Depression Can Kill You

Depression can kill you

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're with me. Today's show's gonna be an interesting show. I wanna talk about depression. Some of you know my story that I had suffered depression from the time I was 16 years old till I was 45 years old every single day of my life. And the Lord delivered me. But I have a heart to help people who are suffering this horrible disease. It's, it's misunderstood. Nobody actually gets it. People don't know how to get help, and the people who are depressed are so unmotivated to get help. But this show is gonna bring light to this terrible problem and show you that depression is curable and there is an answer.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Self. Welcome to Self-Talk. I wanna talk to you today about depression and how to get over it, how to get through it, how to get healed of it. Depression is a disease according to the American Medical Association. It affects millions of people, and I'm not gonna get into a very in-depth medical discussion of depression. I'm just gonna talk to you kind of down and dirty, what depression is and what it does. And if you've suffered depression, you'll understand everything I'm saying. And if you have not suffered depression, you'll probably know someone who is, and this will teach you on how to help them. Cause depression can kill you. People commit suicide because of depression. Depression takes the life out of you, the wind out of you, the the breath out of. It destroys your joy, your motivation for living. It takes away your concentration. It takes away your, your, your willingness. It takes your motivation. It takes away your, your happiness. It takes away your willingness to live to thrive. It, it destroys dreams and visions. It's, it's deadly. It hurts relationships. It hurts your parenting skills. It hurts your job, and it's, it's not God's will for you. And the devil loves it, and he loves to take advantage of it. You know, depression is a disease, Uh, science has shown. It comes from low levels of serotonin and other chemical reactions in our mind. And unfortunately, Satan will come in right on top of it. He'll come in right in the midst of it. What the devil does is he attacks where there's a wound. He attacks where there is a weakness. And you know, he's a, he's a military strategist. In the old days when people hid behind walls, The enemy would always look for a gate or an entrance to get through the wall, and usually the, the city gate was the, the weakest point, and that's where the enemy would concentrate its forces at the weakest point. And you see, when you're depressed, it's uh, you got a weak point. And so demons will harass you when you're depressed. Depression to me, it's like a spirit of heaviness. There's a heaviness that comes over you that, that's hard to explain. It's like a cloud covers your mind and it, it sits on top of your, um, your head. Like a, like a heavy helmet, like a heavy yolk upon your shoulders. Depression is horrible. And my story, uh, maybe I mentioned this in some earlier shows, I started getting depressed when I was about 16 years old as best I can remember, and I just learned how to cope with it. I was always sad, always sad, but I still, I did my teenage things. I, I dated, I played baseball, played basketball. I, you know, did the things that teenagers do. I learned... how did this keep going? My father was a very tough guy. He was a World War II combat veteran and very tough guy. And he always taught me, you know, you just suck it up and you keep going. You, you never quit. You never stop. You always get back in the game. And so I was taught that, that no matter what you feel, you keep going. So with these instructions from my dad and this training from my dad, I learned that no matter how horrible I felt in my mind, I could smile and I could do my job, and I could do what I needed to do. Most people didn't know that I was depressed, and if they did know I was depressed, they wouldn't have known what to do with me. You know, What do you say? What do you do? It was very misunderstood. Back when I was suffering depression, you know, people, it wasn't treated much. It was just, uh, kinda like, well, You're sad. You just need to, need to have your faith in Jesus and get over it. But I didn't get over it. You see, depression is like a, a darkness that comes over you. It's, it's where your life is drained out of you. It feels like you're dead inside. Now depression's got many levels. Uh, there's, you know, very deep, dark depression, and there's mild and moderate depression and many levels in between. But overall depression makes you feel worthless, makes you feel like there's nothing to really, nothing to get excited about, nothing to be happy about. And if as you sink, sometimes people who are depressed will spiral, they'll spiral down. And as you spiral down, see, depression leads to depression. And what I mean by spiraling down is you, you wake up one morning and you're depressed. And by the way, usually it's worse in the morning times cause your, your levels of serotonin are lower in the morning. Usually depressed people get better in the afternoons. Um, but as you spiral, as you spiral down, you start getting depressed because you're depressed and then you get more depressed. And then because you're more depressed, you get more depressed. And so depression self perpetuates itself. And you spiral. And you spiral and you spiral downward until finally, you reach a place, and I, I reached this place several times. It's called the black hole or the Pit. And if you've suffered depression, you know what I'm talking about. The black hole. It's, it's a horrible, it's a horrible place. In the black hole, you feel completely dead inside. You have nothing. There's just nothing. This, it's like nothingness. And, uh, it's a horrible feeling, but in a way, you're not feeling at all. You're just