Freedom from Depression-Part 1 of 4

Summary

"Freedom from Depression-Part 1 of 4" by Lifetime Guarantee Ministries introduces a compelling exploration of depression through the teachings of Dr. Bill Annabel and Preston Gilliam. The series addresses the root causes of depression, particularly focusing on hostility and unmet needs for love as foundational issues. It suggests that understanding and addressing these needs through a spiritual lens, guided by Christian beliefs, can lead to liberation from depression. The discussion also includes the distinction between anger and hostility, self-esteem issues, and the implications of being unable to express or fulfill love needs.

Highlights

• Depression is linked to unmet emotional and spiritual needs. 🌟
• A key cause of depression is how we handle hostility—exploders vs. imploders. 💥
• Spiritual understanding and acceptance of divine love can help overcome depression. 🙏
• Hostility is not part of our original design; controlling anger is vital. ⚡
• Human attempts to fulfill love needs independently can lead to frustration and depression. 🚥
• Exploring the three lanes to depression: self-depreciation, blame projection, and self-pity. 🛣️
• Distinguishing physical from spiritual causes of depression is important for treatment. 🏥
• Depression as a symptom, not the root problem; addressing the core issues is essential. 🎯

Key Takeaways

• Understanding the root of depression is crucial; it's not just a feeling but a consequence of unmet needs. 🧠
• Depression can stem from how we manage hostility and our basic human need for love. ❤️
• Anger is natural, but hostility is not—understand the difference! 🤔
• Learn to let go of control and rest in divine love and acceptance. ✨
• Spiritual growth is a pathway out of depression. 🚶‍♀️
• Depression isn't the problem—it's a symptom of deeper issues. 📉
• Spiritual warfare can exacerbate depression, be mindful of your thought patterns. 🛡️

Overview

In this first part of the series, the creators delve into the complex and often misunderstood realm of depression, proposing that at its core, depression is not merely an emotional state but a reflection of deeper spiritual and emotional needs that are unmet. Through a blend of theological insight and psychological awareness, they navigate how anger, hostility, and the need for love interplay to create a fertile ground for depression.

The speakers emphasize a fundamental distinction between anger (a natural emotion) and hostility (a toxic state), driving home the point that our struggles with depression often begin with how we handle these emotions. They suggest that learning to relinquish control and live in the acceptance of divine love can set an individual on a path towards emotional liberation.

Furthermore, the discussion provides a thoughtful analysis of how spiritual beliefs and practices play a pivotal role in addressing depression. By examining depression not just as a standalone problem but rather a symptom of unfulfilled spiritual and emotional needs, the series offers a hopeful narrative for those seeking understanding and relief from depression.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:30: Introduction to the Freedom from Depression Audio Series The introduction to the 'Freedom from Depression' audio series welcomes listeners and introduces the format of the series. It features teachings by Dr. Bill Annabel and Preston Gilliam. Originally created for broadcast, each session includes teaching segments followed by a Q&A session. The chapter sets the stage for the series by indicating what's to come.
• 02:30 - 07:30: Exploders vs. Imploders and the Role of Hostility in Depression This chapter delves into the relationship between depression and how individuals handle their hostility. It differentiates between 'exploders' who direct their anger outwards towards others, and 'imploders' who internalize their hostility. The chapter references religious scriptures, specifically mentioning that while anger is a natural and legitimate emotion, exemplified by Jesus himself, it should not lead to sinning.
• 07:30 - 15:00: The Human Need for Love and its Connection to Depression This chapter discusses the importance of experiencing emotions in a controlled and godly way, specifically focusing on anger and its management. It highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding individuals to handle anger constructively. Additionally, it touches on the concept of hostility, distinguishing it from anger by noting that hostility is not part of God's design for humans.
• 15:00 - 23:00: Thought Patterns that Lead to Depression The chapter discusses the concept of 'hostility' as it relates to depression. Hostility can simmer beneath the surface, sitting at a mid-level intensity like a 'level 6' on a scale of 1 to 10. This simmering hostility can turn into full-blown anger, spiking to a 'level 10' before it quickly subsides back to the level of underlying hostility. This persistent level of hostility, referred to as being 'wormy,' is a thought pattern that can contribute to depression. The chapter suggests that understanding and managing these underlying feelings can be important in addressing depressive thought patterns.
