Phases of Depression

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." Psalm 40:1-2. People in all walks of life can suffer from depression. It is not an exclusive illness. The Bible tells of kings and prophets who became depressed, 3 of those being King David, Jonah and Elijah. It is believed that disappointment is the first phase of depression. We all have to deal with disappointment at one time or another, no one has everything happen in life the way they expect it to. There is nothing wrong with feeling this way but we need to know what to do with that feeling. Paul said, "...but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." Philippians 3:13. Paul knew that one important thing to him was to let go of what lay behind and press on towards the things that were ahead. When we get disappointed, Jesus can re-appoint us and that is what happened to Paul. When this happens we are letting go of the causes of the disappointment and pressing toward what God has for us: a new vision, plan, mindset. If we are willing, God is willing to do new things in our lives but too often we hold onto things from the past. Some people seem to prefer to talk about their life disappointments rather than their dreams and visions for the future. Every day is a brand new start which gives us the opportunity to let of go of yesterday's disappointments and give God a chance to do something awesome for us today. Sadly, some people refuse to hope any longer due to having had lots of disappointment in the past, but a life without hope is a really sad place to dwell. It surely would be far better to hope all of your life and receive nothing than to live with perpetual disappointment. Hope costs nothing but disappointment costs you your joy and your dreams. God promises those who place their hope in him that they will never be disappointed or put to shame, and keeping our hope in Jesus will in time produce positive results. Unfulfilled expectations cause disappointment. We have many expectations every single day, big and small, from expecting to get a promotion at work right down to expecting the newspaper to come through the door on a morning. We also have expectations about other people. We don't expect our friends to gossip about us, but they sometimes do. We expect things from ourselves that we don't carry out, we have all let ourselves down this way many times. This is perhaps because we all expect more from ourselves than we can give. Also, we expect things from God that are not in his plans for us, so they will never be fulfilled and we will feel let down by him. When we get disappointed, we need to decide what we are going to do, how will we respond. The danger is that if you choose to stay disappointed for too long, discouragement will enter which is at a whole deeper level. Discouragement is the opposite of courage. When we are discouraged we have lost our courage. God gives everyone who believes in him courage and the devil tries to steal it. If we are to succeed at anything, we need to remain strong and courageous, "Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1 Peter 5:9. We need to understand the devil's tactics so that we can be ready to resist them at the onset. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12. When we become discouraged about something we are also hopeless about it and it is impossible to be discouraged and hopeful at the same time. Sometimes there is a battle in our mind between hope and discouragement. The Holy Spirit is leading us to be hopeful whilst the devil is attacking us with discouragement. It is so important at this point for the believer to get victory in the spiritual realm. To be victorious and keep our attitude hopeful we need to renew our mind to God's promises about our situation and stand in faith, believing God will be true to his Word. It is also important to get the victory early because someone who has become depressed can sink deeper. There is depression, then there are 2 deeper levels; despondency and despair. It is at the point of despair that a person will consider or even commit suicide. Mildly depressed people may feel sad and be reclusive, their thoughts are negative and their attitude is negative. They may still have small glimmers of hope and it is ultimately that hope which will help pull the person out of depression. A despondent person has all the similar symptoms of a depressed person but they are deeper. They are dejected in mind, failing in spirit, lost of all courage and are sinking due to a loss of hope. A person in despair is even deeper down. Despair is distinct from despondency in that despair is a total loss of hope whereas it isn't with despondency. Despair is the abandonment of effort, it is also sometimes connected to violent outbursts. Those who attempt to commit suicide are in this deepest state of depression - despair, and it is the devil's aim to lead us to that point.