Speaking of Sadness
Categories: Books, Pastoral Ministry
Written By: Darkmyroad
Over the last couple of years I’ve read a number of books on or about depression in different ways. When I could concentrate enough to read. Two books I read early on I’ve mean to write about for some time:Speaking of Sadness
By David A. Karp
Karp is a sociology professor at Boston College. He is not a Christian. However, Dr. Karp’s book is profound. He has suffered from depression himself, and so the book is part auto-biographical, part sociology, and part explanation of what is happening to you and how others around you are reacting to it.
Some of the topics he discusses are disconnection, illness as identity, medication, coping, family, and depression’s impact on our society. It was probably the sections on disconnection and illness as identity that were the most useful to me. Depression forces one to withdraw into yourself. You shrink, so that you feel like you are in a deep dark hole and can only barely see out at all. Friends fall by the wayside, family even. Many a divorce has had depression as one of the chief causes. So to understand how and why this disconnection is happening is quite important.
Perhaps equally important is the concept of illness as identity. I remember having a conversation with my wife’s brother once. He said that he hated being called a diabetic. He had diabetes. In his mind, the illness did not define him, and so he wanted to create separation between himself and the illness. That can be done with physical diseases and illnesses to some degree. No one says “I am a flu-er”, you say you have the flu. Even this has it’s limits. Paraplegic. Diabetic. These are but a couple examples of where the illness is incorporated socially into the identity of a person.
But with mental illness it is different. Because depression and mental illness are so invasive, because we can’t seem to separate our minds from ourselves, depression quickly gloms itself on to the identity. You are marked as unclean or not quite right in the head. There is a social stigma that goes along with depression. Are you trustworthy, or will you just crash? Jobs, family, church, all of these areas an more can make depression become a part of you. I am surprised that no one has coined a term like “I am a depressionic” or something to that effect. Karp addresses this phenomenon with a great deal of insight.
Now where is the Gospel in a secular book like this? There isn’t any, directly. He goes through the journey down into the valley and back up again. It is descriptive, with many helpful insights along the way. I would highly recommend this book, for example, to anyone suffering from depression and especially to their family. It is very good for understanding this. What he doesn’t do (and I have yet to find) is a real treatment of the relationship between mental illness and faith. How is it that I can cry, “I trust when dark my road” and yet mentally not believe there is a future for me? Is the mind the sole place for faith, so that if my mind isn’t right, it must mean my faith isn’t right?
God forbid. Faith is a gift, not an achievement. It is a gift that God continues to give, no matter how difficult the circumstances. In fact, the harder it is, the sweeter God’s gift will become. Even if you don’t feel it. Even if you can’t see past the next fifteen minutes. That doesn’t mean God abandons you. It means that he is hidden for a time so that He may reveal Himself more fully to us at the proper time. There is hope. There is a future. There is a Messiah who comes.
-DMR
PS come see my blog at I Trust When Dark My Road
February 4th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I was just having this conversation today after watching a cymbalta (depression medication) commercial; that I don't know that our society ISN'T understanding depression-but it is constantly diverting itself from our sole consolation. This is in no way to be insensitive to the reality of the very real dark days. On the contrary, if anything, it is confirmation that we are not the Doer that pulls us up out of the muck that we constantly find ourselves in, or the Giver to recognize our very real and blessed future.
I am constantly humbled that, on good days or bad, the Truth of the Gospel remains the same. I fight it, I sneer and debase what I have been taught to be true throughout my life, every day, in order to satisfy my foolish wants with psuedo-piety and downright manipulation, but like you say, DMR, the gift only becomes realized, or that much sweeter sometimes the harder we fall. We are told that God spits out "the lukewarm" who don't really want to contend with the Truth. I am no exegete, but I would wager to say that even this "spitting out," is an act of God's grace to cause one to realize the severity of our sins. Any separation from God is a nightmare. And until the Word of God rings in our ears to still us and nourish our sanctified lives, we are but wanderlust sheep, not realizing how dependant we are on our Triune God for all things.
I only bring this up to illustrate how far we've come from Luther's understanding of our Christian lives. Our culture does not understand that suffering is the result of sin, but they just want to do away with it, and rise to the idea that they aim to conquer the illness. Even in practical terms, trying to eat better, exercise, etc…Satan loves to use these practical props to assault those who look to themselves for victory. Look at poor Brittney Spears. She has been to rehab after rehab, and is now in a padded room because she is a danger to herself and others. God have mercy on her and her children, Lord! May she be reminded that she has a Savior, Jesus.
It is as you say, DMR, that we are absolutely dead, both of body and mind, to do anything for our salvation…in all of our sufferings. And, as you said in another post, the "Spirit prays for us," on our sinful and wretched behalf, because we don't even have the right words apart from Christ.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
[...] Seminary. This one is a review of an excellent book entitled, Speaking of Sadness. Go check out the [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Read “Gospel Therapy” by Rev. Daniel Lee Krueger. I found it helpful. You may check it out at http://gospeltherapy.com.
February 4th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
“What he doesn’t do (and I have yet to find) is a real treatment of the relationship between mental illness and faith.”
Here’s another book suggestion: “Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness”, by Kathryn Greene-McCreight.
February 4th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I think depression is the natural human condition. Childbearing is brought forth in pain – “In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life (Gen 3:17). Sin is a dealy plague, one of hereditary infection, that brings with it profound misery. Unlike evangelicals and protestants Lutherans cannot promise happiness and good times. In this life we are only guarenteed suffering. Doctors cannot medicate this problem, politicians cannot solve it through programs and initiatives, homeopath fitness and diet gurus cannot fix it. Only Christ.
haha, gosh. I would be suspicious of anybody perpetually happy without a trace of tentatio. Currently, it is a great time to state the obvious connection between sin and depression. A significant part of the country has been duped into thinking that getting tanked up on countless varieties of psycho-trophic antidepressants is for their benefit.
I would recommend regularly praying the Psalms for anybody suffering depression (particularly ps. 30, 103, and 119). The Lord has given us a beautiful exchange of words to address our suffering – having full assurance in all that he promises.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Certainly depression is a natural human condition: so is all sickness and disease since the fall. However, that being the case does not mean we should ignore it or treat it as a purely “spiritual” problem.
DarkMyRoad’s last blog post..Speaking of Sadness (on seminaryblog.com)
February 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Don’t you see a distinctiveness involved in the gloominess of mood of depression versus that of disease and bodily infection? Or is depression just another illness?
February 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Yes, Mr. Larson, depression is “just another illness”. It has at its core a physical cause.