Depression
and Anxiety:
A Journey
If your strength,
joy,
and feeling of purpose are
stripped away from you,
are YOU still YOU?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatmegsaid/
“The reason we struggle with
insecurity is because we compare
our behind-the-scenes
with everyone else’s
highlight reel.”
Steve Furtick
Pastor of Elevation Church,
Charlotte, NC
Photo referred to in
recording was
removed because of
copyright issues.
A good
counsellor can
make a huge
difference.
Depression/Anxiety Symptoms
Physical
•
•
•
•
Sensitivity to noise, light, smell
Trembling
Adrenalin overload (fight or flight response for no reason)
Heart racing, pounding (even without any feeling of worry or
dread)
• Very limited reservoir of physical strength
• Weight gain or loss
• Inability to sleep or the tendency to sleep all the
time
Depression/Anxiety Symptoms
Mental
• Deadness of emotion (during deep depression)
• Inability to deal with anything or anyone outside of
myself
• Brain noise - too many thoughts, or bits of unrelated
thoughts that can't be shut down
• Lack of focus
• Memory loss
• Confusion (like a fog)
• Inability to make decisions - can't come to a conclusion
• Fear, a feeling of inexplicable dread
• Deep, crippling sadness, despair, hopelessness
(completely separate from circumstance)
“Depression may be caused by episodic misfiring of areas
of the left Frontal lobe and left Temporal lobe as a result of
genetic, environmental, social or physiological factors.”
Ainsworth, P. (2000)
Understanding
Depression
My Role as a Mom
• Cherish little things
• Use strength for important things
• Just do what you can
• Make a game of erasing a bad
experience
• Celebrate good days or parts of days
• Give yourself permission to fail
My Role as a Wife
•
•
•
•
Be honest
Trust your husband
Be openly grateful and encouraging
Push yourself to occasionally date or go
away with your spouse
My Role at Work
• Let it go
My Role as a Friend
•
•
•
•
Good friends will endure
Stay connected somehow
Let people help you
Know that you will support your friends
sometime in the future
My Role as a Stranger
• Smile
• Pay for the meal of someone else in the
drive-through
• Little random acts of kindness
• If you think something nice about
someone, tell them
• Donate blood (I also donated my hair)
• Buy a chicken purse
Here is a picture of the wonderful “chicken purse” mentioned in the recording.
If your strength,
joy,
and feeling of purpose are
stripped away from you,
are YOU still YOU?
I didn’t understand
depression before and
now I do.
Maybe that is all that
matters.
God is not going anywhere
We’re
going to
be
alright