Article April 3, 2000 Issue

Depression is not natural

You can feel the joy that's inherently yours.

By Colleen Douglass

Concern over depression among college students has gained a lot of attention in the press recently, leaving the impression that finding a clear and decisive cure is largely hopeless. Many who treat depressed patients do all they can to provide improvement through psychotherapy and prescribed drugs, but few offer hope of absolute freedom from feelings of dejection, stress, and loss. Yet complete healing is possible.

In the sidebar to this article, a woman discusses how she found freedom from severe depression solely through prayer. Instead of choosing a form of treatment that might foster a dependency on drugs, she opted to discover more of God and of herself as His perfectly balanced child. She acknowledged her spiritual inheritance of pure good and held to Jesus' promise that no one can be robbed of joy. As a result, she was healed of debilitating depression. The promise of complete freedom from this thief of happiness is available to anyone.

No matter how severe the condition, how many dire medical or psychological predictions one has received, how many generations of family members have suffered similarly, or how long the problem has persisted, it is possible to overcome depression—and heal it. Simply stated, permanent cure is found through turning humbly to God in prayer and realizing His abundant goodness—recognizing the fullness of life under His government, instead of giving thought over to the depleted view of oneself and one's life as limited or, even worse, useless. This cure relies on more than the mere power of positive thinking, though thinking positively is important. It depends on the healing, transforming activity of Christ, Truth, which enables us to look at life through the microscope of God as Love, which the Bible declares him to be (see I John 4:8). This is what provides the assurance that good is going on, despite apparent evidence to the contrary.

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