Advice for depression and anxiety sufferers

I’ve written a number of suggestions for people suffering from depression (and also anxiety). These tips have involved simple but important steps that can be taken day to day, such as the taking of a daily multivitamin (but not mega dosing), dropping one half hour a day of your computer or television time in order to read favorite nonfiction literature, and the carrying with you of an inspirational phrase from a holy book that has particular meaning and uplift for you.

Now I’d like to advise a very serious step. I recommend that anyone who is suffering from depression (or anxiety) either join for the first time or renew a lapsed faith relationship with one of the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. You would benefit greatly from being on a firm foundation with a mainstream (not radical) church, synagogue or mosque and restoring your belief. Know that this is the first/second generation that has not had a mainstream belief as the foundation and support for their life in over a thousand years. From the age of human’s grandparents and back in time the majority of people had the structure of their mainstream belief and faith in One God alone, and therefore understood the realities of the joys and challenges of life.

Shopping for a religion, cobbling“spirituality” together like they are auto parts from different model cars, atheism, and weak faith (where you think someone is “out there” but it does not inform your life) do not lead to happiness and put people off balance in their lives. If one does not know and understand God, one cannot really be fully functional in life. Depression can be described as genetic in origin, or a chemical imbalance, but you need to know that chemicals are imbalanced and genes are activated by your thoughts and life experiences too. If you are omitting a huge part of the valid life experience, which is to know and believe in God, your chemistry is guaranteed to be off balance in the first place.

This is the example I would give my patients when I was a psychiatric outpatient intern providing counseling. We all know the experience of being over excited or fearful, how the heart pounds, hands may shake, one sweats and maybe gasps for breath. This is called the “fight or flight” instinct, which comes from adrenaline being released in the body. So your thinking process (being in danger or under stress) releases a chemical. This is not imaginary, this is a real example that everyone understands. It comes from the time when humans did not control their environment and like all other animals had to react quickly to danger, such as during hunting or being hunted. Excessive adrenaline experiences leads to a corrosion of the body’s balance. Likewise, if you have a caffeine drink, it is a great thing for stimulation and attentiveness, but if you have too much of it the benefit is diminished and your body chemistry is changed.

Religion and understanding of God’s existence and purpose provides the foundational balance in one’s thoughts and chemical balance that optimizes the ability of people to cope with life. When one does not have a mainstream faith in one God to believe in, in community with others, it is like having huge chunks of one’s mental and neurological “roadway” missing. People are meant to know God and to understand him, which is why the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and Mohammed received knowledge from God and transmitted it in their respective religions. Humans are not meant not to know God. And it is for humans’ benefit; not God’s. God exists in the eternal multitude of the just regardless of what one or a million people believe or not on earth. But people have a very hard time existing and having peace of mind with their lives (especially those who have it very difficult) if they do not have the mental and spiritual support system of true mainstream faith and knowledge of God. You know how sometimes your body craves a food, especially if you are running a bit low, something like a salty food, or sugar, or citrus? Depression, anxiety (and other illnesses like bi-polar) are often expressions of a craving for something that is missing, and I’ve observed that often it is because a true knowledge of God does not exist.

Notice I am not advocating my religion over the others within the mainstream Christian, Jewish and Islamic family of faiths. That is because all three of these religions allow the believer to know and understand God, and that is the most important thing above all. Where people get in trouble is when they either lack participation in any of the three Abrahamic religions or when they invent their own and cobble one together, which only reinforces the gaps that exist in one’s lack of understanding of God. Ad hoc spirituality deepens the holes in the pavement of one’s mental roadways, not pave it over. Far worse, it leads to more of what some AA people wisely call “stinking thinking.” Ad hoc spirituality leads people away from the true God, just as if you fed your child only candy all day every day, the child would suffer from malnutrition.

So my suggestion is to come out of the void (lack of any mainstream faith) and/or abandon the ad hoc search for a spiritual “pill” and do what is intended for humans, which is to draw upon the mainstream faiths who have maintained the knowledge of how God communicated his existence and will to people for their own happiness and fortitude during life’s hardships. The good old boring mainstream Christian churches, Catholic or Protestant, the synagogues and the mosques are the source of the true knowledge of God and provide stabilizing balance in one’s life and thought process, which ultimately helps mitigate the effects of depression, anxiety and other illnesses. Obviously I am not saying that mental illness does not afflict those with faith. And I’m not saying that mental illness afflicts people because they don’t have faith. I am pointing out that when one is without a mainstream faith, one lacks an essential tool in your first aid kit. Would someone try to heal a broken leg without a cast? Would you let your child eat only candy and never have any other food? Of course not. Likewise, humans were not meant to be in ignorance of God and to feel lost in life. How can one treat depression and other illnesses if one is missing an essential component to overall well being? Our grandparents knew this and faith was the source for much of their strength and ability. It is ironic that many people today know more about cholesterol, which the grandparents past did not know, than they do about God, who the grandparents (in general) did know.

So I would suggest joining a mainstream Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Islamic congregation of believers and bring the stability of understanding God back into your life. I hope this is a useful suggestion for those of you who may need it. Blessings.