• 23:00 - 30:00: Techniques for Developing a Healthy Thought Life and Overcoming Depression The chapter discusses the concept that hostility is not an inherent human trait but a result of not living in alignment with spiritual practices. The narrative suggests that while God didn't design humans to live with high levels of hostility, people often reach these levels due to a disconnect in spiritual living. It explores the potential of reducing hostility from extreme levels down to milder forms, indicating that hostility doesn't need to be a dominating force in one's life. Through counseling and spiritual guidance, individuals can lower their hostility, moving from extreme anger to more manageable emotions.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Understanding Need Deprivation and Hostility's Role in Depression This chapter explores the nuanced relationship between need deprivation, hostility, and depression. It discusses how certain individuals internalize their anger and frustration, displaying cheerful exteriors while suffering internally. These people 'implode,' experiencing invisible emotional turmoil and destruction akin to 'throwing pots and pans and breaking windows' on the inside. The dialogue hints at exploring the concept further by asking whether externally expressive individuals are equally susceptible to depression, setting the stage for a discussion on how different personality types relate to depressive tendencies.
• 40:00 - 50:00: Evaluating and Understanding Depression as a Symptom This chapter lays the foundation for understanding depression as a symptom. It begins by discussing the perception of depression as something not just affecting individuals but potentially employers as well. As the series of programs on depression starts, it emphasizes the importance of grasping basic foundational information. For regular listeners, this may be familiar, but the chapter stresses the necessity of reviewing this foundational material. It opens with the idea that human beings are designed by God with basic needs, setting the stage for exploring how unmet needs can lead to depression.
• 50:00 - 59:00: Annabel's Personal Experience with Depression The chapter titled 'Annabel's Personal Experience with Depression' discusses concepts from Thessalonians 5:23, highlighting that humans are composed of body, soul, and spirit. The chapter begins to address the needs associated with these three components. Specifically, it mentions physical needs such as food, rest, and the freedom from pain, although it is not an exhaustive list of all possible needs. The chapter sets the stage for a deeper exploration into the different aspects of human needs.
• 59:00 - 75:00: Spiritual and Physical Considerations in Depression The chapter 'Spiritual and Physical Considerations in Depression' delves into the concept of the soul and its influence on depression. It emphasizes that the soul, which represents the personality or the 'real me,' has its needs. It is housed within the body and can be dissected into three main components: the mind, will, and emotions. Each of these elements has specific needs that must be fulfilled for overall well-being. The mind requires peace for it to function healthily, while emotions necessitate a sense of well-being. The chapter highlights the importance of addressing these soul-specific needs to effectively manage or understand depression.

Freedom from Depression-Part 1 of 4 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 welcome to the lifetime guarantee audio series free from depression featuring the teaching of dr. bill Annabel and Preston Gilliam this material was originally produced for broadcast so what you'll hear in this series are for teaching segments followed by a question-and-answer session so let's get started now with our first session on free from depression we've have come to believe that
• 00:30 - 01:00 depression is the result of the way some people handle their hostility there are exploders and employers and exploders dumped all their hostility out onto other folks but employers dump it inside now the scriptures say be angry but sin not and I see Jesus getting angry but not sinning so anger is a perfectly legitimate emotion that God designed us
• 01:00 - 01:30 to be able to experience the trick is when we get angry be sure we're under the control of the Holy Spirit and use that anger or handle that anger in a godly way let Christ do it through us but now hostility is another thing god never designed us to be hostile so you say well what's the difference between hostility and anger well anger will flare little all of a
• 01:30 - 02:00 sudden just flare and jump up but hostility just sits inside and just sits there like on level 6 on a 1 to 10 scale you can be hostile at level 6 I call it being wormy but you can just be you can be hostile at level 6 now then your anger will flare off the top of that six and shoot on it to 10 but maybe within 30 minutes it's back down to six again resting on that level of hostility now
• 02:00 - 02:30 God never designed us to be hostile at level six at all human beings get that way because of not walking in the spirit here on planet earth can that hostility be at a lower level like a 2 or 3 oh yeah it just is a brooding anger would you that beer just sits in there yeah it's the only way I know to say it I've counseled people and you have to their hostel at level 98 on a standardized
