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I am not going to tell you to not see a doctor, but I am going to tell you that I have had many things happen in my life that most people could not stand.

I toughed it out.

Last fall, some things happened that brought me to an understanding of why people commit suicide. I didnt think of it for myself, but I finally realized that I am in absolute lack of control of things inside me, outside me, and around me, and that I had to have a total dependance on God for all things in my life.

When I concentrated on fixing the problems myself, I found myself only occasionally winning, because I cannot change the things around me, only my attitude of myself to the problem I am going through.

What is more dangerous is the apathy you can get to your situation, not just a fearful depression, but an apathy that it does not matter what happens to you at all, for it is all bad.

That is the wrong kind of surrendering.

Another mistake believers make, is trying to be a 'better Christian'.

You CANNOT be a better Christian, that is your flesh. You are kept by the Power of God, not your faith!

Your faith is NOT what saved you, nor is it what keeps you, it is God who keeps you, preserves you, and saves you, and holds you in His hands.

It is NOT you and your trying at all, that is your sinful flesh trying to work out a part of your salvation that you never had any control over. It is worldly, it is the flesh.

It takes a lot for some people to realize that, but when it happens, it is such a blessing to see yourself say to the Lord that you have NOTHING that you can offer Him as a Believer except YOUR DEATH to self and a complete reliance on Him to keep you from falling, and to preserve you!

Most believers say they know this, they quote Romans all the time about dying to self and reckoning themselves dead, but how many actually have done this?

It is something that you can let go of, too, I have learned that, but once you taste the full dependance upon God for all things, you never forget it!

I am going to tell you one important thing: When you are relying upon the medication to change your thought patterns, you are not relying upon what God said. I AM NOT TELLING YOU TO GO COLD TURKEY, now that you have been on these meds, you will go into a major depression, caused by the depletion of the normal chemicals that your body created in the first place that the meds have done for you for a long time now! I know someone who went cold turkey, and then within 2 weeks killed his wife and then himself!

But the answer is NOT found in drugs or in ourselves, it is found in trusting in what God said, and in surrendering to Him, and if it is emotionally painful, it is SUPPOSED to be until we actually get there! I mean that! I was in tears the day I finally caught on, I had been fired from a job due to a false accusation, the unemployment told me my company was right, I had no job, no income, and another personal problem came to light that bothered me and the combination of repeated uemployment, the lying about me, and the personal issue brought me to my knees in a way I never had before.

In that day, I realized that my very breath came from God, my future was in His hands totally, for everything, that I could do nothing to change my situation, to alter it, that there was no fleshly work I could do to alter it, I could not work my way out of it, I could not buy my way out of it, I could not talk my way out of it, I was sunk without the Lord taking charge of my life and all things of my life. In other words, I was right where He was trying to get me all along!

Think of something: Before we had technology, we had to trust God for rain for crops, for protection against hostile Indians, foreign powers, for protection against illnesses, against weather incidents, famines, floods, forest fires...

What did people do? They fell on their faces before God and prayed. They turned to the God of the Bible and cried out to Him, recognizing they had nothing to bring to Him in return, but only to trust in His mercy upon them.

me and you have no clue what that means. We have what can only be described as a blessing in our country, the resources allowed to us by modern medicine, the blessing of flush toilets!

And I mean that. Before all these things, people turned to God when they were distraught, and because many people did this, the more people who knew to turn to God taught their offspring to do so, also, and their neighbor, and the stranger.

It is a failure of Christianity to not have someone see your dillema and tell you these things, but back in the olden days, peole did just that.

In ourt sin sick world of turning to government/psychiatry/Oprah Winfrey, we have lost the idea of what it rreally means to trust God in all things.

If you do decide to go back to trusting God, do NOT stop cold turkey, your brain is not functioning normally now, it is relying on the meds, wean slowly off them if you do, and I mean slowly, your brain does not make the chemicals it used to, it is relying on the meds for that input!

Trusting God does not mean intentionally stepping in front of a truck! :)

I'll pray that you see these things in a Biblical light. :)

When you are relying upon the medication to change your thought patterns, you are not relying upon what God said.

Just what we need. More "Christians" heaping guilt on people who are relying on life-saving medication to overcome clinical depression.

Race, you are part of the problem with your "trust in God alone" nonsense. Someone reading this thread who needs medication should feel absolutely no shame in seeking it. In fact, medication is what God wants them to turn to.

Why act as if God is not telling them to take advantage of the most obvious cure?

Thank God my Christian counselor didn't think like you. He knew better than you or me that my brain needed medicines to help it out. Just as a broken leg needs crutches or imperfect vision needs glasses. Do you wear glasses or eye contacts? If you do, where's your faith, man?

Many people are able to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and get on with it. But as my counselor explained to me at the time of my crash-n-burn, my bootstraps were broke. The Body of Christ is supposed to be helping the weaker ones out, not kicking them when they're down.

If you do decide to go back to trusting God, do NOT stop cold turkey, your brain is not functioning normally now, it is relying on the meds, wean slowly off them if you do, and I mean slowly, your brain does not make the chemicals it used to

Of course, the brain ALWAYS makes those chemicals in the right amount in the first place, I assume?

Do you say the same thing to the schizophrenic? What about the diabetic? Or is it only the brain that is perfect?

We have what can only be described as a blessing in our country, the resources allowed to us by modern medicine, the blessing of flush toilets!

How is using modern medicine "trusting in God?"