Members of Alcoholics Anonymous rely on a Power greater than themselves to stay sober. While it's possible that you may need to continue taking medication or natural supplements for depression, an important part of healing from depression and negative thought patterns which interfere with well-being is spiritual healing or having a spiritual connection with God.
If that turns you off or makes you want to stop reading, give it a chance. What do you have to lose except depression?
If a church or someone pretending to be spiritual hurt you, that was wrong. Just because people believe in God or Jesus doesn't mean they're perfect or have all the answers.
For more information about spiritual healing click here.
For a personal story of depression healed by God, click here.
Move beyond the negative stigma of depression by working toward
emotional, physical and spiritual health.
Healing through Counseling:
could benefit from another opinion and from someone with professional experience.
Counseling provides a safe place for self examination of the present as well as the past in order to understand patterns of behavior which can be harmful mentally, emotionally, and physically. A large part of counseling can also involve learning to cope with stress in healthful ways. Regular counseling can be a time to focus on healing yourself. Recovery will be a result of your deliberate efforts to break old patterns of behavior that have not helped you.
A Christian counselor can help enlist God's healing power in your fight against depression. God knows you and will guide your struggle against depression through prayer and by seeking Him. A good Christian counselor will help you benefit from God's all-knowing, all-powerful, supernatural ways.
Emotional Healing:
There are several areas important for emotional healing from depression:
We will always have emotions. We are constantly responding to things that happen in our lives, on TV, on the radio, and heck - even hormones. Emotions can be helpful in knowing when we feel safe or fearful. However, it's important to be aware of your reactions and the decisions you make based on your emotions. For example, just because you may wake up feeling hopeless or unloved, doesn't honestly mean your situation is hopeless or that no one loves you.
Learning to manage your emotions will free you from having them camp out in your life uninvited.
If you need help dealing depression from loss, click here for information on grieving.
Dealing with issues which may carry over from childhood which interfere with interactions in your adult life. This can be done safely in counseling and will free you from emotional burdens which affect your current relationships and emotional peace.
If you suffered abuse in your childhood, those issues (unless dealt with) affect decision-making and behavior patterns even into adulthood. Abuse can take many forms such as sexual, physical, abandonment, emotional, verbal, and more. If a parent had an addiction to drugs or alcohol for example, dysfunctional family patterns most likely occurred. Getting past issues such as low self esteem, the ability to form meaningful bonds with friends or (safe) family members, fear of abandonment, the ability to speak up for yourself, and express love appropriately is very freeing and leads to emotional peace and wholeness.
another one. It does not mean you are weak, it just means you
Maintaining Healthy Relationships and Boundaries:
Divorce, chronic illness or addiction may have kept you or your spouse from having a healthy role model for a supportive, cooperative relationship. Healthy relationships have healthy boundaries. Unhealthy relationships have dysfunctional behavior patterns and unhealthy boundaries. Getting professional help for your relationship can help sift through issues blocking you from experiencing an appropriate, loving, respectful and safe relationship. For a guide to healthy boundaries in a relationship, click here.
Patterns in your relationships can contribute to depression. This book can help you recognize behavior patters and learn to make different choices:
If patterns of behavior influence your depression, this book can help you uncover past and current patterns in relationships that contribute to your depression.
