Kate's Blog on Health and Spirituality

This article written by Van Driessen, a blogger, spiritual thinker and colleague, presents compelling evidence that supports a different type of remedy for treatment of the darkness and despair of depression. A prominent specialist in the field, Dr. Richard A. Friedman, expresses his frustration with the current regiment of treatment for depression- stating that only one third of the people being treated medically experience a full remission. Sharing his own experience with depression and the spiritual journey that led him to healing - Van reveals how he has successfully remained depression free for 25 years by turning to God.

Are you companioning with some unsavory characters? I’m not thinking robbers and arsonists here, but rather discouragement, worry, hopelessness, anger, resentment. These guys lead you into unhappiness, and maybe deeper, into depression, a dark, strength-sapping state of hopelessness and despair.

What if you were able to look at the thoughts that come across your mental screen and decide which ones to keep and which ones to toss — similar to keeping necessary mail and tossing the junk? That would be cool, wouldn’t it?

Of course, tossing junk mail by yourself is one thing, but dealing with hopelessness and despair on your own is another. Still, it does all come down to how we view ourselves and what we choose to accept into our thinking. And, drug-based efforts to treat depression face, it seems, an uphill battle in helping patients do this consistently and permanently.

Dr. Richard A. Friedman, a specialist in depression, writes: “When will we ever get depression under control? Of all the major illnesses, mental or physical, depression has been one of the toughest to subdue. Despite the ubiquity of antidepressant drugs — there are now 26 to choose from — only a third of patients with major depression will experience a full remission after the first round of treatment, and successive treatments with different drugs will give some relief to just 20 to 25 percent more.” He writes a regular blog, “Well,” for the New York Times.

Please click here to read the entire article

#mentalhealth #spirituality #prayer

Kate is interested in sharing blogs about the impact of prayer and spirituality on our health written by her colleagues. As a Christian Science practitioner, Kate has experienced the power of prayer in her life as well as in the lives of others. She is the media and legislative contact for Christian Science in Maryland. Kate can be contacted through Twitter @CScomMaryland and email at: maryland@compub.org