• 02:30 - 03:00 test that you give them but you'd never know it I mean they have the sweetest look on their face and nothing apparently as they speak you don't hear the hostility coming out but it's all inside they never let it out they implode inside they're throwing pots and pans and breaking windows but you never see it okay well let me ask your question then you said that there are employers and exploders is the exposure as vulnerable to depression as the
• 03:00 - 03:30 imploder now I would say no no the employer is the one who's the candidate for depression yeah as we begin this series of programmes on depression we need to lay a foundation we need to get some basic information settled for those of you who listen to our programme regularly this will be familiar material to you but let's review let's begin by saying God designed you with some very basic human needs now in 1st
• 03:30 - 04:00 Thessalonians 5:23 that scripture says that we are made up of body soul and spirit let's pick up on our needs now according to those three areas for instance in our body physically some of the needs this isn't an exhaustive list at all but some of our physical needs would be a need for food a need for rest a need for freedom from pain now then
• 04:00 - 04:30 let's look at the soul the soul is the personality the real me my body houses the real me now in my soul I have some needs also some so local needs like the personality is divided into the mind will and emotions now in my mind I need to have peace there that's a basic need I have in my emotions I need a sense of well-being
• 04:30 - 05:00 and in my will I need the freedom to choose those are basic needs everybody has those and then spiritually I need to know Jesus Christ now then our number one need of all the needs that God has implanted within us is the need for love now then we need an unconditional love from another person and we need to have love or respect for ourselves I know
• 05:00 - 05:30 there's a hierarchy here say for instance if I'm in a car wreck and I break my leg I don't want you sitting there stroking my forehead and telling me I love you I love you I want you to call the ambulance now after the ambulance gets there and I get to the hospital in my leg is comfortable then I want you sitting there stroking my forehead and saying I love you I love you but the basic need is a need for
• 05:30 - 06:00 love now why is that God implanted that within us yeah why well god is love and he designed me with this need for love if I didn't need love I wouldn't need God yeah so back there when you said that I need love from another person well that certainly is true he tells you to love me too right but the epitome of this the number one need that I have is to know that I am unconditionally loved by the one who
• 06:00 - 06:30 created me God himself in right okay now if you can identify with depression then if I could somehow get inside your head and read your thought life just kind of watch it like a video monitor I would want to watch how you handle hostility which results from your being deprived of your needs supply for love you see
• 06:30 - 07:00 your thought life is the road that leads to depression and the reason that most of you are depressed who are identifying with what we're saying here today is because somehow you're not getting your need met for love you're not getting that love either from a source outside you ie God or another person or you're unable to love yourself you're unable to respect yourself now this road
• 07:00 - 07:30 that leads to depression we say it's a three lane road and all three roads lead to depression these three lanes are number one if I could be watching your thought life I would either see self-depreciating thoughts beat on me thoughts thoughts I'm such a sorry Rach I'm such a failure such a hopeless case I hate myself or number two thoughts projecting blame
• 07:30 - 08:00 onto other people or self-justifying thoughts and these would be thoughts like if she would only carry her into the load if she do half as well as I do then I wouldn't be in this mess these kinds of thoughts or even at God God you're a fine one you know the way you treat me I'm sick and tired of this whole thing projecting blame and responsibility over onto another person and then number three is the road of
• 08:00 - 08:30 self-pity thoughts the poor me thoughts the big pity party the lamentations about what a raw deal that you're getting now the lines of delineation between these three roads are blurred oftentimes maybe you can identify with a couple of these things that I have said here but nevertheless your thought life is the key to the depression and that thought life has been patterned in over the years right now remember that God
• 08:30 - 09:00 established these needs the need for love and remember that he implanted that special need because he wants us to turn to him to get that need supply right but you see all through the years of your walking here on planet Earth you have tried to be in charge you have been the one responsible for generating and maintaining your love
• 09:00 - 09:30 supply it's up to you so you have tried to get all of your needs supplied especially this love need when you want it and how you want it and from whom you want it right that's right and so as you say you have been building these techniques of getting this accomplished ever since you saw daylight right from infancy you began to build these ways of getting love because you had this
