Years ago, a student of mine tried to explain that he had been too depressed to study and asked to be excused from a scheduled exam. I blew him off, telling him to get over it. Only hours afterward, he jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment building. The young man left behind a suicide note telling his parents that he just couldn’t endure the sadness that had been torturing his soul.

I’m not denying that depression can be spiritually induced. Guilt from having wronged and hurt others can bring it on. A sense of having failed to live out the will of God can give rise to depression. Certainly the fear of death and what might follow can sap the joy out of life. In such cases, meditation on scripture (especially the Psalms), prayer, and other spiritual disciplines often can make available what the Bible calls "the balm of Gilead” that heals the sin-sick soul (Jeremiah 8:22).

As we consider the causes of depression, those of us in the church must face the ways we might be responsible for creating it. Supposedly, we offer a gospel that delivers people from guilt, but often, when we think people do not feel guilty enough to take our gospel seriously, we preach to them in a way that makes them feel guilty. Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways.

I have a special concern about how the church has generated destructive guilt among gay and lesbian young people. Suicide is the second most common cause of death among teenagers, and many suicide victims are young people who hate themselves because of their sexual identities. Whatever else the church does, it certainly is outside the will of God if it is causing teenagers to hate themselves.

Often, we ignore the fact that our spiritual condition and psychological state of mind are highly affected by what is happening to us physically. Sometimes depression is simply the result of exhaustion. In 1 Kings 19, we read how the prophet Elijah, worn out from his struggles to defeat Jezebel and her prophets of the pagan deity Baal, is so depressed that he cries out to God to end his life. In response, God tells Elijah to eat a good meal and go to bed, and that he will feel differently in the morning. For those of us who are depressed because we’re not getting enough sleep (and most Americans don’t), it is a great comfort that we can take our burdens to Christ, and He will give us rest.

Diet and exercise also figure into our emotional and spiritual conditions. The Bible tells us that the body is "the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 6:19), and it is sad how badly most of us treat our bodies. How many of us would feel more spiritually alive and joyful if only we exercised and stopped dumping junk food into God’s temple? Big doses of chocolate bars can put us on a high, but we'll experience a spiritual and psychological downtime a short time later.

Depression can also be brought on by chemical imbalances in the body. A person’s DNA can trigger chemical reactions that put him or her into an intensive funk. For women, the bodily changes that accompany menopause can bring on extreme depression. With prayer, "all things are possible,” but escaping from depression that is due to a chemical imbalance in the body through prayer alone is not probable. Those who try to dissuade religious people from getting medical help for clinical depression, claiming that faith alone is the cure, can do devastating harm. In many cases, a severe depression that lasts more than a few days is bio-physically based and requires medical treatment. This is certainly true for any who suffer from a bipolar condition. A psychiatrist is trained to diagnose both medical and mental causes of depression. To seek such treatment does not denote a lack of faith, but rather evidence of a willingness to take advantage of what God has made available to us through modern science.

Life Can Be Depressing

Sometimes people are depressed for no other reason than that they are in jobs that dehumanize them and leave them drained and disappointed. The meaninglessness that so many feel in their everyday work can create a deadness of the soul. If at all possible, these brothers and sisters must be helped to take the bold step of quitting jobs they find meaningless and finding vocations that will enable them to be fully alive during the workday, as well as in their leisure hours. Being devoid of vitality throughout the workday can dilute the energy that is needed to love, and without love depression is inevitable.

Also, enduring personal tragedies of one sort or another can drain the love of life out of our being. I hasten to add that in the midst of tragedy, mourning is a good and necessary thing—as long as it doesn’t go on endlessly. There should be a point at which a decision is made to move on from mourning and choose to be life-affirming once again.

Considering Counseling

Sometimes, what is most needed for the depressed is some good counseling from a psychotherapist. There are many deeply spiritual people who have found good counselors to be godsends, especially if the causes of depression lie in deep-seated and repressed memories of painful and traumatic past experiences. This is particularly true for persons who were sexually abused in childhood. Psychoanalysis can dig out of the subconscious such ugly realities so that they can be dealt with the effects negated. Counseling can be especially helpful when dealing with the anxieties that accompany times of hard decision-making. Such anxieties often leave persons immobilized and almost suicidal.

I have a friend who, after the death of her husband, struggled over whether or not to sell her house and move into a retirement home. This previously joyful woman was overwhelmed with depression until a counselor helped her weigh her options and make a decision. Once the decision was made, the deadness of her soul and the anxieties that had tortured her disappeared. Getting the right kind of counseling from the right kind of counselor is essential. It is a good idea to talk to your pastor, priest, or rabbi about whom to see for help. The best counseling is usually carried out in harmony with one’s own faith commitments. Make sure, therefore, that you and your proposed counselor are in agreement with basic beliefs and values.

Finally, it might be that in some cases overcoming depression requires nothing more than praying for the will to be joyful. There’s a woman I know whose health has failed in many ways. She can only breathe with the help of oxygen tanks; her husband has deserted her; she needs charity to survive. But she is determined to be happy—and she is. Lincoln once said that most people are about as happy as they decide to be. In the end, you may have to pray for the grace and courage to decide to say "yes" to life and, by so doing, prove to the world that you have indeed been saved: "by grace through faith." To make such a decision is not to be a Pollyanna. It is willing to will the will of God.

