Product Description

This work is aimed at depressed Christians, their families, friends and fellow church members. Written by a Christian doctor it sets out to answer specific questions such as "what is depression?", and "why should Christians get depressed when they have an all-powerful God on their side?" It addresses the role other Christians can play in helping the sufferer overcome their illness and looks at the ways in which Christians can tackle their problem. The answers to such questions are explained and exercises at the end of each chapter offer much down-to-earth advice. From personal experience the author offers his conviction that for Christians, depression rarely has a spiritual cause and that it is often impossible to snap out of it or find instant healing. The Church can sometimes make it worse by heaping guilt on the sufferer while ultimately learning to cope with depression can be a "spiritual gymnasium" through which God makes you more fitted to carry out His plans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #151715 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 478 pages

Endorsement from back cover by Clive Calver, President, World Relief
This book must rate as one of the most distinguished and significant contributions to an open and frank discussion on the subject.

About the Author
John Lockley studied medicine at Cambridge and has been a GP in the UK since 1976. He writes frequently for the medical and lay press and is involved in broadcasting. He is the author of a number of books including the 'After the Fire' trilogy. He is married with three children and lives in Bedfordshire, UK.

Excerpted from A Practical Workbook for the Depressed Christian by John Lockley. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Some years ago, one of my friends who is a Christian doctor observed that Mrs.X would have greater problems in dealing with her depression just because she was a Christian. Her faith, instead of being a help, would become a hindrance.

He was right. But why should this happen? With an all-powerful loving God to help us, why should Christians find anxiety and depression such a problem?

Christians often cope very badly with depression. Some of this is due to guilt - the feeling that ‘real Christians don’t get depressed’. Sometimes it’s fear of the truth about ourselves - we feel that we are unacceptable as we are, even as Christians. And our Christian friends may inadvertently make things worse through what they do and say.

So where is God in all this? Why should Christians get depressed? Why do they find depression so difficult to deal with when they have a loving God on their side? And why does the church so often cause extra problems?

I hope that some of the answers will be found in this book. It has been written specifically to give practical advice to the depressed Christian. If you work through the book slowly, carrying out the exercises at the end of each Chapter, you will learn at first hand some of the principles involved in getting rid of anxiety and depression.

Be warned! Some of the exercises are rather strange. They are all recommended for very good Christian reasons, but don’t worry if some of them seem odd - all will be explained eventually! Equally, don’t expect to get better by carrying out each exercise just the once - they aren’t like that. Each exercise contains a principle to be carried through repeatedly into your normal life. In any case depression doesn’t go away in just a day or two - it may take many weeks or months to lift.

A word about the function of the church in all this. Some churches are wonderfully supportive in dealing with depression. Others are not - and as a result can make life much worse for the depressed Christian. I’ve tried to indicate what can go wrong and why. Please don’t assume that because things can (and do) go wrong that the church is useless - far from it. The church, working correctly, provides the best possible support for anyone with depression. Unfortunately, many churches don’t understand the real nature of depression and as a result can make life harder, not easier, for the sufferer.

Finally, I hope this book will be of help to three quite different types of people - depressed Christians; their families and friends; and fellow Church members. The more that Christians understand depression the more effective will they be in helping themselves - and others - who may be suffering from it.

Being depressed is bad enough in itself, but being a depressed Christian is worse. And being a depressed Christian in a church full of people who do not understand depression is like a little taste of hell.

A depressed Christian has a double burden. Not only is he depressed but he also feels guilty because, as a Christian, he feels he is supposed to be full of joy. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. So what’s wrong with your spiritual life if there’s no joy?

Not only are you facing your own problems but you also have to deal with criticism from your Christian and non-Christian friends. Your non-Christian friends will be saying (probably out loud) "I thought you were suppposed to lose your worries when you became a Christian." Your Christian friends will be muttering things about unconfessed sin, are you truly a Christian, they can’t put their trust in you because of your mental state, and what sort of a witness are you giving anyway?

The sad thing is that the guilt that you feel is totally undeserved. Yet this guilty feeling is probably harder to deal with than the depression itself: for a start, it makes you doubt the validity of your Christian life and experience. Then you start asking yourself whether you really were a Christian in the first place. Maybe you weren’t, (you think) and God is angry with you. On this basis, the treatment ought to be to pray harder, read the Bible more, confess more, be really penitent for your sins.

