Judge Not...
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Those of you that know me, and those that have spent any time reading this blog, know that I am not a religious person. I never have been, and likely never will be. For that reason, when Melissa brought me a copy of a sermon written by the minister of the Methodist church that she and the kids attend, I was reticent to read it. The Sermon was titled “Judge not: Depression, Suicide and Compassion” (and is copyrighted to Harvey C. Martz, 2001.) For the sake of education, I did read it. I don’t know what I expected, but what I got was something much different.
The Bible teaches (Matthew 7: 1-5) “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged…” and the sermon was, actually, very full of compassion and understanding. Dr. Martz, it appears is well read in the works of Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison (“An Unquiet Mind”, and excellent picture of manic depressive illness) and the like, and knowledgeable concerning the wide range of famous people who have been effected by depression or bi-polar illness ( Phil Graham [Washington Post publisher], Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Styron, Vincent van Gogh, Albert Camus, explorer Meriwether Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Ludwig Beethoven, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and I could go on and on. It can be argued that our world, as we know it, was shaped by great people suffering tremendous pain resulting from mental illness. Think of the contributions they might have made if treated for their illnesses.
Dr. Martz’s sermon made the point that 17 million Americans (of 298,458,535 total Americans, or 5.7%) each year experience serious depression (either situational or chronic) and less than half of those seek help, and that 1 in 5 adults will experience a period of depression at some time in their lives. Dr. Martz stressed that those suffering from depression often (as the statistics bear out) have the courage, energy, motivation or combination of these things to seek the help they need. Many of these people decide that the only way to end their pain is by ending their lives, a conclusion that, to a rationale and well mind, usually simply isn’t true. The sermon encouraged people to reach out to those that they know that are mentally ill and help them get the help that they need, be that medication, therapy or some combination thereof.
My pleasant surprise in reading Dr. Martz’s work was that, like many works I have read on mental illness by “people of faith”, Dr. Martz spoke of Jesus and God and turning to faith in times of crisis, but he recognized that mental illness is a biological problem, not a moral flaw or character issue, and not a problem that prayer alone is going to solve. He suggested that medication and/or psychotherapy might be God’s way of sending the help that those seeking God’s help have requested.
I wish everyone had the compassion and open-mindedness that Dr. Martz exhibits in his sermon. Even those that view the world from different perspectives need to recognize mental illness, situational cases aside, as something that actually exists, its always been here, ignoring or denying it won’t make it go away, and the only way to make the matter better is by addressing the problem for what it is: A biological deficit, not unlike diabetes or cancer, which needs treatment, in most cases, to heal.
Situations like chronic depression and other illnesses have a filtering effect. They show you who your real “friends” are, and who are your “friends” as long as its convenient. I have some great friends, who have been by me and supported me through the ups and downs of my fight with bipolar disorder. Some of them have already been in similar situations, needing the support of friends to get through hard times, and I can only hope I have been there for them like they were for me.
And then there are the “friends”, a couple of which were seated right beside Melissa during this sermon, who vanish in the face of adversity. The people in my social circle are coming to an age where many, if not most, will run into crisis of some sort (illness, death of loved ones, etc.) at some time. That’s just life. I hope that the “friends” that have vanished from my life have friends of higher quality then they have been, themselves. I hope they are not judged, as they have judged.
Finally, the sermon cites Psalm 13, which in part reads:
“How long O Lord will you forget me?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I have pain in my soul
And have sorrow in my heart all day long?
Answer me Lord, give light to my eyes,
Or I will sleep the sleep of death.”
That passage brought tears to my eyes (and it is trying to do so now, too.) I can’t even hazard a guess at how many times I have found myself in that exact place, feeling forgotten, miserable, and that things either had to get better immediately, or they had to end altogether. So far, I have been fortunate to have the support of friends to guide me through. If left to my own devices, I would have never found my way out of that darkness. Remember, there is always a better day tomorrow waiting on you, there is always help if you seek it, and there is always an alternative to taking that tragic and irreversible step of suicide.
Those of you that know me, and those that have spent any time reading this blog, know that I am not a religious person. I never have been, and likely never will be. For that reason, when Melissa brought me a copy of a sermon written by the minister of the Methodist church that she and the kids attend, I was reticent to read it. The Sermon was titled “Judge not: Depression, Suicide and Compassion” (and is copyrighted to Harvey C. Martz, 2001.) For the sake of education, I did read it. I don’t know what I expected, but what I got was something much different.
The Bible teaches (Matthew 7: 1-5) “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged…” and the sermon was, actually, very full of compassion and understanding. Dr. Martz, it appears is well read in the works of Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison (“An Unquiet Mind”, and excellent picture of manic depressive illness) and the like, and knowledgeable concerning the wide range of famous people who have been effected by depression or bi-polar illness ( Phil Graham [Washington Post publisher], Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Styron, Vincent van Gogh, Albert Camus, explorer Meriwether Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Ludwig Beethoven, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and I could go on and on. It can be argued that our world, as we know it, was shaped by great people suffering tremendous pain resulting from mental illness. Think of the contributions they might have made if treated for their illnesses.