Islamic Solution to Depression

Depression vs Sadness

Let’s start by pointing out some basic differences between Depression and Sadness. In essence, sadness is part and parcel of human life and part of being "human”. It is a normal human emotion that more or less all human beings experience in different phases in their lives. Even holy personalities like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad went through deep sadness. This is just like if a bee comes and stings someone, there will be an immediate reaction. The Quran, the holy book of Islam, provides ample examples from the lives of different messengers-who were the greatest of all human beings-that they all went through pain, suffering and the resulting sadness in their lives. From that perspective, we can conclude that sadness is "normal”.  According to Islamic teachings, God Himself claims that it is HE who bestows happiness and sadness:

But still that immense sadness of Prophets and Messengers (PBUT) didn’t stop them from pursuing their missions even more vigorously. Their sadness didn’t result in hopelessness nor in a state of inaction-in other words, they went through periods of sadness but not depression.

Depression on the other hand, is characterized by hopelessness, loss of meaning in life, self-worthlessness and feeling of sadness without being able to identify the cause of the gloominess in life. The two states of crying and laughing are unique to the Human being, that no other animals shares, and its purpose is to make us reflect on the realities of life. Everyone experiences symptoms of depression, but when the symptoms remain for two weeks or more it is called clinical depression. However, the Quran teaches us, we have to be careful of many of the symptoms of depression even it is for a short time. Depression is the result of not being able to do what we want. It is a sense of loss of freedom & control.

Below we will discuss different types of depressions, and will have solutions to the hopelessness, meaninglessness, self-worthlessness and daily dysfunctional life from an Islamic perspective. All change begins by sees things in a new light. By embracing these truths you will be able to bring light into the gloom of your life.

Some Basic Truths

Classification of Depression as a Psychiatric Disorder

According to DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical manual Version IV), below are some of the major types of Depression:

Other major categories include Bi-polar Depression (manic Depression) and Dual Diagnosis (Depression along with Substance Abuse). Dual Diagnosis is most difficult to diagnose and treat because most often people suffering from major depression self medicate using illegal addictive substances and end up seeking therapy for substance use. Once treatment for addiction progresses to an extent, depression comes up to the surface. On other times, depression acts as a catalyst to relapse in substance abuse and maintains the vicious cycle for the victim of dual disorder.

The Quranic Treatment of Depression

Let’s now talk about some of the evidence based reasons why people develop depression

Social Causes of Depression

Family problems: marital problems, parent-child relationship, marital problem and depression of parents affecting their children. Lack of affection, attachment, acceptance and bond within the family. When marriage is not working, it often turns to a stressor, which leads to depression and substance abuse. Depression of one spouse usually affects the other and the marriage. Even if the depressed spouse recovers-he/she is likely to relapse due to unsatisfying marriage. Marital discord often leads to depression and vice-versa, it may also lead to verbal, physical and emotional abuse.

Solution:
If you find yourself in this situation then

Lack of Positive Social Network: Stressful social environments, lack of support network, high expectations and social competition due to cultural norms, ethnicity and social class play a role in overwhelming people and as a result, they become vulnerable to depression. A depressed person turns out to be over-sensitive to social criticism and feed-back, displays low self esteem, becomes dependent on people and constantly seeks re-assurance in a way that drives people away from him/her and thus re-enforces his/her idea that he/she is unworthy as a person.

Solution: If you find yourself in this situation then

Gender Issues: Societal norms regarding gender expectations can be source of stress, especially when women have to play multiple roles like a working mom who has to take care of her family, go to work and may be attending school simultaneously. Research also suggests that women are more likely to get overwhelmed by stressful events than men. Research suggests that single mothers are thrice more prone to depression than married mothers. Relative lack of power and discrimination in workplace, financial stress of low paid jobs, lack of social support network-especially for single mothers, biological factors like menstrual cycle, pregnancy, child-birth and menopause-they all contribute to increased risk of depression in women.

Solution: If you find yourself in this situation then:

Medical Reasons: Research suggests that stroke, heart attack, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and hormonal disorders can cause depression in a person by causing chemical imbalance in the person’s brain..

Solution: If you find yourself in this situation then

Now, let’s shed some light on how depression is affecting the modern society:

Social Impact of Depression:

Major depression is 4th most disabling condition in the world, and 2nd most in the developed world. As well as the human cost, the burden on society is incredible. At the rate of increase, it will be the 2nd most disabling condition in the world by 2020, behind heart disease. It is estimated 35 to 40 million Americans living today will suffer from major depression at some time during their lives, with about half of this amount suffering from recurring depression symptoms. A major risk outcome of depression is suicide. Here are some facts correlating depression and suicide:

Given that suicide is the 8th largest cause of death in the US, it’s no wonder that major depression is classed as "the nation’s leading mental health problem”

Islamic Solution to Depression: