You can feed your depression these body-building nutrients, or you can starve it to death.  Can you see how self-defeating and avoidable these behaviors and attitudes are? 

1.  Shame:  Hurt somebody, and don’t ask them or God for forgiveness.  Don’t make amends either, or learn from it--just forget about it.  That way you can’t forgive yourself either.

2.  Resentment:  Expressing anger is the normal human response to injustice.  Hold it inside so it can turn its energy against you.  Don’t forgive people until they repent and deserve it.

3.  Chronic Frustration:  We get depressed when life doesn’t meet our basic needs for friendship, affection, health, and the necessities money can buy (food, shelter, transportation, etc.), so take care of everybody else and just hope somebody takes care of you.  Don’t take care of yourself—that would be selfish.

4.  Unresolved Loss:  When you lose a job or people dear to you, don’t replace them--just live in the past, the hole left behind.

5.  Drifting:  Avoid a life that has purpose and meaning.  Avoid joining a group or reaching out for better relationships to get a sense of identity or belonging, as this all gets too confining.

6.  Buried Hurts:  If you were shamed or mistreated in your youth, don’t tell anybody about it.  If you do tell, stay in the victim role.  Don’t let God come into the memory for healing.

7.  Unrealistic Expectations:  Set your personal goals so high you can’t succeed, or so low you don’t feel any challenge.

8.  Avoid Cure:  Be too proud or scared to get medication. The same for counseling—be your own person.  And avoid the support of groups—the people and principles of recovery are only for the sick, not you.  Stay with your false pride, or your false humility, whatever preserves your privacy.

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Dr. Paul F. Schmidt