Coping with Depression , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Siang-Yang Tan , Jr. Ortberg John Carl

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52 pages

English

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Nineteen million Americans suffer from depression each yearIt can strike anyone, and being a Christian does not exempt you. But help is here.Understanding the ABCs of emotional life-Affect, Behavior, and Cognition-can shed light on the causes of depression. In this revised and updated edition of Coping with Depression, the authors look carefully at the ABCs, showing how your thoughts affect the way you feel and describing how each dimension is linked with depression. They balance the spiritual dimension of approaching depression with the most recent scientific research and offer highly practical and proven strategies for coping.If you suffer from depression or know someone who does, you will find encouragement and help in this reassuring book."Tan and Ortberg educate and edify. They build on state-of-the-science understanding, state-of-the-treatment tips from therapy, and state-of-the-spirit nurture of the whole person. The result: an educational and uplifting book to guide people out of depression."-Everett L. Worthington Jr., Ph.D., chair of psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University"Coping with Depression is a spiritually sensitive, scientifically informed, and highly practical resource for people struggling with depression and those who would seek to understand and help them."-Stanton L. Jones, Ph.D., provost, Wheaton CollegeSiang-Yang Tan (Ph.D., McGill University) is a graduate professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as senior pastor of First Evangelical Church of Glendale.John Ortberg (M.Div., Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is a pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and author of If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat and Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 septembre 2004
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441233486
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0403€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 1995, 2004 by Siang-Yang Tan and John Ortberg
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Coping with Depression is a revised edition of Understanding Depression
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3348-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
“Tan and Ortberg have written an exceptionally comprehensive yet readable book on managing depression. The combination of clinical wisdom and biblical insight will be helpful to people struggling with depression or to those working with them. For years this text was a student favorite in my pastoral counseling classes and the second edition is even better!”
C. Jeffrey Terrell, Ph.D., president, Psychological Studies Institute
“If depression is the common cold of the emotional life, then this volume reveals the cure. With this concise guide, Tan and Ortberg unravel the complex theories, research, and treatments for depression. Writing with a striking blend of compassion and authority, the authors guide us into the dark chamber of clinical depression and then show us to the exits.
“The authors clearly describe how depression can be effectively managed and overcome with a rich mix of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual tools. Combining state-of-the-art psychological interventions with biblical wisdom, this book is certain to become a source of insight and change for the many souls among us needlessly bearing the burden of depression.”
W. Brad Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, United States Naval Academy
To Angela, and to my mother, Madam Chiow Yang Quek and the memory of my late father, Siew Thiam Tan.
Siang-Yang Tan
To Nancy and to my father and mother, John and Kathy Hall Ortberg.
John Ortberg
Contents
Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgments 1. A Snapshot of Depression: The “Common Cold” of Emotional Life 2. Understanding Depression 3. Coping with Depression: Know Your ABCs 4. Affect: How Are You Feeling? 5. Behavior: What Are You Doing? 6. Cognition: How Are You Thinking? 7. Beyond Self-Help: Using Other Resources 8. A Case Study References
Acknowledgments

W e would like to acknowledge, with deep gratitude, the help of Kim Roth, secretary to Siang-Yang Tan at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as the support and interest provided by Dr. David Benner, and by Paul Engle and Maria den Boer of Baker Book House, in the first edition of this book. Special thanks to Simon Reeve-Parker, assistant to Siang-Yang Tan at Fuller Theological Seminary, for his excellent work and help, and to Donald Stephenson and Mary Wenger of Baker Book House for their interest and support in the second edition of this book.
We would also like to express appreciation and love for our dear children Carolyn and Andrew Tan, and Laura, Mallory, and Johnny Ortberg, whose patience and love (and interruptions) made the writing worthwhile and kept us from getting depressed!
Most of all, we want to thank God for his help and blessing as we wrote this book together, and for the depth of Christian fellowship and spiritual direction that we experienced in Christ as we worked and prayed together. We trust and pray that this book will be a real help and blessing to its readers.
A Snapshot of Depression