feeling dead. You're feeling lifeless. You're feeling no hope, no joy, no motivation, nothing. I remember at one point, uh, I could, when I was in the pit, I just couldn't hardly move. I would just sit in a chair and I just couldn't move, and I just had this dark, horrible, heavy dead feeling come all over me. Some people when they reach this point of depression, feel like I'd be better off to be dead. And so suicidal thoughts come in when you're in this black hole, but it doesn't always last forever. And you do come out of it and you can, the, the depression will, will moderate. I'll tell you. Um, I just have a heart for people suffering depression. I want you to know God delivered me and I learned ways to cope with it, and I learned ways to, to handle it. And God delivered me. And depression is curable. It is curable. There is an answer for this. Now, people who are depressed, one of the key components of depression is it destroys motivation. And so that's kind of a double whammy because when your motivation is destroyed, it's hard to seek help because you're not motivated to do anything. Some people are depressed, cannot get out of bed. They're not motivated to get out of bed and they have to force themselves to get outta bed and go to work. Uh, I've known people are so depressed, had to force themselves to get outta bed and brush their teeth, and it became overwhelming. See, depression makes everyday life feel overwhelming. Like it's just too much to handle. So the problem is when you're feeling overwhelmed and you're feeling unmotivated and also depression can make you feel exhausted when you're feeling all these things, doing positive things for yourself is very difficult. There's things you can do, but - maybe go see a good Christian counselor - but you don't do that because you have no motivation. You just want to curl up in bed and go to sleep. People who are depressed will sleep a lot because while they're asleep, you have some peace. People who are depressed may eat a lot because food gives temporary pleasure. People who are depressed may do drugs because drugs is a temporary escape or alcohol. People who are depressed may become sexual addicts or all kinds of addictions because it gives temporary relief from the horrible pain of depression, and sadly the church doesn't get it, in my opinion. No, no condemnation on the church. Many Christians who suffer depression go to church and feel like condemned and shamed because you know, the joy, the Lord is our strength, they're supposed to be praising and worshiping God, getting inspired by the message. And, uh, people lay hands on you and they pray for you. And there's all these things that, that give you an answer, but you are not getting anything out of it. Then you feel condemnation because maybe you didn't have enough faith. Maybe you're not reading your Bible enough, maybe you're not praying enough, maybe you're not actually saved, all this kind of stuff. Next thing you know, you come outta church feeling condemned, full of shame, and you get more depressed. And a lot of it is people perish for a lack of knowledge. So many leaders in the church, they just don't really know how to handle people who are depressed. Well, one thing you have to know, people who are depressed most of the time are not gonna reach out to you for help. They don't have that motivation. They're not motivated to do anything, so you have to reach out to them. You've got to be able to spot them. You have to be able to discern them and reach out to them. You see, a depressed person needs a motivator. A depressed person needs an encourager. A depressed person needs tons of motivation. You cannot just say, Hey, you're depressed. This is what you need to do. Now go do it. They're not gonna do it. You may have to tell them many times, you may have to grab their hand and lead them to it. You know what I'm saying? It's it; depressed person needs encouragement. Remember their mo- They know they need to go to counseling. They know they may need to go see a psychologist. They know they may need to do some positive things for themself. They know. They know, they know, but they don't have the energy or the motivation or the drive. They're stuck. They're feeling worthless. They're feeling incapable. They're feeling like they just, they're feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is a really key word. They're feeling overwhelmed, and when you're overwhelmed, it's hard to do anything. So it, it feels like a trap, but it's not. There is a way out. And so I experienced all this for years and years and years. I remember once I, um, you know, sometimes churches get some weird doctrine, and I love the church and Jesus loved the church, and I'm a member of a church and I support the church. You know, if I speak about the churches because sometimes just like to see a little reformers, a few changes in the church and you know, no church is perfect. All churches have issues. Just like I have issues and you have issues. If you say you have no issues, you really have issues, hahaha. So once I, um, was severely depressed and, and I witnessed many years ago before I was a pastor or church leader, I was severely depressed and I went to church and, um, I saw a couple of friends of mine. And, uh, I went up to them cause I wanted them to pray for me, lay hands on and pray for me. Well, the pastor of this church had just done a series about being led by the Holy Spirit and he had actually made it kinda legalistic. Like, you don't do anything unless the Holy Spirit tells you to do it. So I go up to my two friends, a husband and wife, I said, Hey guys. This is, I think before church service. Hey guys, I'm really, really feeling I'm not doing well. I'm just, I'm not making it here. I, I need some prayer. And they said, Well, hold on one second. And then they said, You know what? The, the Holy Spirit's not leading us to pray for you right now. And I was devastated.

