Depression

Depression develops a foothold in someone’s life when typical setbacks in life are not handled in a God honoring way. Depression can be caused by physical as well as medical conditions. When we are conducting our data gathering process we need to be very much aware of any medical conditions of family medical history conditions that may be symptomatic of depression like symptoms. Equally important is that of sleep habits. Many studies have been done by the medical world that have proven that depression as well as hallucinative conditions can be induced by a simple lack of sleep. When someone comes in regarding depression therefore it is critical that medical and physical causes have been ruled out prior to addressing the depressive condition. If it is true depression, where they are down or out, even if an organic cause will have been accompanied by poor decisions, all of this must be dealt with in tandem with the medical professionals. Someone may be on medications from a physician for the depression symptoms but we can easily be dealing with right thinking habits as well as right decision making habits so that the mind of the counselee is being washed in the Word of God throughout the depression. God has said his Word is sufficient and calls us to glorify Him in past, present and future aspects of life (Romans 11:36). Counselees need to take responsibility for their reactive actions to situations and people in the midst of every trial to the glory of God. Our goal is to give them the tools from Scripture as anchors in their life that will provide the lasting hope they need to battle any depth of depression. Many in the biblical counseling world will say that depression starts with not dealing with sin in a biblical or godly way, this is an over generalization and cannot and should not be used as a rule of thumb. Each situation with depression must be dealt with independently and with a thorough investigation prior to simply labeling the depression a result of sin. We are not the judge of the heart. Our role is to encourage, help and rebuke but all must be done in gentleness and love (1 Thes. 5:14).