Live Feed #15 - Depression (Part 2) with Dr. Neil T. Anderson

good evening welcome to freedom in Christ we're in our second session on depression but don't get too depressed I was in Glasgow Scotland and did a conference wonderful pastor and wonderful church and I was asked to stay over in pretty Sunday morning and I handed the pastor I said before I speak would you just read this and he read it out of the book and let me just share with you we begin this a newly adopted child found himself in a big mansion his new father whispered in his ear this is yours and you have a right to be here I have made a made you a joint heir with my only begotten son he paid the price to set you free from the old taskmaster who was cruel and condemning I person purchased it for you because I love you the young boy couldn't help but question this incredible gift seems too good to be true what did I do to deserve this he wondered I have been a slave all my life and I've done nothing to earn such a privilege he was deeply grateful however and began to explore all the rooms in the mansion he tried out some of the tools and appliances there were many people in the mansion who also had been adopted he began to form new relationships with his adopted brothers and sisters he especially enjoyed the buffet table from which he freely ate then it happened while turning away from the buffet table they knocked over a stack of glasses and a valuable picture which crashed in the floor and broke suddenly begin to think you clumsy stupid kid you will never get away with this what right do you have to be here you better hide before someone finds out because it will surely throw you out at first he was caught up with the wonder of living in the mansion with a whole new family a loving father but now he was confused old tapes laid down an early childhood began to play again in his mind he was filled with guilt shame the thoughts continued who do you think you are some kind of a privileged character you don't belong here anymore you belong in the basement the old taskmaster was right about me I don't belong here thought the newly adopted child so he descended into basement the cellar was dreary dark despairing the only light came from the open door at the top of the long stairs from which he came he heard his father calling for him but he was too ashamed to answer he was surprised to find others in the basement upstairs everybody talked to each other and joined in but daily projects that were fun and meaningful nobody talked to each other in the basement they were too ashamed and most felt the basement is where they really belong anyway nobody liked it there but they didn't see how they could ever walk in the light again if they did others would see their imperfections old friends would occasionally come to the door and encourage them to come back upstairs were a place was prepared for them some quote friends unquote were worse than others was scold those in the basements which only made it worse not everybody stayed in the basement for the same reason some thought like he did I deserve to be here I was given a chance but I blew it others did think they could climb the stairs even if they mustered up the strength to try the stairs would probably break under their weight they always had a reason why they couldn't return to their father upstairs some would go up for a short time but they didn't stay long enough to resolve the conflicts I learned that truth that would enable them to stay so they returned still others were afraid that they would not be accepted I don't taskmaster would probably wouldn't accept them so how could they expect this a new adoptive parent to welcome them back after what they had done at first the our newly adopted child grows frowned on the darkness trying to find a way to survive the longer he stayed in the basement the memory what it was like to live upstairs began to fade and so did this hope of ever returning those old tapes from early childhood question the love of this new father and he began to question whether he was ever adopted in the first place the noise of people having fun upstairs irritated him he remember the light upstairs being warm and inviting but now I was penetrating and revealing he recalled hearing his adoptive father saying that men love darkness instead of light because their deeds real everyone who does evil hates the light and will come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed he made a half-hearted attempt now and then to return to the light but eventually found a dark corner to lie down in to survive he was eating grubs and boss off the damp walls then one day a shaft of light penetrated his mind and reason returned he began to think why not throw myself on the mercy of this person who calls himself my father what do I have to lose even if he makes me eat the crumbs which fall from the table it would be better than this so he decides to take the risk of climbing those stairs and face his father with the truth of what he done Lord he said I knocked over some glasses and broke a picture without saying a word his father took him by the hand and led him into the dining-room to his utter amazement his father had prepared for him by banquet welcome home son his father said there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus you know that pastor in Glasgow was like a lot of English orders he had never read before were written so well and I looked out at the congregation of half of them were in tears it was an interesting way to start a conference talking about the joy of the Lord a lot of people are living in that basement take the chance find a way out of that shall we years ago I I went to see a movie with my wife who had struggled with depression and the name of the movie was called hours it's called hours because people who are in depression just live hour after hour after hour that never ever seems to end I was really amazed at how the movie started it was actually centered around the writer of Virginia Woolf and it began with her sitting down at the table and this is what she actually was writing dearest I feel certain I'm going mad again I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times and I shan't recover this time I begin to hear voices and I can't concentrate so I'm doing what seems the best thing to do you have given me the greatest possible happiness you have been in every way all that anyone could be I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came I can't fight any longer that was the note she left as she walked out into the river and drowned herself committed suicide the question that I want to ask is what are those terrible times not only that what does she mean by I began to hear voices we look at the agony of the soul as opposed to the AEGON of the body let me review what we talked about last week of all the billion neurons that you have in your brain those brain cells have an output called an axon there's a gap of snaps into the dendrites of other brain cells and when you look at what psychiatry is trying to accomplish in terms of helping people with depression you make a distinction between bipolar and unipolar and animal chemical basis one affects more the brain cell the other one is more really an intra neurotransmitters so which you have 40 different types and most of them are really racing