But you see, that's not the Holy Spirit, because that's unbiblical. The Bible tells us to pray always. You see the Holy Spirit's not gonna contradict the word of God. But I'll never forgot that they told me they weren't led to pray for me. I left the church and um, I'm driving down a highway and I see a bridge and I, uh, I saw this bridge and I was thinking, you know, I could just drive right off this bridge and end it all, you know, thank God that I didn't do it. And so, you know, I made it and I, I learned to cope and how to function. Despite my depression. Now, my depression, they called it a systemic type of depression, which means it's one that is continual. I would have days when I was almost okay, and then days when I was doing horrible. Now it's not like the manic depressive who has the super highs and the super lows. I never had the super highs. I just had sorta okay to the low. So what do you do? You know, what do you, how do you, how do you get delivered? And, um, you know, maybe I've been talking to you. You're, you're, you really don't know what to do. Your motivation is gone. Whatever. First thing you need to do, is find an encourager, find an exhorter. Don't go to the prophet. Now the prophet's just gonna tell you how to cow ate the cabage. Prophet's gonna be black and white, tell you what's of, God, what's not of God. Now I flow in a prophetic gift. Nothing againsts prophets, but when you're depressed, you need to find the encourager, the exhorter, someone who continually exhorts you. And you need somebody who not only will exhort you, but put actions to their words. They may exhort you to come to church. You don't feel like going to church, so this person will show up and drag yourself to church. You need to find the encourager because you're, you can't encourage yourself and explain to them you're having trouble with depression. You're lacking motivation. You need constant encouragement. And I talk to 'em, You know, I, I train Christian counselors for a living, and I tell them, You have to encourage, encourage, encourage. I mean, heavy doses of encouragement to a person who's depressed, backed with action. So you get the encourager. Then if you're depressed, remember, depression feels like death. It feels like death. So what do you do? You want to be around life. Make yourself go to where there is life, a good, a church with really good praise and worship. There's life there. Um, a place, maybe a mall when malls used to be a really big thing, not so big anymore. But go to a place where there's people, go to a park where children are playing. Go to a to a party, go to a a sporting event. Get around people, Where there is life and things going on. See, when you're isolated, you can get caught into that. It just feels like I'm dead syndrome. But when you surround yourself with life, it rubs off on you and you feel better. The other thing, studies have shown,

that exercise, aerobic exercise, is a great medicine for vaca- for, for depression. I believe it was Duke University did a study where they had two control groups and one control group they put on Prozac and the other control group, they had do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day like walking, and they found out that the two groups had the same results. The groups that took Prozac had some positive results. The groups that did, the depressed group that did the aerobic exercise every day, had the same or better results than the medication. Aerobic exercise. Sunlight is critical for depression. Sunlight with the natural vitamin D is critical. Haven't you ever heard the expression, you know, it's, It's cloudy outside? Oh, it's such a gloomy day. It's a gloomy day. It's so depressing outside. Well, there's some truth to that because darkness and cloudiness and a lack of sunlight leads to depression, but sunlight is a natural cure for depression. Okay, sunlight. Exercise, sunlight, exercise outside is a natural cure for depression. Pray. Get some spiritual warriors, some spiritual warriors, people who know how to pray in the spirit. Pray in the Holy Ghost. You know, as charismatics, we call it Holy Spirit, Pentecostals call Him Holy Ghost, but know how to lay hands on you and do spiritual warfare and rebuke the spirit of darkness. Rebuke the spirit of heaviness, rebuke the spirit of oppression off of you cause you see demons come in on top of depression and make things worse. And pray for the Holy Spirit to to bring spirit of life over you for the Holy Spirit to heal you. By His stripes, we are healed. We will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. You need people laying hands on you and praying for you until this thing lifts. Until it lifts, and a big one for me. Here's a big one for me. When I was depressed, I would condemn myself. I would get into almost self hatred. You see, I would get depressed. And so when I was depressed, I didn't feel like doing what I needed to do. Therefore, I felt bad because I wasn't able to function the way I wanted to function. So I would get angry with myself, frustrated with myself, start condemning myself, and next thing I know, I'm more depressed. So I learned that depression is a disease. I learned to have mercy. Hear me now. Have kindness and mercy for yourself. Give yourself a break. Be nice to yourself. You're depressed. It's a disease. Be kind to yourself. I think I mentioned this on another show maybe a few months ago. My sister talked to me one day and I was depressed and I was feeling- beating myself up for being depressed. I was getting depressed cause I was depressed and I was ma- mad at myself for being depressed cause I wasn't doing everything I should. Should have been doing. And my sister said to me, Ray, if you had the flu, would you condemn yourself? I said, No, because