So you try it - and it doesn’t work. You try harder - and it’s like banging your head on a brick wall - nice when you stop. So you feel even worse. Maybe God is really angry with you for being so stupid as not to get things right. Or maybe your name isn’t on the list of those who are predestined to be Christians, so no matter how hard you try you can never be a Christian, no matter what you confess, do or say.

Alternatively, maybe you think you’ve committed the unforgivable sin.

Whatever it is you are feeling, stop. None of it is correct, and you’re trying to change the wrong things. Part of the problem is that you are exhausting yourself trying to change things that seem to be immutable: and they seem immutable mainly because you are attacking them from the wrong direction.

Do stop trying - for a bit, anyway. Read to the end of this chapter, then go away and think about it. Don’t do anything more. Don’t try to get better. The harder you try, the worse it is likely to get.

Customer Reviews

Busting Christian Stereotypes about Depression
I borrowed this book from a local theological library and decided to buy it. The author is an evangelical Christian and a GP. What I find helpful from a Christian perspective is the busting of some typical Christian "folk myths" such as "If you are depressed, there must be something wrong with your spiritual life" and "Guilt is always sent from the Holy Spirit and is always good for us" and "Psychology is from the devil, all you need is God".

Five main subject areas are addressed in this book:

1)"Some basics": causes, symptoms and treatment of depression.

2)"Why am I like this? And What Can I Do About it?": including things like stress, loneliness, breavement, anger, to name but a few.

3)"Why Me, Lord?": including a section on guilt.

4)"Helping and Healing": How NOT to help, how to ask for help from family and friends, what the church shouldn't do and sometimes does.

For the Christian who may be suspicious of such "unChristian and secular ideas" as self-esteem, this book will help you understand why disliking oneself and feeling powerless (two frequent self-images of depressed people) are actually NOT what God wants for his children.

One book which will NOT make you feel worse!
As a Christian sufferer of depression, I was apprehensive picking up yet another book on the subject. Although it promises not to repeat all the usual "You just ought to pray more" type of unhelpful advice, I was sure the book would be heavy-going and add to my burdens yet more things I ought to be doing.

But, right from the first pages this book just glows with warmth and understanding. The author points out that reading large chunks may be too much when you are depressed. The first of his "exercises" is a great relief - basically stop trying so hard: don't pray tonight unless you really really want to, and don't feel guilty!

That is not to say that Christian ideals are compromised - not at all. A great many issues, including sexuality, bereavement, anger, fear, even the "Unforgivable Sin", are tackled in a way which is theologically sound while also being very loving and caring. The topics which can be a source of guilt to the depressed person are not dodged but are dealt with in an intelligent and understanding way.

The central theme is that depression is an illness, not a sin, and may in fact be God's way of preparing someone for work ahead. Besides that, it is an immensely practical book. I suggest you buy several copies, not just for yourself and your church library, but so that every time a Christian friend is diagnosed with depression you can send them one. It will be much appreciated!

Absolutely Excellent
At last a breath of fresh air in the stuffy views about depression in Christians.

I had lost count of the number of times I had been told to pull myself together, or worse still read my bible because that would make me feel better, this was usually at a time when I hadn't even got the energy to make myself a cup of tea. What I really needed was some practical help such as a cup of tea made for me.

Depression is a terrible condition and not always caused by outside influences. My depressions come from within, they are a result of a chemical imbalance caused by the fact that I have Manic Depression. My problem is that by the time some one has decided that I need some help, the depression is lifting of its own accord and I am becoming capable of standing on my own two feet again. Then I have a different problem, lots of people deciding I'm the cause for the month and not knowing when to back off.

This book would make good reading for all in the church who think they have a ministry in healing. Either as a good guide to handling depression or as a warning to leave well alone. I from experience would rather have no help than several clumsy helpers who blunder in and make matters worse.

The excercises at the end of the chapters were a great help and although I didn't follow even half of them, the ones I did use became good coping mechanisms for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone suffering from depression and would lend mine out except that it is falling to bits with use.