The “Common Cold” of Emotional Life
H e had everything going for him.
He was a preacher of national renown. He interacted regularly with people at the highest echelons of power. The impact of his ministry was widely recognized by his peers and even by leaders of other religious traditions. His work had faced severe challenges, at times from powerful opponents, and yet somehow he had always continued. His personal integrity was unchallenged. His spiritual life was impeccable, at least to all appearances. He had seen answers to prayer that were nothing short of miraculous. His moral character was untainted by scandal. He not only had distant admirers but was also capable of close personal relationships and intimate partnering with colleagues in ministry. His assertiveness skills and willingness to confront head-on were legendary. He had just experienced a time of great success in his ministry, one of the peak moments of his career.
And he was depressed.
He withdrew, not only from his ministry, but from all his relationships. His loss of energy and motivation went far beyond the bounds of normal burnout; he was no longer able even to connect emotionally with other people. His perceptions became distorted; he really believed that who he was and what he had done lacked any redeeming value at all. He felt isolated and abandoned, and was certain that nobody supported him in his life’s work. He was in a state of fatigue: both his appetite and sleep patterns were disrupted. His emotional mood was extremely low: he berated himself and believed he was no longer able to make a significant contribution to life. He was consumed by fear and a sense of hopelessness. In fact, his will to live had largely eroded, and he wanted to die.
His name was Elijah.
The pages of the Bible are writ large with expressions of depression and despair: Elijah asked for his life to be taken. Jonah was deeply despondent after God didn’t destroy Nineveh as he had prophesied; he sat alone outside the city comforted only by a vine that grew up to shade him from the sun. When the vine withered, Jonah’s conclusion was, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” Jeremiah lamented the day he had been born. Job’s wife advised him to “curse God and die,” which could not have been encouraging.
One of the great mysteries of depression is that it seems to be no respecter of persons. People who appear to have everything to live for career advancement, personal attractiveness, and financial security are as likely candidates as those on the lowest rungs of the ladder of success. Kings and queens and CEOs join hands with serfs and parking lot attendants in the brotherhood or sisterhood of melancholy. Depression is an equal opportunity employer. No one really has to ask what depression is, because we’ve all tasted it to one degree or another. Anthony Storr writes, “Depression is part of the experience of every human being” (Storr 1988, 143).
Winston Churchill battled depression. Violet Asquith recorded her first encounter with Churchill, which captures something of both his depression and his strength in combating it. For an hour at dinner he didn’t speak, even though she was sitting next to him. His first words were to ask her age, and when she answered he replied with some despair, “I’m thirty-two already.” Then defiantly, “Older than anyone else who counts, though.” Then savagely, “Curse ruthless time. Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is our allotted span for all we must cram into it. We are worms, all worms. But I do believe I am a glowworm” (Manchester 1983, 367).
Abraham Lincoln suffered bouts of what was then called “melancholy” severe enough to make him consider suicide. During one of his worst bouts he wrote to a friend, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me” (Thomas 1952, 72).
John Quincy Adams wrote that when he was a young man he apparently lacked the stuff required to make his way in the world; as an old man he could not look back upon a single episode in his life as a significant achievement and he felt that his existence had been a failure though he had served with distinction as ambassador, congressman, secretary of state, and U.S. president (Nagel 1983).
Creative people are not exempt. In fact, Anthony Storr argues that writers and artists are more depression-prone than the general population.
Robert Benchley, a humorist and writer who suffered from depression himself, once wrote to Dorothy Parker when she had been hospitalized following one of a number of suicide attempts: “If you don’t stop this sort of thing you may seriously damage your health.”
Even fictional characters are vulnerable. Sherlock Holmes attempted to self-medicate his bouts of depression with cocaine, at least early in his career.
What exactly is depression? Written attempts to describe it date back at least 4,000 years (Papolos and Papolos 1992). Louis Armstrong is supposed to have said, by way of explaining the blues, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.” Depression, the real blues, is probably similar. No single symptom, by itself, can define its presence. Further, it is not always easy to distinguish ordinary, run-of-the-mill unhappiness from clinical depression. In fact, people sometimes report deeper feelings of sadness when depression is less serious.
Think of the term depression as it is used literally (to depress a lever, for instance). To depress something is to move it from a higher level to a lower level. This movement from high to low captures much of the flavor of psychological depression, which involves a lower amount of energy, lower self-esteem, a lowering of mood, and in general a lowered appetite for life. In fact, ask depressed people how they’re feeling and there’s a goo