Pastors and depression

While driving around yesterday I heard a caller talking to a radio host about her battle with depression and how physical exercise helped her deal with her illness. I picked up the conversation about its half-way point, and it was obvious the host and caller knew each other. The radio host admitted he had dealt with depression for much of his adult life as well and began each day with a cardio workout to help deal with his condition. What struck me was how open and honest they were being about their struggle with depression with tens of thousands of potential listeners to the program and how many people may be helped because of that honesty.

Regular readers of this blog or some of my books know that I experienced depression during the mid 1980s and my own susceptibility to the disease. Many pastors struggle with the same condition, but not all are willing to be as open about their struggle as I have been or these individuals on the radio were. Too many Christians have the mistaken belief that being depressed is a spiritual condition or that it represents a weak faith. Some well-known pastors and church leaders have said as much. I want to say as humbly and kindly as possible that those who say such things have no idea what they are talking about. Depression is a medical condition that has no relation to one's spiritual condition or faith in God. It often is caused by physical conditions such as low levels of neurotransmitters in the brain or other similar conditions, none of which have anything to do with one's relationship with God.

My own depression was due to such conditions brought about by poor self-care at the time. Pushing myself beyond what is healthy caused the neurotransmitters in my brain to become so low it was difficult to function. I recognize now that my body had to shut down in order to heal itself. Medication and weekly meetings with a pastoral counselor helped speed up that process, but the body had to heal itself, and since I wouldn't take better care of myself my body had to intervene itself to heal.

Pastoral ministry is demanding and takes a lot from a person. If we do not practice good self-care we can experience not only depression but a lot of other medical conditions as well. For some reason, too many of us in ministry think we can abuse ourselves and not suffer the consequences for doing so. For too long I believed the foolish idea that I would rather burn out than rust out. Hey...either way you're out! Unfortunately, some pastors still believe in being martyrs so they refuse to take care of themselves and so limit their usefulness to their ministries, their churches, their families, and themselves.

Even when pastors suspect they might be depressed they refuse to admit it or talk about it. This sets them up for even more failure later on in their own lives and prevents them from being able to minister to those in their congregations who might be experiencing depression themselves. Not once have I ever referred to my bout with depression in a church that someone in that church didn't come to me afterwards thanking me for my honestly and asking for prayer for their own battle with the illness.

Please, pastors, take care of yourselves for your sake and that of your family and ministry. Church leaders, if you suspect your pastor might be struggling with depression arrange for a private conversation with him or her about it. Encourage them to seek medical treatment, or at least encourage them to get a professional opinion to determine if your concern is valid or not. 

There is no shame in being depressed. It is no different than being diagnosed with the flu or having a broken leg. There is treatment available so avail yourself of it. Learn what might trigger depression in your life and find ways to avoid those triggers. Take care of yourself, please.