Dr. Martz’s sermon made the point that 17 million Americans (of 298,458,535 total Americans, or 5.7%) each year experience serious depression (either situational or chronic) and less than half of those seek help, and that 1 in 5 adults will experience a period of depression at some time in their lives. Dr. Martz stressed that those suffering from depression often (as the statistics bear out) have the courage, energy, motivation or combination of these things to seek the help they need. Many of these people decide that the only way to end their pain is by ending their lives, a conclusion that, to a rationale and well mind, usually simply isn’t true. The sermon encouraged people to reach out to those that they know that are mentally ill and help them get the help that they need, be that medication, therapy or some combination thereof.
My pleasant surprise in reading Dr. Martz’s work was that, like many works I have read on mental illness by “people of faith”, Dr. Martz spoke of Jesus and God and turning to faith in times of crisis, but he recognized that mental illness is a biological problem, not a moral flaw or character issue, and not a problem that prayer alone is going to solve. He suggested that medication and/or psychotherapy might be God’s way of sending the help that those seeking God’s help have requested.
I wish everyone had the compassion and open-mindedness that Dr. Martz exhibits in his sermon. Even those that view the world from different perspectives need to recognize mental illness, situational cases aside, as something that actually exists, its always been here, ignoring or denying it won’t make it go away, and the only way to make the matter better is by addressing the problem for what it is: A biological deficit, not unlike diabetes or cancer, which needs treatment, in most cases, to heal.
Situations like chronic depression and other illnesses have a filtering effect. They show you who your real “friends” are, and who are your “friends” as long as its convenient. I have some great friends, who have been by me and supported me through the ups and downs of my fight with bipolar disorder. Some of them have already been in similar situations, needing the support of friends to get through hard times, and I can only hope I have been there for them like they were for me.
And then there are the “friends”, a couple of which were seated right beside Melissa during this sermon, who vanish in the face of adversity. The people in my social circle are coming to an age where many, if not most, will run into crisis of some sort (illness, death of loved ones, etc.) at some time. That’s just life. I hope that the “friends” that have vanished from my life have friends of higher quality then they have been, themselves. I hope they are not judged, as they have judged.
Finally, the sermon cites Psalm 13, which in part reads:
“How long O Lord will you forget me?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I have pain in my soul
And have sorrow in my heart all day long?
Answer me Lord, give light to my eyes,
Or I will sleep the sleep of death.”
That passage brought tears to my eyes (and it is trying to do so now, too.) I can’t even hazard a guess at how many times I have found myself in that exact place, feeling forgotten, miserable, and that things either had to get better immediately, or they had to end altogether. So far, I have been fortunate to have the support of friends to guide me through. If left to my own devices, I would have never found my way out of that darkness. Remember, there is always a better day tomorrow waiting on you, there is always help if you seek it, and there is always an alternative to taking that tragic and irreversible step of suicide.
posted by DeMental at 10:29 AM
6 Comments:
Interesting. But from what you've written, medication and psychotherapy, years of them, haven't worked for you. Why would you suggest them for someone else?
Grandma: Thanks for your comment. Always thought provoking. Can I ask if you suffer from depression or any other mental illness? Medications and therapy have helped me for sort periods of time and to varying degrees. They just usually are transient in thier effect. Many people are helped a great deal by these treatment methods and require nothing further. I HAVE been helped by ECT. Just because meds and therapy didn't work for me, doesn't mean they aren't worthy of trial by those suffering from an illness. They are certainly better than just going untreated and ending your life because you can take the misery no longer.
No, I don't suffer but I have no doubt that you do.
"Think of the contributions they might have made if treated for their illnesses"
What more exactly would you like Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln to have done?
In fact in that list there is only one person, Van Gogh, (two if you think Meriwether Lewis' death was suicide) whose life and work was cut short by suicide before the days of modern treatments for depression. And they are balanced by Sylvia Plath who had treatment and committed suicide.
I think it is debatable whether treatment in the form of antidepressant drugs and ECT have made for a better outlook for depressed people.
Perhaps if Beethoven and Lincoln had had ECT they would have contributed less not more.
Anonymous: I'll just start by calling your comment absolutely asenine. First, I didn't ask for more from anyone (Lincoln, Beethoven, ect). I merely posed a question of what could have been. Your position, if I understand it, is that you think people should just go untreated for depression, live an absolutely miserable life for as long as they can stand it, and then end thier life. Yes?
You obviously don't suffer from depression. And if you do, then you're just simply an idiot. No one should have to live with the pain depression causes, but no one should give up the fight against the illness without running the gambit of treatments either.
Having been an artist before ECT and lost all ability and motivation due to it, I agree with the other Anonymous.
I was also a musician, very proficient though not a pro, and now I can't learn or play at anything like the level I was born with. I cannot build up a repertoire, because if I don't play a piece of music for a while and then go back to it it is like I have to start all over. Learning won't stick.
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