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In her piece “How to Pray When You’re Depressed,” Kathryn Hermes, F.S.P. offers several ways to pray when you are depressed. To view the gallery, click here. It begins:
When you’re depressed, you may discover that the shadows and tempests of that depression alter the way you look at God and the way you believe God looks at you. When you pray, you may be unable to sit still or to keep your mind focused for more than a few moments. Everything may appear to be a huge gaping hole of silence–all so useless. God may seem to be mocking your attempts to pray.
I know people who have gone three, five, ten years without “praying,” though they were faithful to setting time aside for prayer regardless of its seeming uselessness. In the haunting darkness where all communication had gone silent, they found loneliness, boredom, frustration, anger. Were they praying? Yes.
If this is happening to you, try these forms of prayer and contemplative love.
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
Meet others on the journey in
Therese’s community group
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
posted May 15, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Therese, thanks so much. Kathryn’s suggestions are very helpful for me and I have done some of them in the past. I want to get her book.
posted May 16, 2008 at 1:48 am
Thank you. There have been times, in pits of my own depressive episodes (I’m bipolar), where I feel that I’m more alone than usual, spiritually. For instance, God (Apollo, in my case) had appeared to take a step back from me and fallen quiet – the “huge gaping hole of silence” you spoke of – and I’ve often wondered why he’d do this.
Your post made me realise two things; first, that he’s technically gone nowhere, and secondly, it’s my own illness that creates the feeling of separation. I feel that I have the key to fixing an issue that’s been plaguing me for a while now, and I’m very grateful!