around your body and and when you go see somebody like a psychiatrist that's probably the one dimensional look that they're going to have at depression and and you got ten minutes with your primary care doctor and you and eat correctly diagnosis day depression he's probably gonna write out of a prescription that's about all he can do in that 10 15 minute window of time and that he has with you and will you just look at that side of it you said well there's the answer we finally found an answer for depression here take this pill but let's back off a little bit because that actually is not true in fact what is actually happening right now in studies and brain chemistry is neuroplasticity is that our think can actually begin to change a neurological makeup of our brain this has been a discussion really going on in psychiatry for years so I'm not introducing anything new but the question really comes up which came first I had a neurological or chemical imbalance that created a depression or because of the circumstances and my lab became depressed and that it affected the neurological makeup of my brain it's been 5050 for some time is shifting far more however to the fact that our brain is not some fixed entity I just recently read a book apparently about 350,000 others have as well called switch on your brain where she really discusses the fact that you can change your brain chemistry by the way you think what I love about it is then she's a Christian lady is is really to me verifying what Scripture has been as a man thinketh in his heart so is he that the emphasis in Scripture is it's not so much on the brain it really it's almost all on the mind and you are transformed by the renewing of your mind this is a little technical but I think it's worth reading truth does set us free you know and and believe in the truth will bring about a transformation of our mind and that's gon effect then of course how you live the question that comes up studies that shed light on the relationship between learned helplessness and neurological chemistry that changed and changes in the body if one experiment rats were taught helplessness by the use of shock scientists were able to measure neurological changes indicating depression at various beta receptor sites the researchers commented on this this is what they said dr. hen and his colleagues induced depression and a group of rats but treated them without medication they made a behavioral intervention and taught the rats how to escape the shock medical students working in the lab knit rats little sweaters with long sleeves over their front paws strings were attached to the sleeves and the researchers could pull rats paws up Marinette like and trained them to push the lever that would stop the shock with the rattle helpless they're symptoms of depression abated and the beta receptor sites returned to the previous state dr. Hanna and others have concluded from these studies that just as neural chemistry effect behavior changes the behavior affecting your chemistry complimentary findings have been following the treatment of human depression a brief psychotherapeutic treatment called cognitive therapy focuses on the thought process of a depressed person in particular the hopeless and helpless thinking and by changing the negative thought patterns has proved to be as effective as using antidepressants well questions aside we know scripturally that we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind and they mess in cognitive behavioral therapy go back to some previous discussions that we've had in this series and and where I pointed out the fact that cognitive behavioral therapy is really quite effective not sure what that is simply what it means is that people are doing what they're doing and feeling what they're feeling but because of what they chosen to believe or think therefore if you want to change how people feel or how they behave what should you change what they think or what they believe now actually Albert Ellis was one of the beginners of this thinking and he was a professor in atheist and and so this actually can't have some effect on just a natural person you can't change your behavior in the feelings but it's oftentimes brief and typically it doesn't last of what studies that have shown and so when I look at that from a Christian perspective it really essentially equates to repentance which literally means a change of mine however just changing the way people think and feel has this limitations when research was done on our methodology and it came back I mean the question was asked what is Neil doing that's bringing about these kind of changes you know what is he doing besides cognitive well therapy and it's a good question fair question as these studies showed I hope to you know maybe repent and change their mind and and that was enough I said well three things come to mind number one is that doing cognitive behavioral therapy even with the words of Christ without the life of Christ you're not going to see the kind of results that we see in our ministry what Jesus came to give us was life that means I have the mind of Christ that I have the presence of God within me cognitive behavior can change your behavior and even your fetus but it can't change who you are and that's what God came to do we're new creations in Christ and I have the presence of God in my life a Holy Spirit has taken up residence our bodies are temples of God secondly to do cognitive behavioral therapy and overlook the reality of the spiritual world you're not going to see the kind of results that we see because people are paying attention to deceive you spirits you take the case that I mentioned earlier these thoughts have come where are these thoughts coming from what are those thoughts and Paul has clearly said in latter days people are going to fall away from the faith paying attention to deceive these parents and teachers of demons and so where I believe the essence behind cognitive behavioral therapy the Christian has a far greater opportunity given the presence of God and understanding the world of which we live in that we can submit to God but we also need to resist the devil and he will flee from us let me give you a just a couple testimonies to illustrate that she said I'm in my second marriage I have five children I've been dealing with depression for most of my life I've done many things to try to stop the pain that I was living with I've overdosed on meds several times put in the hospitals on Halloween last year I was in an Iowa Hospital for the next couple of months but never felt better I've always tried to be a faithful person but not in the right way my church was doing the victor over the darkness series I missed the first one and it wasn't until I saw the battle for our minds that I realize that was not crazy I've always heard a voice in my mind but did not dare tell anyone about it on my birthday I met with my pastor we did the steps to freedom in Christ now I'm a new person the voices are gone and when they do start to come back I get rid of them right away I've learned so much in a short amount of time that has changed my life I wake up with a song every morning and I'm praying all the time I'm I'm a really happy person I just want to thank you for what you've done and in exposing this truth give me another one my wife was freed from