Viti

I do not support her infidelity, but I am not going to turn my back on her for lack of judgement while in a great deal of pain and emotional distress. I have simply tried to make her decide if she wants to work on her marriage, or, if it is not salvageable, to end it. If she didn't have two very young children there would be no issue.

Being supportive does not mean condoning any and all actions, it means being there to listen and offer advice with the end goal being the person making the best decision by and for themself. I don't have to agree with her decisions to love her, unlike the conditional love offered by religion.

Gemma Therese

"I am certain that even if I had on my conscience every imaginable crime, I should lose nothing of my confindence; rather I would hurry, with a heart broken with sorrow, to throw myself in the arms of my Jesus."

St. Therese of Lisieux

TooBad

Short excerpt from the
<a href="http://www.concentric.net/~Kashal/Therese" target="_blank">biography</a> of St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897):

Do Christian beliefs cause depression?

Gemma Therese

That is one of my favorite stories about Therese.


Gemma Therese

TooBad

I rather feared it would be. Do you understand why other people might feel differently?

Gemma Therese

Enlighten me on a point or two, TooBad.

bonduca

I have often wondered how being a priest, and therefore sworn to a life of celibacy, automatically makes one qualified to counsel married couples.

That was horrible advice, and that man should have been ashamed of himself. I'm very glad your friend escaped from that abusive situation.

PJPSYCO

I actually had a friend whose Christianity exaserbated her depression to a point of attempted suicide. Most of her friends are nonbeleivers and liberal Christians, and she became a preaching fundy, and they all said bye including yours truly. Already being depressed over her fights with her step mom. Her step mother is her fundie influence. She beat her regularily for not being her real daughter. I learned this after she tried to kill herself. Ultimately after gaining no positive connections to anybody(she couldn't talk about her depression since it was caused by a fundie and that came off as blasphemy in her mind - honor they father and mother as it's said). She ultimately failed as killing herself. Was caught trying, and was locked in a little room to be kept away from everybody which didn't help, and if she could have found a way to hurt herself she would have.
She ultimately vented the depression into the rage against her step mother, which has since made her stand up to step mother, find her real mother, and actually respect her old friends (helped by the fact that she's a don't care religious).

Perchance

Hi Gemma,

I think it really depends on the individual person. Some people find comfort in religion. Others might not. Other people might not be hurt by it; perhaps faith doesn't play a role in their depression at all. Others might be deeply depressed because of it.

As you might gather from the foregoing, I don't think that Christianity will necessarily hurt the emotional health of every person who believes in it {what I believe about what it does to their ability to be skeptical and critical thinkers is a different matter), just as some people might survive a bad marriage, others might have to leave, and others might endure what to others looks like a bad marriage and what to them feels like justified punishment. What I object to is the idea that Christianity is some kind of magical cure-all, and that it will always help and never harm.

I think this is another part of the "protected status" accorded to religion- along with the deep anger with which some people regard questioning of their religious beliefs- that often leads those who want to help to look right past it as the source of problems.

-Perchance.

NOGO

It is a known fact that many people experience depression around Christmas.

I have known some of these people.