Article July 8, 1944 Issue

The Cure for Depression

ALBERT E. BLAIR

On one occasion the writer was struck by the similarity in the replies submitted by four friends who all, in response to the question, "Do you awake in the morning generally with a feeling of depression?" answered, "Yes." The four men, however, should, according to human judgment, have answered the reverse, because each one was happily married, and each was the head of an important and prosperous business. Nevertheless, each awoke generally with a depressed view of life.

The writer, a student of Christian Science, who also suffered in this way, determined to overcome it. First he studied a passage in "Retrospection and Introspection," where Mrs. Eddy explains that fear is often made manifest on the body as disease. She writes (p. 61), "This fear is formed unconsciously in the silent thought, as when you awaken from sleep and feel ill, experiencing the effect of a fear whose existence you do not realize; but if you fall asleep, actually conscious of the truth of Christian Science,—namely, that man's harmony is no more to be invaded than the rhythm of the universe,—you cannot awake in fear or suffering of any sort." Then he strove to follow Paul's injunctions: "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing."

At first it seemed a difficult task, for as he went each morning from his home to his office, he found a kind of mental closing of the door on spiritual thoughts. He would suddenly discover in the middle of the morning that his thinking was almost exclusively on a human basis. However, the sincere desire to obey the truths he was endeavoring to prove, helped him to lift his thoughts to a higher basis. He was encouraged to note that progress was being made, and that he was more consistently obedient to Mrs. Eddy's admonition (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 261), "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Then he observed that when he awoke with the feeling of depression, the corrective thought came spontaneously that depression was only an erroneous belief.

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