A Very Good Program on Depression from PBS

Depression: Out of the Shadows

PBS has recently begun airing this very good program on the complex subject of depression. We are invited into some personal, painful stories, but also introduced to the latest treatments. The program can be viewed online at the PBS website. Please forward this information to anyone you know who has been touched by this illness.

Also, if you have seen the program, I would appreciate hearing from you through the comments section of this blog. I'd like to know what parts of the program most resonate with your own experience, and I'd like to know what treatment approaches have been most helpful to you or to those you know who have recovered or are recovering from depression. Wes

Another Quote from Gerald May

I've been consumed with a presention on ethics I'll be offering to the Heart of Texas Counseling Association in a couple of weeks, and so blogging has, once again, fallen to the wayside. However, I wanted to let you in on these words from Gerald May (the formatting is mine): [The dark night of the soul experience] liberates desire by diminishing attachment. The immediate result is expansion of human freedom. Freedom, however, is not an end in itself. It is not just freedom from something; it must also be freedom for something. In the spiritual life, freedom is for nothing other than love. Human beings exist because of love, and the meaning and goal of our lives is love. In Christian understanding, every-thing that is authentic in the spiritual life points toward the increasing fulfillment of the two great commandments: to love God and other people in a completely unfettered way. Liberation from attachment is only a means to this end. Gerald May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth, p. 98

Mark Brady's Latest Post: The Neurobiology of Forgiveness

I've referred you to Mark's blog before, but I just finished reading The Neurobiology of Forgiveness, and felt I needed to help get this one out there. Mark is doing an amazing job of distilling reams of science-babble into nuggets we mere peons can grasp. Freud was convinced that ultimately we would discover the biological processes that drive personality and perception. The mystics, past and present, have all been convinced that we are capable of being so much more human than we are. Neurobiology seems to be providing a lens through which to understand the biology of becoming human. I'm telling you.... this stuff is amazing. Of course, that's probably what Copernicus was thinking also...

Is it Really All About Anxiety?

Three different people, all of whom I respect, have recently said something to me like, "All you ever talk about is anxiety." To which I've responded with something like, "Well, of course. Everything about mental health and spirituality is ultimately about anxiety, so what else would I talk about?"

I don't want to be reductionistic, and I know how easy it can be for a person to end up with only one tool in the tool bag, so I want to run this by you. I'd appreciate your comments. -

My basic view of human beings -- my "anthropology" so to speak -- has been informed primarily by the family systems theory of Murray Bowen and by my ongoing journey with the Christian faith tradition. I'm pretty sure these ideas are consistent with many schools of psychology, and with the more "mature" expressions of many religious traditions.

My view of human beings leads me to embrace the following ideas, which then guide the way I function as a therapist.

1. Mentally and spiritually healthy people are generally hopeful, content, thoughtful, relational, and loving. The ultimate indicator of maturity from a Christian standpoint is sacrificial love (which, by the way, does not mean being a doormat).

2. However, life constantly confronts us with various challenges that generate anxiety and challenge our capacity to be loving.

3. When we are generally "healthy," we are able to receive anxiety as a warning sign that something is going on that needs attention. We are able to step back, realistically assess the situation, choose a reasonable course of action, and follow through. When I'm in a good place, I see the anxiety as MY responsibility, and do not expect others to manage it for me. I might even see the anxiety as a GIFT that reveals pockets of immaturity in me that need attention.

4. Sometimes a situation generates more anxiety than a person can manage. This creates, by definition, a "crisis." When we are in crisis mode we become reactive, losing the ability to think creatively about our circumstances.

5. When we are in crisis, and become reactive, we tend to engage in short term strategies that might temporarily alleviate the anxiety, but are rarely effective in the long run (unless you happen to be an alligator) These reactive responses include things like attacking, running, blaming, giving in, etc...

6. In any crisis, therefore, it is imperative that we get the help we need to manage the most pressing aspects of our anxiety in order to not make our situation worse (if I respond to my wife leaving me by "medicating" myself with several 12 packes of Corona, and then wreck my car, I've not exactly elevated my situation).

7. Some people, however, maintain a chronic level of anxiety that virtually keeps them in a state of reactivity 24/7. This chronic anxiety may come from any number of sources, but, without support, we usually develop chronically life-limiting stragies that allow us to cope with the anxiety just well enough to get through the day. (Many marriages devolve into a connection that is little more than an exercise in reactive anxiety management.)

8. Twenty-plus years of experience as a therapist, along with my own stumbling attempts to understand and cope with the challenges of my life, have convinced me that we will not move from the ditch of ineffective coping strategies back on to the road towards maturity unless we understand and address our anxiety.

There's so much more to say on the subject, but I think this summary captures the gist.

What do YOU think? Am I being too simplistic or reductionistic?

Leaving comments: You can leave a comment by clicking the comment button below. If you do not have a Google account, then you need to select the "Other" or "Anonymous" options. Some people have told me their attempts to leave comments have failed for some reason, and so you are also welcome to email your comments to me directly at wmeades@gmail.com)

My Friend Julie is an Amazing Photographer, and...

