Mental Illness and Depression (ii)
Tuesday, 24 October, 2006
(Ben thinks I may be making too much of Genesis and overstating the case a little. I'm still thinking about that. Anyway, bear that in mind as you read this.)
Part I: A Theology of Illness
Now when I say “illness”, I am partly talking about physical illnesses like colds, flu or cancer. But I am also talking about the kind of illnesses that affect the brain because some mental illnesses are like that—there's something wrong with the brain, physiologically or chemically.
This may manifest itself in things like Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia and Aspergers. I don't want to go into too much detail because I'm not a doctor. However it's good for you to be aware that some forms of depression are caused by chemical imbalance or genetic predisposition. Depression might even arise from medical problems, like low thyroid function or brain injury. There's something that's not right in the brain and that in turn affects the emotions. We mustn't think that the brain is immune to illness; it is a part of our body
But when I say “illness“, one of the other major causes of depression—which I will talk a bit more about later—is just situational stuff. Life is pretty amazing but it can also be incredibly tragic. People die. People kill each other. People hurt each other in horrible and devastating ways.
And it's not just stuff that we see on the news. It's stuff in our own lives too. It's stuff that we don't like thinking about—stuff that makes us sad. That nasty person at work. That painful relationship break-up. That thing our mum said to us all those years ago. They're all byproducts of living in a sinful world. One of my friends once said she thought Christians were more likely to get depressed because they can see the reality of man's sinfulness and how far removed it is from the way the world was created to be.
Related to both physical illness and what I will call “situational illness” is the problem of the human mind and its relationship to God. I'll talk a bit more about that on the way through.
So what does the Bible have to say about all of this?
Creation
We start with creation. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). Everything was “good”. Except us humans—we were “very good” (Gen 1:31).
Physical
Because the Bible describes things as being “good”, I think it's fair to say that that included our physical bodies. I think we enjoyed good health in the Garden of Eden. But please note this is something I've inferred from the Bible, not something it actually says.
Situational
Situationally, everything was good too. We enjoyed a harmonious relationship with creation. We ruled the world (Gen 1:28) but it wasn't a tyrannical oppressive dominion; it was delegated rule under God's sovereignty.
Furthermore, we also enjoyed harmonious relationship with one another. Consider Adam and Eve's relationship: “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25). There wasn't any squabbling or backstabbing or giving each other the silent treatment; man and woman, united as one flesh, enjoyed the beauty of marriage the way God intended.
Even better, we enjoyed harmonious relationship with God. Unlike now, we could see him and talk to him face to face. We could stand in his presence without feeling the need to hide and without fearing that he would destroy us.
Mental
Mentally, we understood our world rightly. We understood our relationship to the world, to each other and to God. We understood our place in the world and the role we were to have, ruling the world under God (Gen 1:28), working the garden and keeping it (Gen 2:15) and obeying God's commands (Gen 2:17).
So far so good. But of course, it doesn't last. We mucked it up.
The Fall
In Genesis 3, we disobeyed God's command and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We sinned against him and were punished accordingly. God promised that “in the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). And we did.
Physical
Genesis 3 was where it all went wrong. As we get older, our physical bodies start to fall apart with age. Eventually we return to the dust from which we were made.
Where does illness fit into this? Illness is one of the ways we die. Illness doesn't discriminate: everyone gets sick—young and old, Chinese and Australian, Christian and non-Christian. None of us are immune.
Illness causes us to grieve. Ageing causes us to grieve. If you've ever watched a grandparent slowly lose the capacity to do the things they once knew how to do, you'll know what I mean. And, of course, death brings us much grief and sorrow.
Situational
Situationally, our sinfulness had many devastating effects. Our harmonious relationship with creation was shattered, and creation turned against us and our rule. The world became covered with “thorns” and “thistles”, so to speak: now it's hard to coax food out of the ground (Gen 3:17-19). Animals have no qualms about attacking us—bruising our heels like the serpent in Genesis 3:15—like Steve Irwin's stingray. Tempests, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis destroy our homes, and kill and maim the ones we love.
In addition, our relationships with each other are now filled with tension. God cursed the woman, saying, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16). Because of sin, our human relationships break down, and so we fight, abuse and blame each other; we cut in front of each other in traffic and yell obscenities; we fly planes into skyscrapers and blow each other up. Because of sin, we experience stress, we cry, we grieve, we are bent double under the weight of our own pain.
Furthermore, our relationship with God has disintegrated. As it says in Romans 1, although we know God, we do not honour him or give thanks to him, and we exchange him to worship created things instead: money, power, prestige and pleasure. We are spiritually dead as well as physically dead.
Mental
Note what else it says in Romans 1 about our minds. (I am indebted to Kirsten Birkett's article on Christianity and Psychotherapy for this part [show Case #9]).
Turn with me to that part of the Bible if you will—Romans 1, verse 21. In the ESV, it says, “For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Sin affects us physically, sin affects relationally, and sin affects us mentally and spiritually. Whereas in the Garden of Eden, we understood our role in the world, and our relationship to the world and to God, now we choose to reject our role and our relationship with our creator. We become futile in our thinking. Our foolish hearts are darkened.
This is an important point because, as Kirsten Birkett writes in her article, “Before heaven no one will have perfect psychological health“.
Perfect psychological health doesn't just mean having good self-esteem, self-perception, and healthy ways of relating to others—although those things are good. Perfect psychological health involves having a good understanding of humanity and the world under God.
Depression is sad because we weren't meant to be this way. We must never think that depression is normal. We must never think that it is a gift, as one of the characters in the movie Girl, Interrupted says. We shouldn't ever idolize depression. Don't put it up on a pedestal. Don't think that that is who you are.
Blinks:
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