What is Depression Really?

I. The Dispositions

Hopelessness, self-pity, the innocent victim mentality, and a false sense of helplessness — each represents an absence of virtue that we need to repent of.

II. The Experience

Depression or despair is the experience of lack or absence of Truth, Love, and Virtue — that is, distrust and distance from God, Who is Truth, Love, and Virtue.

III. Other Sin Involved

It is the sin of failing to accept temporary suffering — that is, the failure to accept reality and to believe that suffering is good and necessary because God is bringing good out of it — because of believing one or more of the following lies:

A) That we have never been part of the cause of the problem in any indirect or direct way

(When in truth, if nothing else, we are not born sinless, we are imperfect members of society, and we will sin in the future if we haven’t already.)

B) That what we want — the way we want it — is a need, and that we should get it

C) That we are innocent, helpless victims who are not causing our own emotional suffering

D) That we don’t deserve to suffer in justice for all our bad choices (past, present, and/or future)

E) That we don’t need to suffer to compensate in justice for all our bad choices (past, present, and/or future)

F) That there is no Truth (no lesson in how to be Loving and live in Peace, Contentment, and Fulfillment) that we need to be learning

G) That God will not bring good out of everything we think is a “problem”

(This is distrust that God is perfect Truth, Love, and Virtue.)

H) That there is nothing we need to do differently in order to be part of the solution