• 09:30 - 10:00 tremendous need it's like a hunger and so if you have a need for food you're going to try to develop skills at getting food you can see a little baby searching for the nipple God built that into him that he would do that it's all part of the way he's programmed now some of you listening have been mega successful at getting love on planet earth and some of you can't identify with that you see yourself as moderately successful at milking your love supply
• 10:00 - 10:30 out of people on planet earth and then there are some of you who feel that you just can't get love now according to these three patterns I've just mentioned you have learned whether or not you can bestow love upon yourself we call this self esteem don't we our self acceptance and you can see then the person who's been mega successful then will view himself as I am a lovable lovely kind of person and on down the line
• 10:30 - 11:00 the same thing holds true now God's job description is that he runs things that this is what gods do and you and I when we showed up on the planet we set out to run things ourselves we established control I want my way I'm going to do things my way now you're going to have to give up control if you are depressed you have to put that responsibility in the controllers hands that's God
• 11:00 - 11:30 and you have to learn how to rest in the fact that you are a completely loved person not only that but as a new creation in Christ you are a completely lovable person you're a lovely person then in Christ Jesus this is going to be the key to your coming out of this state of depression that you're in and you say well how do you do that well we can't
• 11:30 - 12:00 explain it in one day but we're going to be talking several days on this topic and just be with us and check us against the Holy Spirit to see whether or not God has given us some insight that will really put you on the right track yesterday we were talking about our need for love that the fact is that God is
• 12:00 - 12:30 love personified and he created you to love you so therefore you need love because if you didn't need love you wouldn't need him and so this is the way he has constructed us now our problem is that all of us on planet earth have tried to get that needs satisfied somewhere other than God we've tried to get it from human beings have we not right so we believe that when that need
• 12:30 - 13:00 is not being satisfied and it keeps getting less satisfied and less satisfied and less satisfied that this is one of the and probably the major causes of depression in people on planet earth and not only the major cause of depression but it produces within us behavior that we would never have dreamed that we might be capable of
• 13:00 - 13:30 fulfilling really gives the devil a tow for instance it may cause you to think about our become a part of an affair and what you're saying is I will find someone to love me are to start taking drugs where you're communicating I just cannot endure this and so I am going to anesthetize myself to keep from thinking our divorce and you are saying
• 13:30 - 14:00 I do have a right for someone to love me I'm going to find someone to love me you don't love me or even suicide I choose not to live without love rape I'll force you to love me murder which is so many times based on a revenge for an unfaithful love or denied love and then submission to peer pressure where I need your love so much that I will do
• 14:00 - 14:30 whatever is necessary to get it so we will do some very radical things when this love need is denied are taken away right now God designed us with all these needs like you were teaching yesterday and he wants to be the supplier but what we've done is we've set out independently to try to supply these needs ourselves haven't we now during World War 2 they did some interesting studies with soldiers on
• 14:30 - 15:00 need deprivation they isolated volunteers and they deprived them of food course their idea is we want to see how men would react in a prison camp an interesting thing happened these guys when they went in there they took their calendar girl pictures with them that you were all over the place during the World War two they called him petty girls didn't they I forgot yeah and there wasn't an interest and they put these up in their Quonset hut now as
• 15:00 - 15:30 they got hungrier and hungrier they began to replace their pinup pictures of girls with pictures that they had cut out of magazines of strawberry shortcake fried chicken and things of this nature so you can see in that interesting now so when you deprive a person of a particular need then he begins to get tunnel vision and think only in terms of getting that particular need satisfied the Bible
• 15:30 - 16:00 calls this lust lust isn't necessarily a bad word because the spirit lusts against the flesh lust simply means an accelerated appetite because of a deprived need so we're talking about then love being deprived yeah right and you'd have a lust for that uh-huh and when we are deprived of it we get frustrated and so as you say then we get
• 16:00 - 16:30 tunnel vision and this becomes our main pursuit searching after love right okay now then when something like this happens to us and our love need is taken away and we get so frustrated we need to ask ourselves know why yes this human relationship is gone but God's love is constant and what we're communicating to God is I just can't get by with without his love now I know I have your love God
