Sermon Central
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Depression: What It Is, What Causes It, What Are The Signs Series
Contributed by Dan Borchert on Dec 9, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the first sermon in a series of three dealing with depression all from the same passage. It is estimated that some 20 million americans suffer from depression
Depression: What it is, What causes it, What are the signs
Introduction
A. Depression
B. A Word that we have all heard, a word that we have all thought about
C. Did you know that there are about 21 million Americans right now suffering with depression?
D. Did you know that USA has the highest depression rate?
E. It is kind of funny we have the most yet our depression rate is the highest.
F. How do we handle depression? What can we do about it
G. Today we are going to learn about depression the next two weeks we are going to learn how to cure depression
H. You can look at this series in one of two ways, either is acceptable
a. One You are depressed and you need help (by the way if you are depressed that does not mean you are a lesser Christian)
b. Or two, you would like to know how to handle depression so you can help others. Possible you might say you are the second one because you do not want to admit you are the one who is depressed, that is ok too
I. For this series on depression we are going to study at first one of the least likely persons to suffer depression
J. This guy had it all. Direction from God, Wisdom, seeing God’s miracle, Everything you possibly could want
K. But he ended up in a major depression.
L. I feel God recorded this event to show us how to deal with depression
M. First of all let us look at depression
I. What it is
A. Let get one thing squared away right from the beginning
1. If you are depressed that does not make you a bad person
2. You are not a looser, you are not a freak
3. Depression is a common occurrence
B. Depression is a feeling down, sad, lonely, isolated feeling that you can not shake
1. You try and try and try, but you just cant shake it
2. Many people will say “ohh you just need to get over being depressed”
a) Please never tell that to a depressed person!
b) I have never meant a depressed person who wanted to be depressed
c) If they could just “get over it” I am sure that they would
C. All of us go through are ups and downs. Sometimes we are “Happier then others” sometimes we are “sadder then others”
1. Most of you know that I commonly take off Monday’s there is a reason for that. The first couple of times I preached when I was done with the sermon I wanted to get in my car drive home, get in my bed, curl up in to the fetal position and just lay there.
2. I have gotten better at that, but still I often “down” “sad” empty after preaching. Mondays I just don’t have that much energy physically or mentally. It is used up. Therefore Mondays and me do not agree! (We talk more about this next week)
3. Now despite all of that, I would not consider that “depression”
4. See Tuesday is a new day, I am feeling good and by Wednesday I am hard at work at next weeks sermon.
5. To be true depression, according to most research, you have to have the “symptoms” for 2 or more weeks
D. The next couple of weeks we are going to be talking about the treatment of depression, let me say a couple of things about that:
1. There are some forms of depression known a chemical depression; these are types of depression that are due because of a chemical imbalance. These are real. And the cure for them is medication, medication is not a sin. There are sometimes when medication is necessary for the treatment of depression.
a) Most common example of this is Bi-Polar manic-depressive. I have a good friend who has this. It is awful. He was on medication that was working and he was a lot of fun. We had such a good time. Unfortunately I do not know if it was because of the medication stopped working or he stopped taking it, he snapped. Drugs, drinking, depression, and so on. Our relationship now is basically non-existent. It is horrible what BI-Polar can do to you
b) We are not going to key in on depression caused by Chemical. That is a type of depression that doctors candela with.
c) We are going to look at the emotional types of depression.
II. What Causes It
A. Worn Out
1. Elijah -- Let look at Elijah’s life.
a) Think about everything that he went through
b) He had just done the whole water on the alter thing
(1) Were prayed to God to start a fire, but to make it more interesting he had them dump a whole bunch of water on it
