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I used to routinely say stuff like “He/she is messed up in the head.” I didn’t mean that as a compliment.

Because, like most folks to this day, I thought depression, anxiety, even worry was a sign of weakness.

I was willing to cut some slack for a few people. Certainly I was compassionate toward those that were “born that way” – people who had mental handicaps, Down’s syndrome, things like that. The totally non-PC term we used was “mentally retarded.” That phrase could be used as a benign identifier, or an insult. You know what I mean.

My disdain was for those who just fretted, and brooded, and moped around. I remember a cousin who, when her husband died, basically took to her bed for what seemed like weeks. I thought that was pathetic.

Over time, however, my sensibilities have evolved (can I use that term?) The great awakening for me came with my brain injury back in June of 2018.

It’s funny how one event can virtually alter the course of your life.

I’ve always been given to melancholy, which isn’t a good or bad thing. It’s a temperament, a trait, like having blue eyes or brown eyes. Since I’m all about finding out who I am (and who others are!), I’ve spent time with personality tests, such as Myers-Briggs (I’m an INFJ, which makes me pretty unique) and an Enneagram Type 4 (or as a friend states, “You’re a special snowflake.”) All that makes me a classically endowed introvert. Again, that’s not a positive or a negative. It’s just a thing.

I never really viewed my personality and temperament as an asset or liability. It was just part of what made me me, albeit a significant part. A lot of folks avoid discovering who they really are. Me, I’ve embraced it. I’m guessing some people might not like what they discover.

Last year I experienced a nasty concussion, as you may know. It’s kind of defined my life since then. There have been all  sorts of effects that come from post-concussion syndrome. It’s nasty stuff.

I can tell you all about most of the symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, dizziness, loss of concentration and memory – it’s quite a list. However, it’s the anxiety and depression that are killer. The linked article above from the Mayo Clinic compares PCS to PTSD. So, some days I’m a wreck. Before you place me in the Benevolent Home for Chronic Whiners, though, hear me out.

I titled this blog “The Joy of Depression.” Click-baity, right? But I mean it.

Depression might not ever be an issue for you. Perhaps you cruise above life’s cares like an untethered helium balloon. Yay you!

But for those of you like me who cringe from the encroaching darkness, check this out. And if you are free from anxiety and depression, I’ll bet you have someone close to you who deals with it.

Where’s the joy in that!?

Consider Charles Spurgeon, the “prince of preachers.” He was prone to bouts of crippling depression, in addition to other physical ailments.The depression could hit him so intensely that, he once said, “I could say with Job, ‘My soul chooseth strangling rather than life’. I could readily enough have laid violent hands upon myself, to escape from my misery of spirit.”

His wife, Susannah, wrote, “My beloved’s anguish was so deep and violent, that reason seemed to totter in her throne, and we sometimes feared that he would never preach again.”

I’d say he spent some time in a dark place. Been there, done that.

With all this as background, let me offer some thoughts about this whole depression thing (and cribbing liberally from Spurgeon, paraphrased. The good stuff is his, identified with a “*”).

1. Depression isn’t all in your mind. But it is. There are a lot of clinical components to depression, which I won’t get into, but it is manifested first in your head and can, of course, affect a whole host of other body systems. So if someone says, “It’s all in your mind,” you can congratulate them for being so perceptive.
2. Someone is bound to say, “Cheer up. There are a lot of people worse off than you are.” As if hearing that helps. Your most appropriate response is to punch them in the throat.
3. “Move on. Stop dwelling on it.” Talk about useless, even stupid advice! Depression can last a lifetime and a person can’t simply move on. There are resources aplenty to help manage depression, but that kind of counsel does more harm than good. Punch them in the throat.
4. As I mentioned before, there is still a stigma about depression and other forms of mental illness. So what? Do what you need to to get well.
5. If you’re a believer, you’re gonna love this one: Who wants to hurt? No sane person, but you need to hurt anyway. Those who struggle with depression and other difficulties never grow in strength and maturity like those who do.*
6. Regarding #5, those who lead an “easy life” (disclaimer: no one really does) tend to have a faith that is frail and shallow. There is a discipline that comes with trial.
7. You don’t tell someone else that they can grow through depression when they’re in the grip of it. That won’t help. I guarantee it. There may be a time when you just need to sit down and keep your mouth shut. Maybe cry with them.
8. Depression and anxiety are not evidence that God is against you. If anything, it’s the opposite. He is not going to abandon you, or render you useless. In a fallen world, friends may desert us, we may hurt, and we may even despair. But it’s entirely possible to lose things you cherish in order to learn that God is all-sufficient. For everything.*
9. As a believer, I want to focus on the resurrection of Christ. But Spurgeon, when dealing with the suffering and depressed, tended to point people toward Jesus crucified and the “Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” It’s all about knowing that there is Someone Who not only identifies with you, but Who has experienced the same thing you have.*
10. Instead of focusing on the “what” and “why” of depression, the call is to focus on the promises of God. We need to have an objective truth that exists apart from our feelings about it.

Consider, finally, the opening words from Spurgeon’s sermon, “When a Preacher is D0wncast.”

“Fits of depression come over the most of us. Cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.

“There may be here and there men of iron to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows and makes them to know that they are but dust.

“Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shown right joyously did not always walk in the light.”