Lately I have started to take a bigger interest in the intersection between depression and spirituality. When you are depressed, is spirituality even a consideration for most people? If so, what is considered?
Based on my personal experience with my dad, his thoughts were always negative. My family had a Christian background, so a lot of what I know is related to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. My dad would always discuss how he felt that God was punishing him for something that he had done. What troubled him was what behaviors were so bad that he deserved that particular form of punishment, namely the depression, negative voices, and suicidal thoughts. He figured he must have been pretty awful, and that made his illness even worse. Not only did it make him question his behaviors, but it also made HIM feel like he was a bad person. It was heartbreaking.
Although I don’t have any numbers to back it up, my sinking suspicion is that the thoughts my dad had are pretty common. Depressed people feel like they must have done something wrong and are being punished by God or some other spiritual being. They also must feel like they are inherently bad people. And, while some of this thinking maybe be a result of the depression itself, I wonder how much of it comes from messages related to our spiritual practices.
Can we change the spiritual messages related to depression? I think so. There are already some great ideas and programs out there, and I think we are seeing progress solely based on how you hear more about it in our places of worship. However, I think it is important to have discussions about how spirituality can play into depression, and how we can use our spirituality to help us get better instead of making it worse.