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Depression
Sometimes I feel like a failure because I'm taking medications for depression. I feel if I had enough faith in the Lord I wouldn't have had the depression. Is anyone else experiencing this?
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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One can be so focused on one point they want to share that they miss the big picture. There are drugs that are mind altering in that they are designed to control or distort one's mind. There are also drugs that are developed to bring chemical balance to a brain that is out of balance. The goal of these two drugs are not the same. One is for good and one is for the harm of the individual.
You are attempting to create a thread from evil pagan practices to 2000 years later and say that it is the same practice. Medications are used for good and evil purposes today.
A little humor please ... to say you have been in Ephesus is about like saying you slept at a Holiday Inn last night .....
Homework goes both ways and with an open mind to seek out the truth and to share that truth in love.
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Greg,
Also, you brought in the comparison and expanded the conversation by emphasizing the word Pharmacia and linking it to pharmacy of today. You drew the contrast between a doctor and a pharmacist, as if a doctor has no concpet as to what meds do or are used for. You asked people to prove that medications were being given to anyone in the Bible. Can you prove that they were not being given? All of your points about 2000 years ago by you are being applied to today by you.
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Permalink Reply by James on
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Regarding what everyone else said regarding drugs... I'm not going to take the responsibility and suggest that a person just come off medication immediately/spontaneously, *however* I did exactly that, and it didn't kill me. Furthermore, I was suicidal for a 5 year period in my life out of the 25-28 years I've had depression. The exact same 5 year period I was on anti-depressants. Coincidence?!! Anti-depressants did 1 or more of 4 things to me (in addition to NOT preventing me from being depressed!):
1) Nothing: some had no effect at all, Prozac was like that for me, and I had expected it to be some wonder drug since at the time it was renowned for being a "happy pill". So it can't be said that I didn't try anti depressants or that I didn't want them to help me.
2) Really bad side effects: Because of my vulnerability NO ONE (except myself!!) knew about these! I didn't know that they were considered "severe"/very bad side effects, and I was continuing to take the anti-depressants at the time with risk to my own health. The doctor/s never monitor/ed this.
3) Extreme anxiety: This was worse than the depression itself, and at times *caused* me to be suicidal
4) Sleep loss/too much sleep: One of my main problems *these days* is my sleep pattern. I have to wonder if taking medications caused this, or just made it significantly worse. One of the anti-depressants I took made me sleep for 22 hours a day. Were it not for me trying to overdose on these, I would probably have remained on them and slept 22hrs a day for weeks or months. After I did overdose on them, I found that I couldn't sleep for more than 5 or 6 hours for months.
Sometimes being on them is worse than any consequences of stopping / being off of them. I'm not saying that's always the case, and indeed it appears that people with Bipolar disorder are *dependent* on medication to remain sane (I'm not Bipolar). I'm not the only person to be worse off while on anti-depressants either, as I knew a Christian woman with a 1-in-a-million IQ who'd taken every anti depressant known at the time (which was more than 30 different medications for depression), and none helped her. After taking about 10 different anti depressant brands, I decided to quit before they killed me.
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There simply is not a demon behind every struggle in life. We live in a fallen world, with fallen people, in the fallen fresh, and yes there is an enemy named Satan.
Regarding God not bringing sickness, Miriam might disagree with you.
The power is not in the spoken word, but in the Living Word, Jesus Christ. For any power demonstrated through us is in Christ and through Christ and not of our own.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Mary, the day will still come when you will die. If the baundant life means no sickness or death, then why are James, Paul, Peter, and all the saints of old still not here? When people die they usually get sick with several illnesses including pneumonia and other types of infections because bacteria levels rise in the body as the immune system slowly shuts down and this happens during the natural process of dying from even old age. If you catch a cold tomorrow, will that mean you have lost your abundant life in Jesus? What if something more terrible happens? Will you feel let down by God? What if you are the one who has been deceived by Satan?
In Hebrews 11 it says: 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died.
Notice the words "they died"
Does the abundant life include physical death?
Is it possible that it isn't only faith that gets people through sickness, sorrow, and death, but God's grace, too?
There is power of life and death in the tongue--on that we agree--and while you speak good things for yourselves, your words are hurting many others...but you cannot even see that.
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James,
A few points to consider:
1. Sometimes a drug can cause a reaction that is opposite to its intended effect. Sometimes antidepressants can cause depression to get worse and stimulants, which tend to speed people up, help some people feel calmer. This is common in children who have ADHD. That's why they are given stimulants to treat hyperactivity.
