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Re: Williams: Guest expert on depression and anxiety

Posted by psycjw on April 12, 2005, at 15:28:22

In reply to Re: Williams: Guest expert on depression and anxiety, posted by Spriggy on April 11, 2005, at 16:01:08

hi spriggy
thanks for the post- theres a couple of things i was really struck by:
1) i completely agree that spiritual aspects of our lives are important during depression - but in exactly the same way that they are a central part of our lives anyway however we are. God promises to be with us whaever happens - including during bad times, HOWEVER depression can really focus in on our relationship with God - and can cause problems esp as a key part of depression is to cause a general emotional numbing. in personal relationships that might lead to a ditsancing from others (e.g. not feeling anything when with our children or others who we know intellectually we love - yet we feel nothing). the same can apply to how we feel aboutour relationship with God - where we can feel nothing when we pray, read the Bible etc.

This is esp difficult for people if a large part of their faith life is focused on the "feeling"/relationship aspects of their faith ie this symptom of emotionlessness (called anhedonia medically) will have a more distressing effect on such people than someone who places more emphasis on head/intellect oriented faith

2). The second thing i was struck with is what a great experiment it was to ask people to come out for prayer if they were feeling depressed. its a great testimony to your own courage re this and how God was able to use your talk. CBT is really into "experiments" to test out a belief or thought - so its great to see this living experiment where you tested out how many people were living with such problems in your own church. hopefully it gave the church community a really good opportunity to offer sensitive and appropriate support
thanks
bw
chris w


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poster:psycjw thread:482701
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20050312/msgs/483393.html