• 16:30 - 17:00 but I can't go on living without the love of my husband or the love of my wife so like when a woman may lose her husband through death and she may communicate this I just don't have anyone to dress for anymore I don't have anyone to cook for there isn't anyone who loves me my love supply is gone or a woman whose husband may divorce her she will say I can't seem to find any purpose in life anymore our lives were
• 17:00 - 17:30 so intertwined that part of me is gone and I just can't function any longer and you're certainly not saying that it's wrong to grieve over a lost love that that's perfectly normal that's perfectly normal but to carry it on into a state of chronic depression this is where we're heading yes chronic depression frustration because this love need is gone this human relationship is gone and then again it may not be a love
• 17:30 - 18:00 need from someone else perhaps it's that you can't love yourself anymore and you are depressed and your business failed are you failed in a relationship and your thoughts would be I hate myself for what I've done why did I do it this way if only I could go back and this too would be a lack of getting a love needs supplied love for me love for yourself
• 18:00 - 18:30 right I think there's another thing too that you want to bring up about the thing that causes depression and with many of you who are listening who are depressed the dynamic of your depression is that you seek to stay in control you want to be in control and you have hit some situation or maybe a series of situations where even though you're striving to stay in control this
• 18:30 - 19:00 thing is not working out like you had wanted it to and you cannot manipulate the other people that are involved or the circumstances that are involved to make it work for you and so you are really depressed over this whole thing so the techniques that you have established over your lifetime of satisfying this need for love and self-love they just aren't working
• 19:00 - 19:30 anymore and need deprivation produces frustration you show me somebody who's not getting a basic knee mat and I'll show you somebody that gets frustrated now you show me somebody that's frustrated and I'll show you somebody who is hostile frustration produces hostility I mentioned this study of the soldiers who volunteered to undergo the
• 19:30 - 20:00 need deprivation of food deprivation studies as they began to starve these guys on a real low-calorie diet they began to get irritable and fights would break out in the barracks where they were housed now why do you think that would be Annabelle well they were deprived of this need mm-hmm and they're frustrated and they're hostile and so they take it out on other people some of them do right now hostility is
• 20:00 - 20:30 uncomfortable and it demands to be dealt with and we categorize people who have this hostility into basically one or two groups in terms of how they handle their hostility and that would be ulcer getters and ulcer givers now typically depression is a problem that is exclusive to the ulcer getter because the ulcer givers they dump all their hostility out onto other people are you
• 20:30 - 21:00 saying then that I should learn to dump my hostility onto other people no no besides not being Christian dumping hostility simply increases it the studies on hostility and aggression show that the more the stuff that you dump the more you generate there seems to be an endless supply of it and this is one of the problems in some of the support groups that I see where they go once a week to just stir garbage that can become a pretty depressing thing to stay in a garbage dump and stir it and they
• 21:00 - 21:30 walk out of there a lot of them tell me they walk out feeling all worked up and all anxious inside now what we're trying to do here is give you some understanding of what's happening in your life let's use this little story let's say that you're in an area not familiar to you out for a hike and you get lost and you wonder and then it gets very dark and a storm comes up an electrical storm and all the streetlights all the house lights
• 21:30 - 22:00 everything go out and then it starts raining and so you come to a fence and you climb over that fence you haven't any idea where you are and then you get so tired that you sit down under a tree and as you're sitting there all at once you become aware a very heavy breathing and you hear big bodies moving around and then all at once you hear a growl a deep growl and you think oh my soul I
• 22:00 - 22:30 climbed over that fence and I'm in a game refuge and what do I do and you are just terrified and all at once a big burst of lightning comes out and you see that you're in a zoo and there's some lines over there and they're behind the fence well you heave a sigh of relief you understand what you have to deal with now what we're trying to communicate to you is some understanding of what you're having to deal with if you're identifying with depression what
• 22:30 - 23:00 we're saying to you is that somehow you are being deprived of the love you so desperately need and as we talk together you're going to discover something very wonderful you are loved and you are very secure you just need to know what you're dealing with [Music]
• 23:00 - 23:30 the problem of depression you can't get vaccinated when your little kids so you're immunized against it it's not contagious you can't get it by drinking after somebody that's got it it's no respecter of persons there's no age limit on it even little babies can get so depressed that they can die both non-christians and Christians are susceptible it's not a disease but yet
