•  exercise your mind through creative activity, mind challenges such as crossword puzzles, reading, writing, thinking, hobbies

•   reduce and learn to manage your stress, a silent killer via various means (see the list chronic stress symptoms and the illnesses to which they can contribute in this section, and take the “stress quiz” in the book Simple Health to discern your own level of chronic stress. (We’ll list this later on the site.)

•  increase your happiness (decrease your sadness or depression)

•  laugh more—laughter is good medicine, and helps you maintain perspective when the pressure is on

•   practice realistic optimism

•   learn to live in the now, instead of dwelling on the regrets of the past or the fears of the future

•   have a friend—be a friend (this obviously correlates with sociological health). In fact, one of the greatest contributors to psychological health is to have at least one good friend with whom you can share your most personal concerns without fear of judgment or betrayal.

Specific emotional/psychological needs:

Depression: For a comprehensive Christian overview of depression, including its causes and treatments, see our book New Light on Depression. If you suspect that you or someone you care about may be struggling with depression, see the “Brief Depression Scale” below, a scale that also appears in our book New Light on Depression (see the book’s table of contents below).

The following list of questions has been created to help you discern “where you are” in terms of depression. While it does not try to identify any causes or types of depression, it can be useful to you now, and it may prove useful to you after you have finished reading this book and/or participating in a discussion group that may be studying it.

This material appears in the book New Light on Depression by David B. Biebel, D.Min., and Harold G. Koenig, M.D. (Zondervan, 2004). All rights reserved. Originally published as Brief Depression Scale (c) Harold G. Koenig, M.D., and Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. Harold G. Koenig, James Blumenthal, K. Moore. "New version of brief depression scale." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 43 (1995): 1447 (reprinted with permission).

Table of Contents: New Light on Depression (2004)
by David B. Biebel, DMin, & Harold G. Koenig, MD

Part 1 Depression—A Many Factored Thing
Chapter 1 Like Nailing Jell-O to the Wall
Chapter 2 Depression is a Whole-person Disorder
Chapter 3: Do Real Christians Get Depressed?
Chapter 4 Ten Myths and Misconceptions Related to Depression

Part 2 There is Help
Chapter 5 Strategies and Pitfalls for Those Who Wish to Help Themselves
Chapter 6 Mental Health Professionals—Who They Are; What They Do.
Chapter 7 Counseling Models and Methods
Chapter 8 Models and Methods of Christian Counseling
Chapter 9 Antidepressant Medication—What They Are; How They Work
Chapter 10 Other Medical and Spiritual Treatments for Depression

Part 3 Living with Depression
Chapter 11 Love: The Crucial Role of Family and Friends
Chapter 12 Faith: Acknowledging Depression’s Gifts
Chapter 13 Hope: Moving toward Joy Again

Bibliography
Endnotes

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If you are struggling emotionally following the suicide of someone you love, see the book: Finding Your Way after the Suicide of Someone You Love (the table of contents of which appears below), which is listed in the recommended reading section of this site.

If you are struggling with a sense of loss due to the loss of a child, see the book: Jonathan You Left Too Soon, which is listed in the recommended reading section of this site.

Chapter 1: Why? Why? Why?
Chapter 2: Wandering and Wondering
Chapter 3: Guilt, the Blight of Broken Hearts
Chapter 4: The Wall
Chapter 5: Depression, the Scourge of Broken Hearts
Chapter 6: Preserving Relationships in the Aftermath of Suicide
Chapter 7: Suicide Survival in Special Situations
Chapter 8: After the Suicide of Your Brother or Sister
Chapter 9: Questions That Remain
Chapter 10: Survival—and Beyond
Chapter 11: Embracing Your New Normal
Supplemental Chapter: How to Help Survivors of Suicide
Appendix: Resources and Recommended Reading

Chronic Stress and Your Health

These symptoms can be related to chronic stress. If you experience several of these, regularly, your stress most likely needs better management, including some advice and treatment from your personal physician, since they can contribute to the conditions listed below:

• abdominal pain
• always feeling uptight or on edge; racing thoughts
• always on the go, and often late to the next scheduled appointment
• anger when you have to wait
• diarrhea
• difficulty concentrating, even on spiritual things such as devotional reading
• difficulty finding the humor in something even when others do
• dizziness, shakiness, or muscle twitching
• eating problems: overeating with weight gain or undereating with weight loss
• fatigue or weakness, even though you haven’t exerted yourself
• feeling overwhelmed, but still unable to say no to more
• fixation on negative things, such as guilt or remorse
• flare-ups in ulcers or bowel diseases
• headaches
• heart palpitations
• hair loss
• irregular breathing patterns
• irritability, sometimes with angry outbursts that seem beyond control
• lingering sadness
• menstrual problems
• mood swings
• muscular and joint pain
• nausea or vomiting
• nervous activities (foot tapping, nail biting, teeth grinding)
• night sweats
• pelvic pain
• problems remembering
• sensation of lump in the throat
• spasms of the esophagus, bladder, or bowel
• stuffing your feelings
• substance abuse (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol)
• tightness or pain in the chest area
• trouble sleeping
• trying to do everything “just right”
• upper respiratory problems
• weighed down by financial concerns
• worried what others think of you
• worried that you may become seriously ill

Symptoms like these, when they last a long time, can contribute to the development or worsening of specific illnesses, including:

• asthma
• cardiovascular disease
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• circulation problems in hands and feet
• clinical depression
• fibromyalgia (widespread chronic pain)
• frequent colds
• gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
• hypertension (high blood pressure)
• irritable bowel syndrome
• migraine headaches
• stomach ulcers
• stroke
• temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ)

This list is based in part on an article by Bobbie Dill, B.S.N., R.N., James E. Dill, M.D., et al. “The registered nurse’s role in the office treatment of patients with histories of abuse.”Gastroenterology Nursing, 1997, 20(5): 162-7, the official journal of the Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates, Inc. (SGNA). See Simple Health (chap. 3) for more information.