Religion

    I began taking anti-depressants at 22 years old. My parents were reluctant to put me on medication as a growing teenager. In July 1998, I found something I thought would offer me a better chance at being happy: I became a born-again Christian by accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Some people find different ways of happiness and staying alive. Thinking that a big, divine God had kept me alive this long for a reason kept me going.
    Jesus Christ became my raison d’être: for eating, sleeping, breathing. I lived to worship God day and night and felt He had truly transformed me and saved me out of my depression. While He may infuse a life-changing transformation for some Christians on Earth, for me, my victory over depression would be short-lived. It soon became the “thorn in my side.”
    Close friends and family said that Christianity didn’t work for me. But through my faith, I found a need to continue living. I felt needed and had a reason to live for other than myself. Thinking that God has me here for a higher purpose keeps me going: I’m curious to find out what’s at the end. Faith in a higher purpose or a divine calling can bring some needed relief some depression sufferers.

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Comments

[just being]

ok so here are some interesting links I found, they discuss a little about depression http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/1/8/article_02.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/1/8/article_03.htm
and just one last one... but important still
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20030101/article_01.htm

[C Martin]

This is a informative site, thanks for the info!

[C Martin]

Hey, you have a great site here! I'm definitely going to bookmark this!

[GregK]

My experience has been a lot different than yours here. A couple of years ago, after reading through the first third of Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, I became an atheist. I was never that religious to begin with, but even then, the transition was pretty crippling; the exact opposite of your experience finding God.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. It was so painful to realize that nobody was looking out for me, that there was no plan, that I was really and truly on my own.

And then, as Julia Sweeney articulates very beautifully in Letting Go of God -- after this stage of chaos, after your entire world collapses down on you -- a whole new conception of the world rises in its wake. One that was, at least my experience, much more beautiful and clear.

And I made huge changes in my life because of it. It enables a type of rational, pragmatic thinking that great tool, in my opinion, against the forces in my mind I thought were outside of my control.

The quality of my life would not be what it is today had I never lost my religion. I still have all of the respect in the world for religious people -- but I don't think religion is necessary to deal with depression either.