• 23:30 - 24:00 it rages out of control today it has reached epidemic proportions now why we're talking about this subject for a few days that is decimating the Christian ranks now why is this so well as we talked about that if you need an expert on hand and if experiencing something makes you somewhat of an expert you've got one right in the studio with you today because I was in
• 24:00 - 24:30 and out of deep depression for many years as a dedicated Christian okay now does that mean you got this thing by the tail now you're not susceptible to ever going back into that again are you saying that it was a demon and that she went through deliverance and now that you've done that you have no problem with it anymore no that was not my experience at all it was a progressive
• 24:30 - 25:00 decline into depression and it has been a progressive growth out of that flesh pattern now I made that comment about deliverance a minute ago and we certainly want you to understand that we do believe that demons are out there and we do believe that we're to take authority over them but you and I are talking about a type of depression today and in this entire series that is simply
• 25:00 - 25:30 a matter of walking according to the flesh instead of walking in the spirit and there is a very understandable appropriate able if I can use that term salut to this problem isn't there mm-hmm okay now you but you said that you were depressed now can you describe how you felt what was going on in terms of your emotions okay let's look at my thought processes first of all I couldn't remember anything nice that happened yesterday
• 25:30 - 26:00 somehow or another the only thing that I could remember were the bad things everything good had been obliterated and I couldn't imagine that anything nice could possibly happen tomorrow because of my circumstances because of my private world what was going on in my life so I just have today and I have learned from this man that I'm living
• 26:00 - 26:30 with as we've told our testimonies before I have learned that I do not meet today well that's what I was really on your case a lot right now then my productivity the things I would do for instance we had small children and I would have a load of diapers to fold and bean pattern for being a very goal-oriented person I would tie myself to see just how long it took me on the diapers and I would really have just an
• 26:30 - 27:00 allotted time to do that really a driven yeah and I had a big clock above my freezer there where I would stand and fold my diapers as these thought processes as this depression would come over me my hands would start moving slowly and I'd look at the clock and I think why I'm never going to make my goal here what's wrong with me or when I'd finally get them folded and I'd walked to put them in the different drawers in the house and I would open a
• 27:00 - 27:30 drawer and I would be very aware that I would put those things in the drawer that it was almost like a slow-motion camera was running I couldn't do things well anymore hmm okay let's go beyond symptoms now those are the symptoms that you're talking about and let's look at the root cause depression is really not problem depression wasn't your problem back there no it was simply a symptom of
• 27:30 - 28:00 the problem is how I handled my problem that's right and the basic problem was you were not getting a basic need meant that God had designed you to need now that need in your case was the need to be loved right you were seeking it from me you I was your source I was your goal you were going to try to get love out of me and you were going to try to bestow
• 28:00 - 28:30 love on yourself were you not right and you became powerless to eliminate the problem you became powerless to get that love the harder you tried the more counterproductive your behavior became and so you went into depression right now there are many people that seem to view depression as the problem and so they seek to treat the problem they seek to treat the depression if I can make
• 28:30 - 29:00 the depression go away then you'll be better but I wait a minute let's put this into a medical realm we all know that pneumonia produces fever so let's say your kid has pneumonia and you decide oh his temperature is a hundred and two I've got to get that down what if you view then the temperature as the problem and you begin to pack him in ice and so he goes down the temp goes down
• 29:00 - 29:30 to 99 98 point what is it six and you say okay he's well now you take the ice pack off and the temp begins to come back up you can see what you're doing you're treating a symptom instead of the problem now the problem is gonna go away alright you're gonna kill the kid if you keep packing him in ice like this so we have got to get at the root cause of the depression which is simply a symptom okay now like I said I'm speaking as
• 29:30 - 30:00 someone who has experienced depression let me share with you a little bit more about how I walking in depression hoping that this will give you understanding of what you're going through right now now remember my original problem was that my basic need for love was not being met any longer and I didn't love myself now why well because as I began walking