I had the flu. I would just take care of myself. That's all she said. And I knew exactly what she meant. Depression is a disease. It's like having a bad case of the flu. What do you do? You take care of yourself when you're sick. When you're depressed, instead of condemning yourself, beating yourself up, feeling bad about yourself. Take care of yourself. Love yourself. Talk to yourself. Give yourself what you need. Be nice to yourself. Try that one. Be as nice to yourself as you are to other people. Isn't it amazing how nice we are to other people? Isn't it amazing that we treat other people better than ourself? We do that. Be nice to yourself when you're depressed. Be especially nice, and have mercy on yourself when you're not functioning the way you need to be functioning, it's okay. You're sick , you're not gonna function at full bore when you are depressed and it's okay. But what happens is as you begin to show yourself that mercy, the depression will begin to lift because you're not adding condemnation and pressure on top of the already increasing problem of depression. So instead of adding pressure to yourself, condemnation to yourself. Beating yourself up when you're depressed. When you show yourself kindness and mercy and empathy, you're not feeding the depression anymore and the depression can lift. I realized too, that when I was depressed, I was wearing a special pair of glasses. It was like a pair of sunglasses that made everything negative look more negative than it was. And, so my mind was telling me that this problem, that what I was facing in life was just way too much. I could not handle it. I was being overwhelmed and I realized that I had on this pair of glasses, I call 'em magnifying glasses and they'll take anything that is negative and blow it up out of proportion. So I realized that what I was seeing through these depressed sunglasses. And what I was feeling was actually not the truth. I realized that the disease of depression was lying to my mind. And so I would literally ask myself, Ray, what's the truth? Or you could do this even better, Holy Spirit, spirit of truth, show me the truth. And so when you started focusing on the truth, you had realize that the problems that seemed overwhelming were not overwhelming. And the jobs you thought you could not do, you could do. And the things that you thought were impossible were impossible. And even though you felt overwhelmed, the truth was there was nothing to be overwhelmed about. So you started feeding yourself the truth. In a way, you have to ignore your feelings. Now. I know your feelings are important. I'm not invalidating your feelings. But when your feelings through depression begin to lie to you, you've got to speak the truth and seek the truth that'll set you free. And the truth is, the depression magnifies everything out of proportion. And it's not the truth. It's the truth for the depression. It's the truth that the enemy wants you to believe, but it's not the truth of God. And so you have to counsel yourself and ask yourself what is really going on here? It feels overwhelming, but it's not. It feels like nobody cares, but people do. It feels like I'm worthless, but I'm not worthless.

It feels like I, I, I, I have no energy, but I do have strength. So you start battling in your mind replacing the lies that depression is implanting in you over and over again with the truth. And again, it will help you. It'll help you overcome this. It'll help you combine with sunshine, with exercise, with prayer. And don't forget praise and worship. It's hard to be depressed when you're worshiping God. It's hard to be depressed when you've got good, upbeat praise and worship music. Now, I'm saying get into a good charismatic Pentecostal contemporary upbeat praise. You know, our God is an awesome God. You know, how great is our God? You know, Chris Tomlin's songs, whatever, get into it cause it's going to alleviate the depression. Now, sometimes I had to force myself to go to church cause I didn't want to go to church. And I realized again, that was the depression. I also remember realized this, that you're going to be. more depressed typically, in the morning time, you're gonna feel better in the afternoon and that's okay. It's okay, but realizing that is gonna help you defeat that, if that makes sense to you. Counseling helps. Good Christian, Holy Spirit filled Christian counselor will help you. Um, Exercise, prayer, eating healthy, I mean all the sugars and stuff. You know, sugar gives you a high, uh, then it gives you a low, which is not so good. Eating healthy obviously helps you. There's foods that that can help you. And then as you continue to battle this, eventually it's gonna go and then you pray, Lord, deliver me from this heaviness. Deliver me from this depression. Now another point is there are times you're gonna be depressed because you lost a loved one. You lost your job. Something terrible happened. Well, that's a depression that's part of grieving and that's normal. That's normal. It's normal for- all of us are gonna be depressed from time to time because of something that happened in our life. Some tragedy, some crisis, but that depression doesn't last forever. You get over it and you're ready to move on, but the depression I'm talking about just doesn't leave. It just hangs with you and hangs with you, and hangs with you, and hangs with you. That's the one that I'm talking about. So there is a kind of a normal everyday depression that you know is, is deserved, so to speak, and natural. But the disease of depression, it affected me for so many years of my life, is not God's will. And part of it was part of the demonic scheme. You've heard me talk about the schemes to keep me from ministry, to keep me from everything that God has for me. And I