... she's just launched her new website. Please take a look: Lasting Impressions Photography.

"Our" Sermon

This morning I'll be preaching the sermon you've helped me develop. You'll find a link to the full text below. I received several helpful ideas from you. Some of these shaped this sermon very directly. Other ideas were stimulating, but did not seem to fit with the direction the sermon was taking for me. Regardless, I'm so very grateful for your comments. I did want to share one particular thought about the Garden story that some of you touched on, and that one of my friends clarified for me - that some read this story as actually about an "awakening" rather than a "fall." Earlier in the week I sent an early draft of the sermon to my friend Milton, the Bible "expert." (See note below)

In the email exchanges that followed, I asked Milt if any of the church fathers read this as an awakening story. Here's a portion of his response:

Yeah. The earliest reading of the garden story was not as a fall at all. Iranaeus read it as though the original couple were children in the garden. Their disobedience was therefore naïve and caused them to grow up, as it were. Thanks to Augustine (and the eventual state legitimization of Xianity), the church began to read the story as a “fall.” Quite a switch. So, there’s a serious difference between an Iranaean theodicy and an Augustinian one. John Hick, I think, has an interesting article on this. Pagel’s book, Adam and Eve and the Serpent, explains this garden reading more thoroughly.

I'm offering this to you for two reasons: 1) I thought you might find it interesting, and 2) I think this is a good example of how complex the development of our Christian "tradition" can be. Religious education rarely includes an overview of the many competing points of view that make up our interpretive tradition. Hence, many people simply assume that the understandings of scripture they were taught as children are the only true interps.

But I digress... the sermon can be found at: Do You Really Want a Choice?

Note: Milton is one of those amazing guys who reads about 42 ancient languages, earned a D.Phil from Oxford, teaches in a religion department, AND is an expert piano technician. As Milton's wife, Karen, likes to say, "My husband is brilliant in numerous ways... none of which earn any money."

When Possibilities Make Us Anxious - Sermon Prep

Is it ADD, or just a good, old fashioned lack of discipline? I keep saying I'm going to write regularly in order develop my ideas more clearly, but... you know... things come up... interesting things... One of the latest interesting things has been the invitation to preach at my Church, DaySpring, on February 10th, and I'm asking you to share the sermon development process with me. Burt, our former pastor, started a tradition known as the Lectionary breakfast. Every Friday morning Burt would have breakfast with interested members of the congregation to discuss with them the shape that the coming Sunday's sermon was taking. He then invited their thoughts and reflections on where he was going with it. Occasional these ideas would show up in the sermon, but Burt says that even when the group's thoughts were not used directly, they were always helpful. I can't go to Lectionary breakfast because I see clients when they meet. Besides, I need your "fertilizer" to hit the ground with more than just two days time before I preach! So, I want to share my thoughts with you here, and ask you to share back with me your responses. The Lectionary passages for the day are:

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
• Psalm 32
• Romans 5:12-19
• Matthew 4:1-11

I was immediately drawn to the encounter between the woman and the serpent. For years now I've been using the Garden story as a way of reflecting on how Christianity tries to make sense of the pervasiveness of anxiety in human experience. From time to time I've had the honor of speaking to folks working in the field of psychology on the topic of integrating spirituality and psychology, and the story of "THE FALL" provides an excellent vehicle. My summary of the story goes like this:

• We were created to live in a vibrant relationship with God and each other.
• We were created to participate in meaningful work (stewardship of creation).
• We do not recognize our limits (1. There is a God. 2. You are not that God).
• We "fall" from our intended existence.
• Death (anxiety) becomes the pervasive feature of human existence.
• Anxiety, then, continues to corrupt our relationships and our work.

For some reason, that I don't recall, I began to introduce the encounter between between the woman and the serpent with the statement, "Then one day, Possibility slithered in to the garden." My point simply has been that the serpent was able to get the woman to question the state of her life.

• "Are you sure this is really the best possible life for you?"
• "Are you sure that the Owner of this garden isn't really just holding you back?"

The woman's curiosity is piqued enough that she ultimately decides not to trust and limits that God has put in place, and so she "sins," and then invites the man to sin, which he seems more than willing to do. The rest, as we say, is history. Now there are lots of fascinating philosophical and theological conundrums here. For instance, we'd never say that the woman's curiosity was "bad" or "wrong," would we? And we certainly wouldn't say a person should repress their curiosity about the possibilities in life, would we? My conclusion is that its not the possibilities that are a problem, but rather the the state of our own souls as we consider our possibilities that can make or break us. This is what I want to unpack for my sermon: How do we embrace the possibilities in life so that they foster spiritual vitality rather feeding our broken spots? You can help me by simply reflecting back to me some of what you've learned about yourself when it comes to the possibilities in your life?

• Do possibilities invigorate you?
• Do possibilities terrify you?
• Do you tend to see new possibilities as fresh opportunities to "co-create" with God?
• Or does every new possibility just seem seem like a new way to fail?

Clearly, some possibilities are "designed" to appeal to the small self (see the Matthew passage), but many possibilities in life are a problem because of the anxiety we bring to them.

So.... What thoughts do you have?