Battling the Shadows: Pt #3 - The Hidden Risk Factors of Depression: A Christian Perspective

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Introduction to Depression Risk Factors

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Resilient Solution Shortcast, episode 70, christians and Depressions Part 3. I don't know about you, but sometimes, when I'm listening to the news or watching TV or listening to media, it seems like the entire world is depressed and in need of medication. I often feel like sometimes we've accepted the medical model that suggests that depression stems from a neurological imbalance and that medication is the only solution. Well, recent research has showed us that it may not necessarily all be a neurochemical imbalance, but research also shows us there are a list of additional factors that could be risk factors for having a major depressive episode, and that's what I'll be talking about today. Hello, my name is John Thurman and you're listening to my podcast, john Thurman's Resilient Solution Shortcast, where I help you become more resilient in your personal life, in your relationships and in your faith. Let's jump right in. Thanks for joining me today. Why, hello, this is John Thurman and thanks for joining me today.

The Three Ps of Depression

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Today we're in our third part of the series on Christians and depression, and today I'll be sharing some information about additional risk factors. Do you know that when we look at depression, there's a whole series of things that can contribute to it? It's not just a neurochemical imbalance. It can be a host of other things, and first of all, I'd like to start off and just share three of the broad risk factors, the three Ps. I like to call them. First is the predisposition factors. Those encompass components of your background that may increase your risk of depression. These might include your genes, the genetic makeup, your upbringing, your personal history, your socioeconomic background, faith influences, culture, recent events, overall health, diet, exercise just a whole host of things. And some of these factors are changeable, while others are not. The second broad risk factor category are precipitating factors. These refer to psychological, spiritual and emotional and physical triggers that could lead to depression, such as trauma, stress, chronic illness, just a whole host of things. And then the third one are perpetuating factors. Now, these are different from the other two because they can occur after these other events or in the context of these other types of factors. An example of this would be someone who's a heavy drinker or drug user, or even a heavy marijuana consumer. The dominant effect of alcohol and marijuana on the brain is really more depressive than anything, and, if left unchecked, this combination can create a vicious cycle in which you feel more depressed. And so the more depressed you feel, the more you use the medication or drug, the more depressed you feel. So you just take more of the medication and end up in this crazy circle. So be careful. And for the next few minutes I want to review some other risk factors.

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The next one is insomnia. That's right. This is such an overlooked part of our makeup and our practices that really has a huge impact on us. Now, most of us occasionally have some issues falling asleep. If you don't believe that, watch television for an hour in the evening and see how many sleep aid ad comes on. However, when a person misses several nights of sleep, they not only can feel out of sync with life, but they can begin to have some psychological manifestations of it. We know that the longer you lose sleep, the more severe and less tolerable your symptoms become. I put a couple of links in the show notes and in my blog on the five stages of acute sleep deprivation, also a link to Doc Parsley's website. He is a former SEAL, a medical doctor who specializes in sleep. He's got some really good information in those links.

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So number one is insomnia. Number two is chronic illness. For countless people, chronic illness and depression are brutal facts of life. A chronic condition is a condition that lasts a long time and usually cannot be completely healed, although some can be controlled by diet, exercise, good sleep, hygiene, appropriate medication. Some examples of chronic disease can be diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, kidney disease, hiv, aids, lupus and a whole host of other autoimmune issues.

Depression-Prone Personalities

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The next risk factor is you may have a depression-prone personality. Now, at this point, don't do an eye roll or a deep sigh, just realize that personality types are highly inheritable. An individual with a depression-prone personality may have inherited a strong predisposition to status anxiety. While these findings might discourage some people, a person, any person, can learn to adjust their attitude, adjust the way they think and the way they feel and the way they receive the world and the way they live their life. So if this sounds like you, don't disparage, don't feel down. Realize that some of it's just in your genes, but you can take some kinetic measures to overcome that.

Four Types of Loss

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The next risk factor is grief and loss. For many, grief and loss involve intense emotions we'd prefer to avoid. However, it's completely natural to experience some of these things when we've lost someone, when we've lost a pet, lost a job. That's just part of the process of grief. These reactions are really important. They're a critical part of processing and recognizing the significance of loss in our life. Good grief work includes identifying our losses by experiencing intense emotions that are associated with those losses.