• 30:00 - 30:30 in my earth walk here I established certain techniques for getting love we all do that mine would be different than yours that's right but my techniques were that I'm going to perform for people and then they will love me performance-based acceptance and so I am driven I am forced I am constantly evaluating how can I perform
• 30:30 - 31:00 for them and do it well so they will love me now then I also have to perform for myself if I perform well I accept myself if I don't perform well I reject myself so this is what I'm saying it when I say you could bestow love upon yourself mm-hmm now then when I get into marriage for 22 years my techniques for getting love worked real well I was performing and people were applauding for me I had all sorts of ribbons awards
• 31:00 - 31:30 and accolades now then when I'm 22 I get married and it isn't that I forget all of you people out there in the world it's just that I've chosen one person that I want to love me because I love him that's my husband but now in our marriage I was a very strong capable enthusiastic performer in this threatened bill his flesh was that he was threatened by strong capable women
• 31:30 - 32:00 so he wasn't about to praise me for my performance he tore me down for my performance okay now I'm busy trying to bestow love upon me so when you perform so well doing not only your role but half a mine that makes me experience low self-esteem as a male as a husband and so my fleshly way is to tear you down eliminate you and then that builds me back up again I
• 32:00 - 32:30 can love myself better today but you don't even know how to spell depression do you know I haven't been troubled with that but now when my needs ceased to work when you weren't loving me and I couldn't love myself then I developed this coping mechanism called depression and it escalated from being a day or two to a week and as the circumstances didn't change and my husband still didn't say thank you you did a good job
• 32:30 - 33:00 the way that I spell love was thank you and you did a good job then my depression deepened and finally there's more down time than up time and so as I said in an earlier program I was in and out of very deep deep suicidal depression now you may be thinking Oh Annabel seems to understand I just wish I could talk with her and share my problems I feel like she know where I'm
• 33:00 - 33:30 coming from and we wish that too because I believe she does know where you're coming from we understand that desire that's a normal desire but the wonderful thing is that Annabel not only can understand your depression but she knows the answer is the same as the answer that God has given her and that answer is to understand how completely and totally loved and acceptable you are to Christ
• 33:30 - 34:00 we've counseled just hundreds of people with depression and we have seen that their answer is the same as Annabelle's answer except for the very small percentage that have a physical problem and we're going to talk about that later now does this sound simplistic or exaggerated to you and let me ask you a simple question and see if the Holy Spirit will bear witness to the imagine that Jesus Christ could somehow come down and get into your circumstance and manage it for you that he had a way
• 34:00 - 34:30 to somehow lift you above it and take your place in it what would happen to your depression Oh such relief would come over me it would be like the washing machine repairman coming and fixing the washing machine he knows what to do now I wonder Jesus Christ lives inside of me does he know what to do can
• 34:30 - 35:00 he handle my problem all he can and we're going to show you how [Music] [Music] we're dealing with the subject of depression and we're still working probably on the foundation mostly giving you insight and understanding let's just do a little test here and see how
• 35:00 - 35:30 successful you've been in your search for love and of course the best barometer for that would be how well do I love and accept myself okay now I love to depression why are we starting this way because I need love so desperately and when that love need is not met very often in the majority of the cases depression is going to be the answer so let's see now and you just answer these
• 35:30 - 36:00 questions if Jesus Christ were to decide to visit our earth for just one hour and there were four people just four who would be available to visit with him and kind of make him feel at home and show him around which of these four people would he choose number one Billy Graham number two sandy patty number three your pastor
• 36:00 - 36:30 are number four you now then let me ask you why did you single out that person why did you choose that person that you felt the Lord would choose and number two where were you and number three why did you place yourself in that slot I chose Billy Graham because I figured he'd want to see North Carolina more than Fort Worth okay how about this one
• 36:30 - 37:00 again this is just a little test that we picked up somewhere that will help you to kind of evaluate how you love yourself now why would we be interested in that because if there is a kind of a low number here and chances are you're going to be subject to this depression that we're talking about all right with one being
• 37:00 - 37:30 very negative and ten being very positive answer these five questions with a number ranging between one and ten number one rate your physical appearance put a number on it number two rate your performance as a Christian number three rate your performance as a wife or husband number four rate your performance as a mother or a dad and lastly put a number on how