five years of clinical depression after working through Anderson steps to freedom in Christ two years before this my wife had been institutionalized for a week and had been drugged to the extent that she was a zombie she was taken over nine medications for her illness over 30 pills every day two weeks prior to meeting with our pastor to work through the steps I gave up and decided to quit my marriage of over 20 years my son shamed me into staying I think God daily for having him do so after two sessions of working through the steps to freedom in Christ and praying for a renewing of my wife's mind we saw a healing by God through the following eight to 12 months of my months my wife was able to stop all the medications except for two they me like need to stay on this for some time because she had adjusted in her inner mind brain then that happens to the medication whereas before she hid in her room and wished her life was over and now she's able to live her life and they thank me for writing the books even psychotherapist by name of Beck has developed what he calls the depression triad that people are depressed because a negative view of themselves a negative view of their circumstances and a negative view of the future essentially describing helplessness and hopelessness but think about that for a moment I agree with that by the way but how can a child at Godhead have a negative view of himself obviously that indicates something is wrong and that's why I do it it's so much in my time and so much am I writing to help people realize who they are in Christ what it really means to be a child of God no a child of God is ever hopeless or helpless and we're going to cover those two issues next week how about a negative view of circumstances dear people let's be honest about it there's a lot of depressing things going on in the world today and they can happen in your own personal life but it's not determining who I am in the midst of that crisis I started to realize that my own personal life I said I can't the hug do all the negative junk that's going on around the world but I Know Who I am I know what it means to be a child of God I know that God loves me and I know that I've learned by Paul says to be content and all of life's situations I can have a piece of God within me even though there's a storm around me that is possible for every believer this is not pie in the sky theology this is the reality of our relationship with God and how about the future oh my outer manage decay but my inner man has been renewed day by day and so I have no guarantee that I'm not going to especially in my advanced age have difficult days the enemy physically but you know it keeps me going it's not the outer man is decaying it's the inner man that's being renewed day by day and so do I have a negative view of them of the future now bring it on folks you know what if you die I'll be in heaven I mean so don't take that away from me that's that's the birthright of every child of God to be alive and to be free in Christ so do away with the negative triad I think if we were really truly transformed by the renewing of our mind you would have an adequate answer for all three of those issues so deep depression circumstances out there but within me I have the joy of the Lord and that's only a result of the fruit of the Spirit who abides within me and so we can always have that and the midst of that storm that exists out there so when we look at this this problem of depression I said so much of this needs to look me looked at holistically I can't imagine anybody be more committed than I to that let me just say this again I love the science of Medicine I was accepted to the medical school I decided to go this way instead and in medicine is a big part of my family and has been and so I think God for the for the hospitals around us thank God for doctors who do trauma care yeah you know and I appreciate them a great deal and frankly the ones that I know that are on our board and otherwise I appreciate what I'm doing because they know the medical model can only take you so far they know that most of our people are sick for psychosomatic reasons and I believe that falls upon the church to have an adequate answer for that so I thank God for that and what I'm trying to do is provide a holistic answer because to me depression is the body soul spirit problem requires a body soul spirit answer and I've tried to address all of that on our book overcoming depression and so I believe in that but I also believe in the fact that that the major focus and what we should do first is seek you first the kingdom of God give God an opportunity to address these issues in our life first now some of this to be honest with you is related to our own temperaments there are some people who just almost by nature are more joyful seemingly than others more upbeat than others some are more introspective I think my wife giftedness which was really to me I think a gift of mercy has set her up a little bit because she cared deeply and and things bother her more than bothers others you know you don't see too many prophets who were depressed simply because they made everybody else depressed and that's facetiously but I'm but the point is is that we're all different we're all unique and and some Express the joy of the Lord in different ways I mean if somebody walked in and and shared some great news there's gonna be somebody go home and others would say that's good yeah and my wife brother gonna start crying what are you cryin for good news I know I'm crying and it's just the way that we are we have different temperaments and so don't judge people by the way that they respond to some of life's situations because they're just wired differently and in that that that that's something we have to learn to accept in ourselves and other people as well but I believe we have an adequate answer III believe as we go through this and next week we're gonna look about the problems that we have of helplessness and hopelessness and show how as a believer I can overcome that then we're going to look at losses in her life this is a very serious issue of people because I personally believe one of the greatest causes of depression for people is reaction to losses in her life now how important is this because everything you have right now some day you're going to lose so learning to deal with losses is a part of our growing and maturation process and then finally we're going to lay out a procedure of how we can actually systematically work through depression in our lives so I'm gonna close for tonight see if you have any questions any come up clear okay well that's it for tonight we're gonna come back and look at helplessness and hopelessness I'd be happy to respond to any questions I'm not the ultimate answer in this thing but I personally think God is thanks for listening tonight see you next week helplessness and hopelessness okay no girl I don't know how to upload it to be honest with it I've been done for some time Carl I don't know how to upload it sir

Channel: Freedom In Christ

Views: 7,298

Rating: 4.9266057 out of 5

Keywords: Freedom In Christ, Neil Anderson, freedom, Bible, truth, life, identity, forgiveness, FICM, healing, hope, purpose, depression

Id: SXN2EKuubYY

Length: 24min 16sec (1456 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2019