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Several years ago I was exposed to Dr Archibald Hart. Dr Hart was an innovative Christian psychologist who had done a lot of work in grief and integrating biblical principles and psychological principles. In his groundbreaking book Unmasking Male Depression, which was a huge help to me when I was dealing with some of these issues, indicated that loss can be a significant cause of depression. Based on his research and studies and clinical experience, he notes we typically encounter different types of loss and most of the research suggests that depression can stem from these losses. He breaks them down into four different categories. You want to check the show notes on this, but when I was dealing with my depression these were golden.

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The first type of loss he talks about is a concrete loss. That loss is really tied to something that occurred in real world history. It has a time and date of a specific loss. That's a concrete loss. Maybe a parent passed away a pet, you lost a job. You can go back to your calendar and remember that day, so that's a concrete loss.

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The second type of loss is what he calls an abstract loss. These losses are usually related to a concrete loss. It's abstract because it's nothing you can specifically touch or remember in detail. You can feel it nothing you can specifically touch or remember in detail. You can feel it but you can't touch it. When I hear someone talk about losing a pet, losing a parent, I can recall the pain I felt when I lost my first dog, yeller. Yes, we had a dog named Yeller. You can guess what movie that came out of. And that type of loss is a loss that's described more abstractly. It's a feeling, it's a thought, it's an impression, but it's all part of normal grief. But it's different than concrete loss. It might be you walk into a home and some smells in that home remind you of your grandparents. Or you see someone with a pet and it reminds you of your pet, any type of association there. It's not concrete but it's connected. The good news about that is, as you acknowledge and understand those abstract losses, you can grieve them. So the concrete losses and the abstract losses you can process.

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The next two are where we get into trouble. The third type of loss are imagined losses. An imagined loss involves all those thoughts and regrets about what, if only if Thoughts like if I'd done this or if I'd only done that. This form of loss is challenging because nothing can be changed about it. It drains you dry, it steals your energy without offering any resolution and, while it's an emotional burden, it's something you really can't grieve. It just steals your energy and distracts you. The fourth type of loss is a threatened loss, and the threatened loss is what happens if you don't deal with the imagined loss. It's a huge what if? That can occupy your mind, steal your time and represents a potential issue, because it's a loss that may or may not happen. For instance, if a man discovers a lump on his neck, he may undergo a biopsy, but while he's waiting for the results of the biopsy, his mind can go all sorts of places. He could be planning his funeral or getting real depressed. So just be aware that we have the concrete loss, the abstract loss, which you can grieve and work through, but you really need to be on guard with the imagined losses and the threatened losses, because those are time stealers and resource stealers.

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A couple of things I'd like to share with you. Grief is personal, it's unique, it's like a thumbprint. There is no nice easy transition to grief. There are no easy five steps. It's not linear, it's confusing, it's messy and it's like a thumbprint. So, as you're processing loss in your life, don't let anybody tell you how you need to do it. It's something that's very unique, because grief is unique, the loss is unique. It's your loss.

Grief Is Personal and Unique

Closing Thoughts and Scripture

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In this episode I've reviewed a few of the risk factors for depression that Christians might face. In the next podcast, I'll go a little bit deeper as we'll talk about additional factors that can impact depression, including trauma, stress and anger and resentment. So be sure you check in next week. As I'm wrapping up today, I'm thinking about one of my favorite verses and it's found in 2 Corinthians, the first chapter, verses 3 and 4. And this is from the ESV. It says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. That's an important verse. So as you work through grief and loss issues, don't do it alone. Remember the Lord is with you and there are people who can walk with you through that at your church and support groups. And while it's important to do some grief work by yourself, don't let that grief work overwhelm you. There are tons of resources in your church and the community of faith that can help you work through that.

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Thank you so much for joining me today. Remember to join me next week as I share some additional risk factors for depression, which include trauma, stress, brain injury and anger and resentment. That'll be the final look at some of the risk factors and in the weeks following I'll give you some practical tools that you can use to get better. I am author and therapist, john Thurman. You can learn more about me at my website, johnthurmannet, and I want to thank you once again to join me today. It really means a lot to me that we can spend a little bit of time together, and my hope and my prayer is that something I say, some ideas I share, will give you encouragement and hope. And as I close out today, let me just remind you this is a day that the Lord has made and I'll make a choice to rejoice and be glad in it. Thanks so much for joining me. God bless. We'll see you next time. Thank you.