“The RoseBouquet”

So many talk about having depression, that it’s almost a status symbol now. Of course, those who truly suffer this affliction do not enjoy it much. I KNOW there are spiritual answers.

There are however, certain other emotions that often are mistaken for depression. They should not be treated the same, so it’s important to distinguish which you are dealing with.

DISCOURAGEMENT
This is what you feel when you lose hope. You’re unable to do the work God gave you. You get sadder and sadder, and give up - on yourself, on God, on life.

Put a discouraged person with other depressed and sad people, and it will only get worse. This individual needs to be with encouragers who speak with hope and gladness.

SORROW
This is a deep sadness of the soul, yet it is possible to be very sad about one thing, such as an illness, or death in the family, and joyful on another. A sorrowful person can be encouraged by someone weeping with them, and can still have a sense of purpose, and acknowledge that God can use this time to help him or her grow up spiritually.

GRIEF
This is an anguish of the spirit affecting both soul and body. It drains you of all emotional energy, causes sleeplessness, and can distort perspective. Often it involves a total disinterest in food. Grief that drags on and on can become depression.

Medical professionals use the following criteria for depression, the most common mental disorder in America, and twice as common in women as men.

At least two weeks of any four of these symptoms;

- poor appetite and weight loss, or of eating too much, and gaining weight,

- sleeping problems, either too much or not enough,

- no interest or pleasure in usual activities,

- fatigue, no energy,

- excessive or wrong sense of guilt, feeling worthless, and reproaching self,

- unable to think or concentrate,

- thinking of death or suicide a lot.

The medical people refer to categories and special terms. A Neurotic depression is mild, a Psychotic depression is severe.

[Read the rest of this article. The other five articles are in that same area - check the index to the Inspirational articles. You may also download the e-book for free from this e-book page. Help yourself to any of the others on that page too. To my chagrin I see that they are all .exe books, which means you can only open them on a Windows computer. I must fix that!]

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