I’ve made several posts on several thoughts/observations I’ve had from Human Sexuality this semester. But I have neglected (until now) some of the good and interesting discussions we’ve been having in Abnormal Psychology this semester, too. We have recently been covering the major mood disorders like Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder. Wednesday we reviewed the descriptions and statistics for the mood disorders. Today we discussed the various causes and Monday next week we will cover the treatments for them.When addressing the issue of etiology (causes), I try to impress on my students the need to develop an integrative perspective. For any given person, there may occasionally be what appears to be a clear and simple explanation for the cause of his or her depression. But that is the exception, not the rule. For most, the cause of depression is an extremely complicated mixture of biological, psychological, and spiritual causes.
The temptation is to focus our attention on one area and neglect the others. I will not take the time here to review the biological and psychological causes. Those are readily available in just about any textbook and on plenty of websites. But the spiritual causes are often neglected – as is the case with our textbook this semester – and I don’t suppose I should expect anything different from secular authors.
Is sin a cause of depression? The best short answer is yes, sometimes. But depression is not always directly due to personal sin. In my current environment, I can find a number of people who tend to overemphasize spiritual causes (especially personal sin) for emotional and psychological problems and neglect other possibilities. While I do not wish to perpetuate that kind of thinking, I did find this list of possible spiritual factors of depression interesting and very helpful.
- Guilt / lack of repentance over sin.
- Turning away from God and neglecting His word.
- Unwillingness to forgive / harboring bitterness and resentment
- Fear of the future and a lack of trust in God as a provider and protector.
- God-sent trials meant to prune or purify (John 15:2, 1 Pet. 1:6-7)
- Demonic attacks and oppression
- Existential vacuum (feeling empty and without meaning or purpose)
- The “dark night of the soul”
I have heard of the “dark night of the soul” before, but have recently become more intrigued with it. It is an idea/phrase borrowed from Saint John of the Cross and I’m going to find his work and read it someday soon. For now, I appreciate this description:
“This dark night is not something bad or destructive…. The purpose of the darkness is not to punish or afflict us. It is to set us free…. What is involved in entering the dark night of the soul? It may be a sense of dryness, depression, even feeling lost. It strips us of overdependence on the emotional life. The notion, often heard today, that such experiences can be avoided and that we should live in peace, comfort, joy, and celebration only betrays the fact that much contemporary experience is surface slush. The dark night is one of the ways God brings us to a hush, a stillness, so that he can work an inner transformation of the soul…. Recognize the dark night for what it is. Be grateful that God is lovingly drawing you away from every distraction so that you can see him.”
HT: Caring for People God’s Way
Posts
2 comments:
Don't fall into the trap of over pathologizing normal experiences: John's dark night of the soul was difficult but not necessarily debilitating. It's one thing to say some things in life are supposed to be hard and we are not entitled to feel ecstasy 24/7. It's another thing to say (quoting the DSM-IV) a "significant distress or impairment in... functioning" is God's plan to transform us.
I've read other bloggers who have attempted to make the point that depression shouldn't always be avoided. I'm just not sure that what they were describing is anything I would diagnosis as a major depressive disorder.
Good words, Bowden. Thanks!
Post a Comment