Can you overcome depression using the Bible?

[thebibleworks]

What does the Bible say about the subject of overcoming depression?

What are your thoughts? I know Elijah suffered depression, so it is pretty clear that followers can be in pain. How we overcome that suffering is what I am seeking in this discussion.

How has Jesus helped you overcome your weaknesses?

Praise God and all glory to Him.

 

[crossnote]

Some nice promises to keep one out of the Slough of Despond.

 

[Major]

What does the Bible say about the subject of overcoming depression?

What are your thoughts? I know Elijah suffered depression, so it is pretty clear that followers can be in pain. How we overcome that suffering is what I am seeking in this discussion.

How has Jesus helped you overcome your weaknesses?

Praise God and all glory to Him.

I am sure that many have been able to do just that. I have dealt with this subject with my grandfather and my mother.
I can tell you from personal experience that Depression is an active experience and can result from many sources other than the physiological:
1. guilt
2. unconfessed sin, false guilt,
3. misplaced shame,
4. ungodly fears,
5. suppressed bitterness or
6. hatred,
7. hopeless grieving
8. and unbiblical expectations and probably a hundred other reasons.

But I can also say that with some people, it is simply a chemical imbalance in the brain.

In others, it is a more "clinical" form of mental issues.

In those last two, those people can read the Bible, memorize every word and it just will not matter. They will have to take prescribed medication to be able to function.

The two people I saw, and lived with were two of the most Godly people I ever knew. But when there mental condition was at a low and they either forgot to or refused to take their medication.....you wanted to be somewhere else.