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To: tired&retired

Depression results in life when a person is growing spiritually. It doesn’t feel that way when you are in it, but the end result can often be excellent as a person moves ahead in their life.

There are two main identities an individual experiences during life, “Dependency Identity and Self Identity.” When either identity is diminishing, a person will often experience depression if they do not formulate a focus on a pathway that moves them ahead. The path of focus for an individual leaving dependency is seeking validation of a healthy sense of self that will set them free. Teenage depression is created as consciousness moving forward without a focal point is much like a ballerina doing pirouettes across a dance floor without a focal point. They get dizzy and fall over. Or grab hold of someone to hold them from falling.

The same depression takes place as a person is losing their self identity. It can be the loss of a spouse, child, parent, job, or whatever a person utilizes to define who they are. It is a terrible freefall feeling. Many people will seek to redefine self in order to feel good about who they are and get rid of the depression, but this is usually temporary. This “mid life crisis” freefall leads one to the “dark night of the soul” experience.

If a person goes through the dark night of the soul experience and comes out the other side, they can transcend self and experience God’s Love first hand. This results in an inner peace and a freedom from the downward spiral.

Just as focusing on self identity gets a person out of dependency depression, focusing on God through prayer gets one out of a loss of self identity depression.

This process is not just theory, it is real and experiential. For the same reason that you cannot put new wine in an old wineskin, nor patch an old garment with new cloth, we must get rid of the old prior to bringing in the new. This very painful process of emptying self is what creates the feeling of depression. When we are full of our-self or full of others in dependency, we have no room for God.

By the way, we as a society are about to go through a great diminishing of self or mid-life crisis. While it will be very painful, it will help us turn to God for our strength.


18 posted on 07/14/2013 5:24:28 AM PDT by tired&retired
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To: tired&retired

yes...my mid-life crisis lasted like 7 years and I almost offed myself at one point. Having a very willful and not so saved minister rubbing my face in my crisis in front of the congregation made my situation much worse...but that is another story.
I do see that the soul in indeed traveling in the body though. The body with it’s pain ability and brain, tests us to see if we will grow patience and move towards the light or God, or move towards judgement and irritability and satan. This is a boat camp for heaven, but as Jesus said, most really prefer a selfish hell in the end. It ultimately is up to us, and that sets us apart from all the rest of God’s creation...we have a choice.


26 posted on 07/14/2013 8:06:22 AM PDT by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: tired&retired
“The path of focus for an individual leaving dependency is seeking validation of a healthy sense of self that will set them free. Teenage depression is created as consciousness moving forward without a focal point is much like a ballerina doing pirouettes across a dance floor without a focal point. They get dizzy and fall over.”

That is a very good picture. Will come back later when I have more time to go through all of the posts. My teen daughter was just diagnosed with anxiety disorder and OCD. Not too severe, but it does impact her life to a degree. The psychiatrist we met with and who did the testing is recommending DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), which others have said is good. We are just getting started with the process.

She's a really good kid, kind, well-behaved and is a Christian. A better person than me really.

55 posted on 01/11/2014 1:28:22 AM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts 2013 is 1933 REBORN)
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