Depression is defined as "the act of pressing down; the state of being pressed down; a low state." Some people may for no reason they can explain feel a certain way. What makes this particularly frustrating to them is they do not know why they feel the way they do, and they do not know how to change how they feel. What may also compound the situation is when one emotion may develop another. Grief is defined as "the pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, injury, evils of any kind, sorrow; regret…It is also occasioned by our own misconduct ; sorrow or regret that we have done wrong." (Webster's Dict.)
Now, enter an individual, who is living with an unhealthy and low view of him or herself. This may contribute to the development of depressive symptoms. This could complicate grief, and retard a person's progress forward in their mourning process. It is important that a person posses a healthy and accurate view of themselves. Sometimes if a relationship ends in divorce or our assessment of our physical appearance is extremely less than satisfactory then we may live in despair or misery over our lives. Add to this a traumatic loss or two, and the life of the solitary soul, now compounded in the negative, perhaps becomes more depressed. To ease their pain they may turn to drugs or materialism, or sexual promiscuity to drown their sorrows, and overcome their insecurities.
The road to recovery may not be easy, but not impossible. Remember we are an individual of value by virtue of our creator, (Genesis 1:26-27). This is where self-talk is very therapeutic. We may have to repeat this to ourselves continuously, "I am of value." The second aspect of recovery is accepting the gift of salvation found in Jesus the Christ (John 3:16, 36; Romans 6:3-4, 17-18). We can rise above.
