Soul Care #14: Depression continued

Depression continued...

An example-
A person who is dealing with a loss enters a natural grieving process. This can be a loss of a loved one, a loss of a job, a loss of a friend who moved away. The grief is a healthy birthing process that should end in hope. An unhealthy grief brings forth no hope, with a commitment to protect rather than face. Because feeling becomes so painful, we become committed to live without feeling. Loving counsel helps a person feel the disappointment and move toward God in it, who is the only one who can heal their hearts.

Depression is not an even playing field
People's bodies are different. Some are more susceptible to the fruit of depression than others. There is a real biological component. You can help a person change their goal and it will address their depression in the spiritual/emotional side, but they still may need some biological help. You must consider this person as a whole individual-- their body, their emotions, their spiritual life are a cohesive unit and must all be addressed.

How do you know if something is a spiritual problem vs. a biological one?
1)How early did the onset of the problem occur? (personal history)
2)Is there a family history?
3)Are their circumstances that explain it? If the behavior doesn't make sense, then it tends to lean more biological.

The earlier the problem, the more family history of it, the less the circumstances explain the behavior-- the more biology is likely to be involved.

But even where there is a large biological component, there is always a partial emotional and spiritual element also. God uses all of these elements-- our physical bodies, our emotions, and our spirit, to draw us to Himself.