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Depression is a difficult condition and a tough subject. I will not attempt to speak of clinical aspects of depression, but only to the significance of the absence of spiritslaughing, which may give us a clue about depression.
There is no way to know why you clicked on the topic of depression. You may not even know yourself. That's okay.
We are thinking here about spiritslaughing more than about clinical depression. When one's spirit has never laughed; or has quit laughing, it is a serious matter. One must dare to ask, “Could depression be the cause?”
In my bouts with depression, I found that it slipped up on my blind side, and I was unaware of its presence for a long time. All I knew was that things were not right. A cloud hovered nearby much of the time, and my joy was scarce and shallow. I was tired most of the time. I didn't laugh as often as before. I was so far into it I was even surprised when my doctor mentioned depression.
I don't know how you are feeling. Check to see if your spirit is laughing. If not. . . or if you wonder about whether it is, check it out. As a first step, see your doc and do whatever you need to do.
Remember, our goal is “spiritslaughing.” Anything that interferes with that needs our attention.
But wouldn't you know, the word depression does not even appear in the Bible. Oprah is probably right when she says that gratitude is an antidote to depression. The word gratitude is not in the Bible, either. But thanksgiving is the same as gratitude, and it is there about 23 times—too many to cite here. I will just include a first-rate definition of thanksgiving from my concordance: “An acknowledging and confessing with gladness, the benefits and mercies which God bestows either upon ourselves or others.” Thanksgiving is a pretty good antidote to depression. Thanksgiving—being thankful for all sorts of things, stuff, and reasons. We have lots of each of those to be thankful for. Being thankful just might help with depression. It's worth a try! We have nothing to lose but depression, itself.
E-mail me at Danny@spiritslaughing.com and relate any of your insights or experiences of dealing with depression that you wish to talk about.
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