Manning, in The Furious Longing of God.
“The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment.
Small wonder that the late spiritual giant, Basil Hume of London England, claimed that Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.”
The Wall Street Journal writes today on how computer-assisted language analysis can recognize speech patterns that might hint at whether someone is more or less likely to be depressed.
The most interesting finding: Based on a study in January, people who speak in absolutes are more likely to be depressed.
The WSJ:
The researchers, from the University of Reading in the U.K., used software to calculate the percentage of absolutist words used in messages by approximately 6,400 members of internet forums for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and a host of control forums.
They found that approximately 1.5% of words used by people in the depression and anxiety forums were absolutist—which was 50% more than those used by people in the control forums. The percentage was even higher for people in the suicidal ideation forums: about 1.8%.
Why are absolutist words so bad? People often don’t realize they are using them, and they can amp up negative thoughts.”
Does this mean Donald Trump is really depressed?
Of course, context is huge, and internet forums seem like a good place to study (as opposed to talking with marketers or sales people).
This sort of study has the ring of truth, but it would also be interesting to see whether the absolutes are more related to a variable like verbosity than view of the world.
In other words, depressed people might have to use more absolutes to get their point across, because they’re simply less interested in communicating, and absolutism cuts down on density. So the terseness of depression drives the absolutism. It’s not that depressives necessarily think in more absolutes. They just talk in them because they don’t like talking as much. So the results of the study would stay the same, but the driver could be a depressive desire for brevity, rather than an absolutist view of the world.
But like I said, the absolutism, from anecdotal evidence, as well, does have the ring of truth, and as the article suggests, reframing things from a less absolutist framework is CLEARLY the BEST IDEA IN THE WORLD.
A new study finds that practicing yoga can lead to statistically significant improvements in PTSD symptoms, which adds to a growing body of research supporting the idea that it can help with the disorder.
“Yoga directly affects a region of the brain called the amygdala, triggering a balance by acting on the parasympathetic branch of the brain. The parasympathetic branch is the one responsible for calming the body, creating the opposite of the flight-or-flight response triggered during a condition like PTSD.
….It is believed that the impact of yoga on people with PTSD is both biological and psychological. It triggers calmness through the practice of relaxation, meditation, and breathing interventions involved in the practice of yoga.
The mindfulness involved in practicing yoga allows individuals to pay attention to and acknowledge unpleasant emotions and memories from a non-judgmental safe stance. This provides psychological betterment for those battling PTSD.”
Btw, last year, researchers found that yoga also seems to provide significant benefits for those suffering from depression, reducing self-reported depressive symptoms by at least 50%.
The lead researcher, Dr. Streeter of the Boston University School of Medicine, says that yoga and deep breathing targets the autonomic nervous system, while antidepressants don’t.
“If your autonomic nervous system is balanced out, then the rest of the brain works better,” she says.
Photo: Pexels.
If ever there were a weary Christian, it was the late Rich Mullins (read his story here).
At one of his concerts, not too long before his death:
“I remember reading a thing that Picasso once said…. “Good taste is the enemy of great art’, which I think is very true. Good taste has all to do with being cultured and being refined and if art has to do with anything, it has to do with being human.
… People used to go around and say to me ‘Cheer up, God loves you,’ and I used to say ‘Big deal, God loves everybody. That don’t mean I’m special. It just proves that God don’t got no taste.’
And I don’t think he does. Thank God…. if he was cultured, if he was as civilized as most Christian people wish he was, he’d be useless to Christianity.”
Current antidepressants don’t seem to do much good for about 30% of patients with major depressive disorder.
But there are encouraging, new clinical trials from Phase 3, suggesting that an Esketamine Nasal Spray, in combination with an oral antidepressant, might offer these patients some hope.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals announced results from 2 phase 3 clinical studies of the investigational compound esketamine nasal spray in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD.)
The studies, presented at the 2018 American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting, concluded that flexibly dosed esketamine nasal spray plus a newly initiated oral antidepressant, demonstrated a statistically significant rapid reduction of depressive symptoms compared to placebo nasal spray and a newly initiated oral antidepressant.
The study defined treatment-resistant patients as those who hadn’t responded to 2 or more currently available antidepressants of adequate dose and duration in the current depression episode.
“With about 30% of patients with major depressive depression failing to respond to currently available antidepressants, treatment-resistant depression represents a major public health need,” Husseini Manji, MD, global head, neuroscience therapeutic area, Janssen Research and Development, said in a statement. “The positive phase 3 results for esketamine nasal spray in adults with treatment-resistant depressions are exciting, particular as they mark the first time an antidepressant has achieved superiority versus an active comparator in any clinical trial for major depressive disorder.
The world is mourning the tragic suicide of Anthony Bourdain today, and in addition to the beautiful tributes to his life and condolences to his family, there are a couple things to remember as Christians.
First, the Church needs to do a better job of recognizing suicidal tendencies before they become suicide, and not simply being reactive. Mental illness in the church is as common as outside, and suicide is no respecter of religion.
32% of those in the church say they have had a family member or close friend commit suicide.