2. No two people are alike.
3. I like this analogy:
If you are driving a car and accelerate the gas pedal, the engine will have more energy but will the car go anywhere? It depends on what gear it's in. The car will go forward, backward, or if in neutral, nowhere. If in first gear, you are not going to go faster no matter how much gas you give it.
In the brain, if you increase the concentration of a chemical, you don’t know for sure what will happen. That's why a doctor takes into account many things before prescribing what they think will help someone and sometimes they won't prescribe anything at all. When one thing doesn't work, they try something else. Sometimes nothing works.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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Hi all...
I can't speak much to taking meds because I haven't had much experience in my life, or the lives of my loved ones. however, I do recognize they have their place.
I can share the bit of understanding I have on based on my personal experience... I guess that 's the perspective all of us are coming from. We can only speak into the things we have gone through, or maybe a loved one has gone through it... Otherwise, talking about it is in vain... It is lacking the personal element of 'experience'.
People speak out of these experiences with strong POV...because the things that they have gone through have made an impact (good or bad).
Let's bear with one another, and have mercy and compassion for eachother. We all have something in our lives that is a trial, or a difficulty.. if you haven't had it yet, then that is rare. It will come. Jesus warns us.
my minimal experience in this is that I take a daily aspirin (81mg) for it's blood thinning properties. I have (had) a congenital heart defect severe aortic stenosis which they had to operate on. It was a valve transplant to replace a bicuspid valve that had calcified to a point of closing (nearly completely). The aspirin I take protects me from potential blood clots. I am thankful that is all I need to take... really thankful. When I first got out of the hospital I had many more meds that I took for a couple of weeks... It was necessary. I wasn't happy about it...but it was necessary.
I also take B12 1200mg and folic acid daily. I believe that vitamins also count as a pharmaceutical medication.
We must be gentle with one another.
Blessings, Carla
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Nancy, God chose to heal you. What about all the other believers who have faith and do speak words of life but who are not healed of their cancer or diabetes or paraplegia, or depression, etc...?
Does it have to be either/or?
I imagine that many believers leave this life and Jesus meets them and guess what He does? In my imagination I see Him wiping tears from their eyes and comforting them the way Lazarus was comforted after he died as a beggar with many sores and mental wounds as well.
People are not defending their illnesses. They are defending their lives and their hope in Jesus and others are taking that away from them because they are in a severe trial and are being blamed in some way for having gotten ill or being in their situation...when actually GOD IS IN CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this is what the Body of Christ is like...I don't want any part of it. We are supposed to bear one another's burdens not condemn them for having burdens.
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It is bad when the positive talk of victory implies that those who are still in a struggle are there because it is their fault. That is the line that cannot be crossed, unless the person is living in willful sin. Then they need to be helped to overcome the sin.
Victory comes in many looks, but only comes through one Savior.
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Nancy, your words no longer up lift me. I apologize if my saying that hurts or offends you but I am being honest. To me and for me your words are of censure:
cen·sure [ sénshər ]
disapproval: severe criticism
official condemnation: official expression of disapproval or condemnation, e.g. of a legislator by the legislature
criticize somebody or something: to make a formal, often public statement of disapproval of somebody or something
Synonyms: criticism, disapproval, condemnation, denunciation, deprecation, scorn, contempt Encarta World English DictionaryIf God is leading you to do this, so be it. I cannot take it anymore though.
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So God condemns me? Because that's how you make me feel and you keep saying God is leading you to do that. I could point you to several comments and even a discussion that you started where you say depression = oppression--that is the same as saying demons cause it, and you have said in other comments that it is due to the person's faith being in error or being low or not having any at all, etc... Re-read some of your discussions and your comments...maybe you will see it...maybe you will not..but it's how I took your comments and so have others... I'm not alone.
I have tried and tried to say that there are many forms of depression and just as many causes and while demons may be a factor in some cases, not in all cases because there are biological causes and environmental causes to name a few causes.
That's not a defense of depression. Those are facts about an illness that many have. Who would choose it? Do you think I have not spoken words of life...have not prayed for healing...have not fallen at the feet of Jesus...?
:'(
If what you say is God's truth...then even God does not care for me.
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Nancy, here is one of your discussions where you seem to be in agreement with another individual about what causes depression and that it is something people choose and speaking to it is all that is necessary, etc...
http://www.allaboutgod.net/forum/topics/spiritual-victory-followed-...
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