Dealing with Depression

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all of your words of engouragement and prayers. I really needed to hear them. I'm feeling better and think the depression hits me more when its that time of the month and I was just feeling sorry for myself the other day. I'm on new medication and I need to give it a little more time to adapt. Debbie

I just came to this forum for the first time and came upon your post. What a wonderful forum. There's a great Christian psychiatrist on KKLA, 99.5 in the LA area, who said something I think is the best advice: "Prayer works better with Prozac". The Lord gave our scientists and physicians the intelligence and will to do the research for treatments that save lives. Nowhere is it written that we are weak, or that it is wrong to take medication. That said, I hope you're seeing a psychiatrist and not just your PCP. More psychiatric medication is prescribed by PCPs than psychiatrists. It has taken years of systematic medication trials for me, alterations in dosage, combinations, you name it. At last I've made it over the hump and feel so much better. BUT I haven't been to church in 5 months. I'm just so fat I can't stand to go. It seems everyone there is a size 8; not true, of course. I don't like my fat woman clothes, don't want to wear something sleeveless and I get awfully hot sitting there, perspiration running down my face and back. For me, it's not depression keeping me from the church, it's this dreadful obesity that shames me. When I see someone MO, I see FAT and I think that's what people see when they see me. The heavier I've gotten, the more socially withdrawn I've become. This is tough because I'm a widow, 3 years, with 3 boys, 11, 7, 3 y/o and they're missing too much. Prayer and Prozac, prayer prayer prayer to get us both back through the doors. Warmly, Roz

Dear Rosalind, Read your profile, what a journey you have been on! You have wonderful fortitude! don't give-up! It is never easy to understand the journey's and roads we all travel. We all serve the same God but He has individual paths for us all to travel. Sometimes it is difficult not to want a different road or take a detour! Depression robs us of our joy, but I agree there is nothing wrong with meds and therapy to help us over the humps and dips of life. I read God's Word too but I need help in every way somedays to survive life's curveballs! Hang-in there and may the Lord richly bless your efforts for an APPROVAL for surgery. Ann N.

Hi Debbie: I just read your message and let me tell you - you are not alone. I am on 3 medications for depression and am finally starting to feel better. After hours of prayer, I decided it was up to me to change my life so I quit my job. The medication wasn't helping when I was at work but at home I was fine. Turns out, I've not been doing what is good for me or my daughter. It was a good job and paid well, but it just wasn't me and was not rewarding nor was it God's chosen path for me. I've had a reall bad several years with lots of emotional trauma in my life. I started listening only to the local Christian radio station and started going to some Christian artist concerts. I pray more, I read my Bible more, and I try to live as God wishes. A very good friend gave me two Bible verses to read that were of great help and comfort to me when I was struggling: Isaiah 40:31 and Phillipins 4:13. Another very wise woman suggested I read the 23rd Psalm and keep in mind that our life path is walking through the valley of the shadow of death and it does not say that we can walk around the valley, over or under it - only through it. It also says that God is with us when we take that walk. It doesn't say we won't have troubles, it says God will help us get through them. I know only too well how hard it is to get up in the morning - depression causes that as does obesity. I've been trying to keep a more regular schedule and in the morning, I tell myself that I need to get up and if I don't feel better after one hour, I can lay down again. It takes a lot of energy for someone who is obese, and in my case extremely morbidly obese, to function at all and not enough rest makes it that much more difficult. Be kind to yourself, get the appropriate amount of rest and pray, pray, pray. He does hear your prayers and He will help you get through each moment of every day if you rely on your faith and ask Him to help you. One of the ways I express my faith is singing hymns. My mother was the church pianist/organist from the time she was twelve and still plays all the time. I can't read music or play a note hardly, but I was raised on hymns and when I have trouble praying - I sing. Make a joyful noise and remember - "This is a day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!" God bless. Jo