Throughout this series, you’ve begun to learn that the key to overcoming depression lies primarily in focusing on God. As you heal and gain back your strength, you will find more days of joy than despair. But if you have a tendency towards depression, understand that you may still have times when God’s light is shut out and the darkness may try to regain its hold on your life. Don’t fall back into despair! Today’s post teaches you how to anticipate those times when you feel discouraged and negative, and shares six steps to take when you feel the darkness fighting for your attention.
"The Art of Anticipating Discouragement" by Dr. Tim Kimmel
When our heart’s temperature drops (metaphorically), the facts about our current circumstances often don't matter. All we know is that life has taken a turn for the worse. People on the outside looking in understandably wonder what the heck we’re whining about. And because there doesn’t seem to be real legitimacy to our depression, these same folks might have a difficult time extending any grace.
It’s interesting to me how one of the most debilitating attitudes of the heart can, in actuality, be so predictable. If you can stand on the sidelines of the human drama and watch when a person happens to get sucker-punched by depression, you’ll see that, based on the things that led up to that moment, discouragement was pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Events that can lead to discouragement have something in common: they’re all emotionally charged events. They don’t offer a manageable pace for our everyday feelings to run their course. Overworked emotions make us think thoughts that have nothing to do with what is actually going on at that time in our lives.
Obviously, a protracted period of negative emotional pressure, like being raised in a family that’s falling apart or being raised in a fear-based home can do some long term damage to your emotion’s abilities to stay upbeat. Circumstances like these may require sophisticated medical and spiritual expertise in order to get through them.
But for your standard run-of-the mill discouragement, there’s good news. You can actually manage these low points in your emotional cycle by simply anticipating them—even scheduling them—and seeing them for what they are instead of what they aren’t. In the process, you can keep your depression from mastering you. Here's a strategy to help subdue bouts of discouragement:
Everyday discouragement is a part of life. For most people, brief encounters with discouragement or feelings of depression are simply part of the recovery cycle from overworked emotions. Don’t panic. Anticipate them. If you have the facts--and if you have truth, logic and common sense in place before you face these downtimes--most of the time you can get through them without them getting a chance to define you or to ruin the bigger picture of your life.
Father, You know all things, and You know everything about me. Please help me see what triggers my depression. Help me understand the steps I can take to deal with that trigger before it turns into depression.
When I look at my depression, what are the circumstances that triggered it, and how can I better deal with those circumstances?
Walk yourself through the six steps from the text to help you deal with your depression, and avoid going there again.
Whether your depression is clinical, physiological, spiritual or situational, the darkness and despair that take over your life feel (and are) quite real. You are not alone in this darkness; great Bible heroes have felt it, too. But you’ve learned that God was there in their time of need, and He will be there for you, too. He doesn't want you to stay in debilitating darkness; instead, He wants you to open a dialogue with Him so He can show you the joy that will come. Trust Him, and let His love cover you and empower you with His peace and joy. Then, sing praises to Him, which will cast out the shadows. As you begin to heal, learn to anticipate the times that bring back the depression so they don’t surprise you. Remember that God is there for you, and whether you or not you need medication to help you, God’s love will help you come out of the darkness and into His wonderful light.