Second, when we do react, we need to react appropriately. This is not an unforgivable thing, as we’ve been taught for centuries. Hal Hsu wrote, “Neither life nor death, nor suicide, can separate us from the love of God.”
Yes, suicide is a selfish act, yet it’s borne from a mix of desperation, hopelessness, and often, mental illness stemming from a diseased brain. No one on the outside can truly understand. It is a tragedy; not the pursuit of pleasure that so often guides selfish decisions. So let’s toss aside that judgment about “selfishness.”
One of my favorite book titles is How I stayed alive when my brain was trying to kill me: One person’s guide to suicide prevention.
That term: “My brain is trying to kill me” is perfect. We get caught up in the idea that we’re our own worst enemy when it comes to suicide, when in reality our brain usually is.
Peter Kramer famously said: “Suicide is what the death certificate says when one dies of depression.”
Charles Spurgeon himself struggled with suicidal thoughts: “I could readily enough have laid violent hands upon myself, to escape from my misery of spirit.”
Yet he didn’t take the shortcut to heaven, instead he finished his race. Suicide is selfish, yes, but it is also hardly borne from the same mindset that leads a man to cheat on his wife.
In fact, The Gospel Coalition recently ran a piece, “Why Pastors are committing suicide,” and there’s nothing in there about how selfish and godless the pulpit is becoming.
Further, when someone is psychotic, how much culpability do they really have?
The last thing that comes to mind is an entry from A. W. Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy (quoted in Faith that Matters), which is full of futility, and ultimately, beauty that God transcends however depressing our sojourn on earth.
Tozer:
“Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down.
How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.
Eternal years lie in his heart. For him, time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with him all the riches of limitless time and endless years.
….the foe of the old human race becomes the friend of the new.”
Cannabidiol (CBD) is picking up steam as a possible antidepressant (CBD is stripped of the popular intoxicating THC effects of pot).
It “produces CBD-carboxylic acid through the same metabolic pathway as THC, until the next to last step, where CBDA synthase performs catalysis instead of THCA synthase.”
I stress that point, because there are significant number of Christians hostile to the idea of antidepressants, let alone the idea of one with the word “Cannabidiol” in it.
So, no, guys, this isn’t the Taco Bell kind.
Well, a brand new study the Journal of Molecular Biology suggests CBD could, down the road, be a more effective antidepressant than others — working both faster and with superior results.
The study looked at male rodents and found that CBD seemed to produce “fast and sustained antidepressant-like effect in distinct animal models relevant to depression.”
These effects may be related to rapid changes in synaptic plasticity in the mPFC through activation of the BDNF-TrkB signaling pathway.
The data support a promising therapeutic profile for CBD as a new fast-acting antidepressant drug.
Read more here.
CBD oil is already a bit of a rage right now, and indeed, early research suggests it could be a potent anti-inflammatory, help with anxiety, and encourage sleep.
However, there are still legal issues in some states, and without regulation, manufacturing and dosage are always a concern.
Nevertheless, expect to hear a lot more about CBD in the future.
Good discussion among Russell Moore, Rick Warren, and Tony Rose on the church and mental health.
Pastor Rick Warren:
“Jesus cared about mind, body and spirit….The Bible says it twice in Scripture — Jesus went into every village, preaching, teaching, and healing. One third of Jesus ministry was healthcare.
He didn’t care just about getting people to heaven. He cared about the mind, the body, and the soul. We must too. We have a preaching, teaching, healing faith…. that’s why you go into any country in the world, and the first hospital and the first school were started by Christians. Because we’re a preaching, teaching, healing faith.”
Yes. The idea that somehow Christianity is only about the spirit has always been rooted in heresy. Archbishop William Temple has noted how central this phrase is to our faith — “The Word was made flesh.”
Here’s Pastor Tony Rose talking about stepping way back in time, in order to step forward (read more of Rose’s thoughts on the Puritans, depression, and melancholy in our interview here).
“Pastors hundreds of years ago used to have a natural scheme they followed when a troubled soul would come to them.
The very first thing they did was they talked with them about the Gospel in Christ…. when they felt like this guy was in love with Jesus but he’s having troubles, the first place they went was the broad category they called ‘melancholy’.”
Nick Page, in his very good memoir on his mid-life crisis, The Dark Night of the Shed, explains why so many men feel empty around the halfway point.
“Inside every middle-aged man is a young man struggling to grow up….It is not so much the failure of their bodies; it is the failure of their gods. This is why feelings of disappointment and failure are so often associated with middle age. It’s not that we have actually failed — at least not in the ways that we think.
It is our gods that have failed us. We trusted them. We did as we were told. We made all the proper sacrifices. But they turned out to be the wrong gods.”
In that same vein, here’s something you can say to reorient yourself: “My god is in God.”
Just say that to yourself a few times today, and see how different it feels from simply saying, “I’m going to serve God.”
There’s a prioritization you get by saying “My god is in God” that you don’t get by just affirming, “I’m going to serve God.”
So can you genuinely say “My god is in God?” Does your life look like that? More importantly, do you even genuinely want to say that?