(Chapter 3) Getting Help

Depression is an illness, just as cancer is an illness. If I found out I had cancer, I would study up on it and find a specialist. I would want whatever professional help was available. Depression can also be compared to bad eyesight: it clouds our vision, and we do not see things the way they truly are. I have bad eyesight, so I wear contacts to correct it. Many people see depression medication in this same way.
However, depression is unique, being a physical ailment that affects our emotional and spiritual well-being. We must be careful in choosing how we go about treating it. First and foremost must be the gospel approach. “Do you—or someone you love—face disease or depression or death?” asks Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. “Whatever other steps you may need to take to resolve these concerns, come first to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Trust in heaven’s promises.”[1] After we are centered on the gospel, we can better assess our needs and the proper use of further professional help. Elder Boyd K. Packer has issued the following warning:
If you find a case where professional help is justified, be very careful.
There are some spiritually destructive techniques used in the field of counseling. When you entrust your members to others, do not let them be subject to these things. Solve problems in the Lord’s way.
Some counselors want to delve deeper than is emotionally or spiritually healthy. They sometimes want to draw out and analyze and take apart and dissect.
While a certain amount of catharsis may be healthy, overmuch of it can be degenerating. It is seldom as easy to put something back together as it is to take it apart.
By probing too deeply, or talking endlessly about some problems, we can foolishly cause the very thing we are trying to prevent.[…]
We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems.
We are indoctrinated that somehow we should always by instantly emotionally comfortable. When that is not so, some become anxious—and all too frequently seek relief from counseling, from analysis, and even from medication.
It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal.
Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out.
There is great purpose in our struggle in life.[2]
I believe we must find a balance in the way we see mental illness and its treatment. It can be tricky and controversial because it is physical, yet affects our spiritual well-being. Many people subscribe to the viewpoint that the gospel will be enough. A friend of mine once told me that she knows Christ can heal her, and that she just has to figure out how to get to that point. Another friend figures that his depression is a part of him and something he needs to deal with on his own. I believe that isolating ourselves won't help, that we can and should utilize all resources available to us, and that we all need to find our own balance prayerfully and carefully.
[1] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Broken Things to Mend,” Ensign, May 2006, 69.
[2] Boyd K. Packer, “Solving Emotional Problems in the Lord’s Own Way,” Ensign, May 1978, 91