Recently someone asked me my thoughts on anti-depressants. Interesting timing for me since I've had a really hard few weeks and was thinking some pills might be nice! Something to "take the edge off"...Well, I was reminded of the response I wrote to someone last year asking the same question. As I re-read my answer, I thought I should share it here. So many of my friends are having babies and those hormone changes are enough to warrant a Costco sized bottle of Zanex! Trust me-I was there yesterday. But I hope this post will be encouraging or helpful for women going through a tough time right now and feeling like Christ isn't enough or isn't sustaining them.
So here's my response to "Should a Christian take anti-depressants?" :
Great question.
I want to preface my response by saying that I believe everything that comes into a believer’s life is from the hand of God. Romans 8:38 says “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So I would say that the depression they are experiencing is actually coming from the loving hand God and before they medicate it to make it go away they should figure out why it is there and what is causing it.
1. Emotional/circumstantial= a horrible situation caused by sin or death This is an awful time but even these situations do not separate us from God so He is there, NOT powerless to stop it, but there. The Bible says there is a time to grieve. Grieving is normal and healthy and God can get us through that time. I’m not talking about a one time medication to help someone over an extremely shocking event but to go on medication rather than deal with emotions that God created to help us heal would be foolish in my opinion.
Maybe the depression is a “gift” to help us stop sinning or receive help to overcome the sin of another. An example would be feeling depressed about a bad marriage might lead you into counseling and save it! Or depressed about your weight might lead you to get healthy and change it! Or being molested or abused and getting depressed could be the thing that motivates us to receive counseling. Basically-if we felt good and happy, would we deal with the underlying issue that is causing the depression? Probably not.
2. Spiritual depression=a trial or an attack. This also can be a gift from god to cause us to seek Him, grow closer to him and glorify His name. many great Christians have struggled with depression, their whole lives, without being medicated. Luther and Spurgeon are two that come to mind. I think we are too quick to look at suffering as a negative thing that must be stopped and avoided but Romans 5:3-4 says, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”. So to medicate the feelings that will produce hope is not wise in my opinion.
3. Physical depression=caused by our bodies not functioning properly and affecting our emotions. Our hormones, food intake, exercise frequency, vitamins, minerals, etc. play a huge part in regulating our moods. I was told twice in one year to take anti-depressants to stop feeling “crazy” rather than being told why I felt that way and how to fix it. So sad!! On one week of all my new supplements I feel normal again. My body was so depleted my ND said I probably wasn’t able to produce serotonin! My body was/is a mess and taking anti-depressants would have totally WORSENED things! My depression was a gift from God to motivate me to get tested before my health worsened and I became really sick! To have medicated my symptoms would have been disastrous. (Edited to add that since then I was diagnosed with hypothyroid and a tumor was found on my thyroid gland. Had I medicated the symptoms, I could be much sicker today!)
4. A true chemical imbalance= I think God created people with true inabilities to function normally without medication. I have known several and they still struggle with depression/anxiety even while medicated but the medication allows them to be sane-literally. I know one pastor family with a Bipolar daughter and without medication she is insane. But with it, she is normal and struggles and has to still rely on Christ for strength everyday.
So, these are my quick thoughts on the matter. I could probably write for pages but it’s already too long probably! Anyway, I agree with Paul, “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.”
So…to me, it’s a conscience issue but I think some people make very foolish decisions in this area that cause them to ultimately trust in something other than God.
