Depression, Christians, and Anti-Depressant Medication

In the previous post I discussed the necessity of receiving counseling or professional therapy to deal with the traumas associated with or causing depression, in order to assist us in the crucial process of retraining our thought processes.

Another crucial step in recovering from clinical depression is a consultation with a good doctor. (Note that by clinical depression, I am referring to an illness, the symptoms of which generally include loss of interest in life, overwhelming sadness, obsessive fearful thoughts, fear that this bleak, distressing phase will never end, no hope for the future, and disturbing physical symptoms which include insomnia.)

During the consultation we need to tell the doctor exactly what we are going through, it is imperative that we do not play down the symptoms. We must also tell the doctor if we have been plagued by any suicidal thoughts or urges. Many doctors have a special checklist of questions regarding depression that they go through in order to ascertain our condition.

The doctor should also investigate whether there are any health issues that could be causing the depression, such as food intolerances, and so on.

Should the doctor recommend we go onto anti-depressant medication, we should seriously consider following the recommendation. And if we do go onto anti-depressants, we must remain under the doctor’s supervision by having regular checkups, and always follow the doctor’s advice. We must also consult the doctor immediately if we notice any unpleasant or disturbing side effects caused by the medication.

We also need to ignore the stigmas that are often associated with anti-depressants and ignore attitudes such as, “Anti-depressants are a cop-out,” or, “You say you trust in God yet you rely on anti-depressants?” or, “How can you say God is all you need when you need pills to cope with life?” Many are also afraid of anti-depressants, fearing that they will become addicted to them. One reason anti-depressants have been criticized in Christian circles is that people who are not truly depressed take them to cope with problems instead of facing and dealing with those problems.

Below is an entry from my diary. I wrote it just before seeing the family doctor, in 1990. You can see that my view of anti-depressants was dictated by fear and the stigmas attached to them by society.

I’m not coping with life at all. I don’t think I can cope with this lack of peace any longer. Tomorrow I’m going to see the doctor and get some pills that will give me peace. Tomorrow I’m going to take pills to help me cope with life, and it’s really hard. I feel like saying, “What happened to Your Word, Jesus, where You said You would comfort me?” But I know you are faithful and true, although I don’t understand, I must trust in you and fix my eyes on You through this storm.

I have complex partial epilepsy. If I do not take anti-seizure medication I suffer quite horrific seizures, cannot sleep, and are not permitted to drive. The medication I take stops the seizures, allows me to sleep, and I can drive. No one has ever criticized me or questioned the depth of my faith for my dependence on the medication. In the same way, it is inappropriate to feel guilty or inadequate for taking medication for depression, as clinical depression is an actual illness, and as an illness, needs to be treated.

The Christian counselor I was seeing told me that I should be on anti-depressants to help me cope with the illness. She explained that the pills would knock me out for the first week, so for that week I should take them earlier until my body got used to them. She said that they would start to take effect in around two weeks. I understand that some anti-depressants may take from three to six weeks to take effect.

In ‘Self Help for Your Nerves,’ Doctor Claire Weekes writes, ‘Part of a doctor’s problem is to convince the patient – and, what is just as important, the patient’s family – that such sedation is not only not harmful but, as a temporary measure, may be very necessary, and that it will not make an addict of him if carefully supervised.’ (1)

One point I would like to make very clear is that anti-depressants do not heal depression, nor stop the pain, but they do dull its symptoms, and from my experience, the symptoms need to be dulled so that we can concentrate on the crucial task of recovering from the illness.

Not including those individuals who need to remain on anti-depressants due to a significant biological or mental disorder, when going onto anti-depressants we may need to remind ourselves that we do not take them to help us cope with life. We take them so that we can concentrate on our goal of recovering from depression.

1 Corinthians 9:24 ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.’ Consider anti-depressants as a step in the race, with the prize being recovery from depression so that we can achieve wholeness in Christ. Remember Jesus’ promise in John 10:10. ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ So let us press on to recovery, never giving up, until we experience this promise from Jesus. Philippians 3:14 ‘I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.’

Before I went onto anti-depressants, my diary entries were completely devoid of hope, full of pain, despair, anger, guilt, and confusion. I was not sleeping, and my mind had lost all elasticity and flexibility.

25th March 1990 –
I feel like I’m in a room with invisible walls,
But it’s so black in the room that I can’t see through the walls.
And I am in the centre of the room.
Where I go, the room goes, I can’t get out.

The anti-depressant medication I was placed on included a mild tranquilizer, and this is what I wrote after the medication began to take effect.

29th April 1990 –
A faint glimmer of hope,
It’s amazing, absolutely amazing.
It’s now been almost two weeks since I’ve wanted to end it.
The temptation is to deny ever feeling like that,
To say, ‘I can’t believe I felt like that.’
But it was true, very true, far too real.
All I wanted to do was die, or get away from the pain.
So I guess these tablets must be working.
I’ve been taking them for four weeks now.
I was told it would take two weeks before they would start to take effect,
And it did.

As you can see, the anti-depressants greatly reduced the effects of depression. They dulled the pain and enabled me to sleep, which is an important part of the healing process. However, as I mentioned previously, anti-depressants will not end the pain or bring healing. This was something I quickly realized:

13th May 1990 –
It is so hard,
The deep pain has gone, but I’m still a mess.

However, with the deep pain gone and the symptoms dulled, I was able to concentrate on recovery. I was able to listen to the counselor and put into practice the techniques recommended by Doctor Claire Weekes in ‘Self Help for Your Nerves.’ Recovery was rapid from that point - some symptoms vanished within weeks while the others continued to reduce in severity over time. I would not have been able to accomplish this without the medication.

We must not fear that we will become addicted to or dependent upon the anti-depressants. If recovery from depression is our goal, and we address the causes of depression through counseling or professional help, that will never be an issue. If we find ourselves wanting to remain indefinitely on anti-depressants, more counseling or professional help is needed.

My friend Sherry Castelluccio has this to say on that issue: I believe that antidepressants are good for a time. I have learned that a prolonged use of them really didn’t help me with the long term healing. After about a year I realized that I could not remember who I was without medicine and that scared me. After some prayer and discussing it with my husband, I gradually weaned myself off the meds. I discovered other ways to cope and became ‘proactive’ in my approach to dealing with this illness. I think that’s really what it’s all about. Depression is nothing more than anger turned inward. If a person is taking meds to cover up the anger, they aren’t dealing with anything. Taking myself off the happy pills forced me to deal with the situations that had me upset and work on communicating my wants and needs more effectively.

In ‘Self Help for Your Nerves,’ Doctor Claire Weekes writes, “Usually, when cured, the last thing these people want to see is one of those wretched capsules or a dose of that pink mixture.” (2)

When we feel we have recovered sufficiently to get off the anti-depressants, this must be done with the doctor’s supervision, as getting off the medication too quickly causes problems.

I reduced the dosage of my medication slowly over several weeks, under my doctor’s supervision, and I remember clearly the day I walked into a pharmacy and handed the pharmacist the box of remaining anti-depressants and said, “I don't need these anymore.” I was smiling when I walked out.

(1) ‘Self Help for Your Nerves,’ Doctor Claire Weekes, Angus & Robertston Publishers, 1989, p15.
(2) ‘Self Help for Your Nerves,’ Doctor Claire Weekes, Angus & Robertston Publishers, 1989, p15.


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