Depression: \di-‘pre-shan\ … (1) a state of feeling sad; (2) a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

That is Webster’s definition.

This is the soul’s definition … Depression: a black hole where no point of light can penetrate; being lost in the deepest, darkest cave with no hope of finding your way out; being beaten down to the point you think the world would be a much better place without you in the way.

With the recent suicide of comedian Robin Williams, a door has been opened. A dialogue has begun regarding the terrible cost of depression. While some can’t understand how such a loved, wealthy and influential person could take his own life, those who have tasted the bitterness of this disease understand perfectly. … We just get tired of fighting.

That’s why we must armor ourselves with the full armor of God. He is the Great Physician who can break the cycle of depression. Of course, there’s many ways to battle depression. God gave physicians enough knowledge to develop drugs to help fight off the effects; there are natural drugs that help such as St. John’s Wort; and He gave us people to whom we can talk. However, we still have to fight off these attacks each day. Sometimes it’s an intense battle. But God, in His unfailing love and mercy, is right there to carry us through if we will only let Him. Without Him, we are weak and vulnerable to Satan’s constant attacks. Satan doesn’t attack in a full frontal assault. He’s sneaky. He’ll whisper, ‘Who do you think you are? I know all the bad you have done. You’re worthless. … The world would be much better without you. No one is going to even miss you. No one cares about you.’ He will pummel us with those negative thoughts until we actually believe them; therein lays the danger. What Satan throws at us is nothing but lies. Too many times we believe the lies over the truth.

However, we cannot give up. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31). We know Satan is roaming about the earth now more than ever as time seems to be running short. We cannot give in to his destructive lies. We must constantly wear the armor of God and fight the battle taking place in the mind where no one else sees and pray for one another.

We can be nailed down in defeat and accept ourselves as the world sees us: ‘mentally ill’. Or we can choose God who sees us as His children whom He loves. It is He who makes us whole and lifts us up that we may fly as the eagles.