Depression Confession
Depression: an issue in life that is easily over-looked.
Depression: a mental condition characterized by feelings of severe despondency and dejection, typically also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, often accompanied by lack of energy and disturbance of appetite and sleep. (Google)
Depression: Unhappiness, sadness, melancholy, misery, sorrow, woe, gloom, despondency, low spirits, a heavy heart, despair, desolation, hopelessness. (Google)
Depression: "... an episode of sadness or apathy along with other symptoms that lasts at least two consecutive weeks and is severe enough to interrupt daily activities” (WebMD)
Depression: The reason that girl sits alone at lunch. The reason that man keeps his head down in the office. The reason that boy avoids school. The reason life seems impossible.
What a consumption.
One day you can be on cloud nine. Your day is getting brighter and brighter. Then suddenly you're triggered. You remember it all, you get the flashbacks. You can remember the scents, the sights, the taste, the words. You remember. Gone is your chipper day, and hello to your gray cloud.
What http://www.dbsalliance.org has to say about depression.
-Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year. (Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun; 62(6): 617-27)
-As many as one in 33 children and one in eight adolescents have clinical depression. (Center for Mental Health Services, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1996)
-Depression is the cause of over two-thirds of the 30,000 reported suicides in the U.S. each year. (White House Conference on Mental Health, 1999)
-Untreated depression is the number one risk for suicide among youth. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15 to 24 year olds and the fourth leading cause of death in 10 to 14 year olds. Young males age 15 to 24 are at highest risk for suicide, with a ratio of males to females at 7:1. (American Association of Suicidology, 1996)
Okay Bailey, so what's your point?
My point is YOU'RE NOT ALONE.
… It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. -Deuteronomy 31:8
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. -Psalms 34:17
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:38-39
I understand, it's hard. No one claims that holding on is easy. No one says to only expect good days. However, holding on can bring the greatest pleasure in life.
I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. -Psalms 40:1-3
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! -2 Corinthians 5:17
My life was invaded with love.
http://www.godvine.com/A-Story-of-a-Severely-Depressed-Teen-Who-Turned-to-Jesus-1659.html
Song of Inspiration:
How Can It Be - Lauren Daigle