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To: najida; cva66snipe; hosepipe
The more I prayed, the worse it got. Oh well, live and learn.

Well you did live and learn najida!!! Spiritual processes both, I'd say. The important thing is you pulled through that "dark night of the soul." (And perhaps the "pull" that did the trick was something beyond yourself....)

As cva66snipe pointed out earlier, Job experienced profound depression; but he with the help of God recovered. I have often wondered what the depression of St. John of the Cross was like, in his frightful descent into the profound darkness of his own "dark night of the soul," contemplatively induced yet utterly horrific for him, I can easily imagine. I have had experiences like that (rarely), yet I'm sure they were no way near to what John's (or Job's) sufferings were like. Yet the feeling of being surrounded and engulfed by limitless, shifting dark entities seeking your extinction can be a truly scary experience. For me, the answer was simply to hunker down, try not to be afraid, trust in the Lord and wait for Him to rescue me. And then He would. And then I'd be fine.

I don't have experiences like that anymore. However, were such to return, I would refuse pharmacological and/or ECT therapies for a certain fact.

67 posted on 08/15/2006 11:37:07 AM PDT by betty boop (The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. -J.B.S. Haldane)
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To: betty boop

For me it was the opposite,
because my history of depression came out of years of abuse in a 'spiritual' setting. There ain't a bible verse you can read to me that doesn't trigger a memory of physical, mental or sexual abuse. God/Father/Molestor are all one in the same...one day I may fix it, until then, I just stay away.

Walking away from trying to fit into the perfect religious mold was the first step in fixing what was broken. That and some really good Drs. and meds that work. Plus learning all I can...identifying what has physical components, what things are clearly genetic, what is fixable and what I have to learn to live with.


70 posted on 08/15/2006 11:42:35 AM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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