wanna tell you something, God delivered me from it. I mean, I did things, you know, I started exercising. Uh, I like to ride bikes, ride bicycles, um, you know, just comics and stuff. Watch a comedy. Don't watch a horror movie, okay? Talk to positive people, people who, you know, find the exhorters people with the gift of exhorters. Talk to the exhorters, Do the things that... Come back. Fight the lies. Fight the lies with the truth. Have mercy on yourself. Know that it's not as overwhelming as it seems, and know that you are a child of the most high God and you are valuable before you were in your momma's womb God knew you and he called you and he ordained you. You matter. You matter a lot. Fight the lies of depression. Counseling. Now on medications, I can't recommend medications to you. That's not my job. That's, that's not, can't do that. Um, I did some medications, you know, over the years. They helped a little bit. But me, I didn't like the medications. To me, it just, the medications for me made me feel nothing. I didn't like that either. I wanted to feel something and I'm not against medications. God can use medications, but that's between you and your doctor. But I'm talking about some natural, healthy ways to beat depression. So let me pray for you right now. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I come to you, Father, each person listening to me who is suffering depression or maybe has a loved one who is. Lord, give us the wisdom to overcome. Father, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke the spirit of heaviness, the spirit of oppression that's upon those listening to me who may be suffering, that I command all heaviness and oppression, and the depression, Those spirits that are trying to cause havoc. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ. I speak life to you. In the name of Jesus Christ. I speak joy to you. I speak peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, you said we should know the truth. The truth you'll set is free. Lord, you are the truth. And I thank you for setting us free and I just hear a few things prophetically. I'm hearing the name Jane. Lord, I thank you for Jane. I thank you Father that she is setting free and, and Michael. Father, I thank you for freedom for Michael. In Jesus' name. I thank you for the parent listening to me with the two teenage daughters who are this erratic Father. It's just causing all kinds of havoc in the house. I thank you, Father. Holy Spirit, come I rebuke every scheme against that family and the name of Jesus Christ father, the name of Jesus. I thank you for Marie Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we're setting her free Father. And Father, everyone listening to me, that's just getting a, a check in their spirit or, or conviction in their spirit, Father, that this show is for them. Lord, I thank you, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, touch 'em now. Come upon them now. Whoever is listening to me, you need a touch of the Holy Spirit. You need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will wash everything out of you that is not of God, and replace it with what is of God's so Holy Spirit, wash over, wash in. Fresh, filling fresh oil, fresh fire for everyone listening to me who so desires and needs it. And Father, this disease of depression must go by His stripes, we are healed. The heaviness of an oppression of this horrible disease must go. The joy of the Lord is our strength, Father, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. I thank you Father. Depression be gone in the name of Jesus Christ. And joy and peace and love and purpose, return and identity return in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for listening today. This is Dr. Ray Self and you've been listening to Self-Talk. God bless you. It is a privilege. Amen. 

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Thanks for listening to Self-Talk. This is your host, Dr. Ray Self. Very serious show we had today about depression, and I pray that if you're listening that you got free and you know how to help other people get free from that dreaded disease. I appreciate you very much. Please go to my website for this podcast. That's icmcollege.org/selftalk. Icmcollege.org/selftalk. The link is in the notes there. You can subscribe and when you subscribe, we'll send you a weekly email about the podcast. Also, we're gonna start making some special offers and some special things available to you when you subscribe, also give me a review that really does, you know, help a lot. My heart and my passion is the International College of Ministry. It's a Holy Spirit filled seminary. I founded over 20 years. And we have associates, bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in ministry, theology, Christian counseling, and prophetic ministry. If you want to- God's calling you and you know you need to get serious and get equipped for your purpose and you're called, or maybe you never finished your college degree and you want to get an accredited Holy Spirit filled seminary degree, go to my website, icmcollege.org. Or if you say, You know what? I think I'm ready to enroll. Go to icmcollege.org/enroll if you'd like to donate to help me continue this show. Cause this show is expensive. I do not make any money off this show. It's not a profitable show, it's an expensive show. If you'd like to help me continue the show, I'd appreciate you partnering with me, and that's icmcollege.org/donate. But whatever you do, you know I love you and the Lord. I thank you for listening to me. I pray that the main thing is that this shows a blessing to you, cause that's really what it's about. Just building the Kingdom of God and blessing God's people. God bless you. Thank you again for listening to Self Talk.