Depression can be perpetuated by focusing on ourselves and our own pain, but when we focus instead on others and their needs, our own pain is lessened. It’s a reminder of the verse in Nehemiah 8:10 that says, “the joy of the Lord is my strength.”

Lessen the pain of depression by helping others

Karl Menninger was a famous psychiatrist. He was once giving a lecture on mental health issues when someone in the audience asked him his advice for someone who felt like a nervous breakdown was coming on.

Given that he was a psychiatrist, most people in the audience were expecting that he would suggest they seek a psychiatrist who would prescribe medication or inpatient hospitalization. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, he responded by suggesting that the afflicted individual leave their home, traverse the railroad tracks, seek out someone in need, and meet their need.

What Menninger knew was that depression can be perpetuated by focusing on ourselves and our own pain, but when we focus instead on others and their needs, our own pain is lessened.

Luke shared of this principle in the book of Acts. “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35 NIV)

That’s not always the easiest thing to do when you are down or despairing. I know.  I remember feeling so down that I wondered if I would ever again have a day without tears.  And at the same time I felt guilty, because in my mind, I didn’t have a valid reason to feel down.  I had friends who had children who had died to illness, children who had died to suicide, and children who were imprisoned.  I had friends whose spouses were ill, or who had gone through divorce. What reason did I have to feel down?

On some days it was so hard to make myself do anything more than the bare minimum. I often didn’t have the energy or the motivation for anything that wasn’t an absolute necessity.  On one occasion, a friend was moving and in a moment of renewed energy, I offered my help. When the move date actually came I wondered why I had made the offer… I didn’t have the energy that morning that I had on the day I had made the offer.

The joy of the Lord is my strength

But during those few hours of physical labor, putting someone else’s needs before my own, it was as if my former self had re-emerged. And in helping someone else, taking the focus off myself, it felt good.  I felt good.

For a short while, I had a fresh understanding of the verse, Nehemiah 8:10: “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”

What can you do for someone else today?

Depression doesn’t have to become a permanent part of life.

There is hope.

Hope Prevails: Insights From a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression and the companion Hope Prevails Bible Study help the reader understand how depression comes to be, recover their joy, reclaim their peace, and re-establish their true identity, while knowing their worth, remembering their secure destiny, and being confident that nothing separates them from God’s love.

Hope Prevails and the Hope Prevails Bible Study are must-reads for anyone suffering from depression or knows someone suffering from depression.

“It is refreshing to have a board-certified neuropsychologist acknowledge the spiritual component of depression, but it is even more impressive that Dr. Bengtson would be willing to share her own journey through the fog of despair. Her personal insights are invaluable for those who are struggling with what is often described as ‘the common cold of mental illness.’” ~ Dr. Neil T. Anderson, founder and president emeritus of Freedom in Christ Ministries and Author of Overcoming Depression