• 37:30 - 38:00 well you accept yourself why in the world did God design us this way why did he implant this need within us in fact I just might say not being disrespectful at all what right did he have to sew box us in hmm because creators have rights and creation have responsibilities I was
• 38:00 - 38:30 thinking the other day about the little old story of Pinocchio when the guys named gasp Eppie that wittily mouse something like that and Pinocchio decided he wanted to declare he wrote a declaration of independence he took off that now when Pinocchio was designed when he was created giuseppe designed him and established certain limits you might say or parameters around him wanting him to perform within those
• 38:30 - 39:00 parameters and understanding that it would be for his best good to do that mm-hmm this is a picture of God this is what he did and his right is to control now let's not leave Pinocchio so quickly okay when he rebelled and said I'll do things my way he got into bad trouble yeah and only coming home did he realize that this is what he wanted all the time
• 39:00 - 39:30 anyway was this beautiful relationship with this man who created him yeah it's a picture of salvation there you just described how about the prodigal son same thing happened to him he too was Pinocchio right how about you as you listen you two have been Pinocchio maybe you're still Pinocchio and to get the first step out of this depression is to come back to the creator and say sir I somehow am not
• 39:30 - 40:00 understanding my relationship to you I need to understand how to relate to you so I can let you begin to phase this thing out of me now then before we go any further bill and I want to tell you this there is evidence that a small percentage of depression cases are organic that they are physically induced now then it's important for you to
• 40:00 - 40:30 recognize that from dr. James Dobson book what wives wish their husbands knew about women he has given several physical symptoms and emotional symptoms now as I read these just kind of categorize answer them and see how many of them might apply to you as you are experiencing depression let's be sure we're understanding this now if they score high on a whole bunch of these
• 40:30 - 41:00 symptoms it's going to indicate that there is some sort of physical problem right in addition to the depression but there's some physical cause of this depression potentially right okay so listen to the questions I'll just go through them quickly here number one some sort of a digestive malfunction number two hot flashes in various parts of your body for just a few seconds number three dizziness number four
• 41:00 - 41:30 constipation number five trembling number six hands and feet that might tingle are as you would describe it go to sleep number seven a dryness of the skin number eight dryness of the mucus mmm brains number nine gradually reduced sexual desire number 10 pain in various joints of the body number eleven rapid
• 41:30 - 42:00 heartbeat number 12 headaches number thirteen dark gloomy circles around your eyes and dr. Dobson says this is the symptom which I have found most useful in preliminary diagnosis and then number 14 loss of weight those are the physical symptoms now then the emotional symptoms number one extreme depression perhaps lasting for months without relief number
• 42:00 - 42:30 two extremely low self-esteem bringing feelings of utter worthlessness and disinterested in living number three extremely low frustration tolerance giving rise to outburst of temper and emotional ventilation number four inappropriate emotional responses producing tears when things are not sad and depression when there's really no cause for it number five a low tolerance to noise or even the sound of a radio or
• 42:30 - 43:00 the children playing can be very irritating number six an accelerated need for proof of love and suspicion that there may be arrival number seven interferences with sleep patterns and number eight an inability to concentrate now those are the emotional symptoms these are the things that you might begin to evaluate and think I had a lot of those then it
• 43:00 - 43:30 may be that you have a physical cause for your depression yeah now if you came in to see me as your counselor I don't counsel one-on-one anymore but when I used to do that I would always try to be alert that may be the cause of your depression is physical and not spiritual and so when I say spiritual I mean not understanding how to relate properly to Jesus Christ and rest in his finished work for you so I would begin to add
• 43:30 - 44:00 questions to try to give myself some understanding of whether or not you might in fact be experiencing a physically induced depression problem I would ask you if you were female I'd ask questions about the regularity of the menstrual period or I would want to know if you'd ever had a hysterectomy and if so if you had problems with great mood swings that had come along with this I'd be asking questions of this type then I
• 44:00 - 44:30 found it very helpful to refer people who were suspect to this book what wives wish their husbands knew about women by Jim Dobson chapter 8 deals with these problems and it has these two little tests that Annabelle just read the tests are designed to identify a female who has hormonal imbalance or some way or other and I guarantee you man when I
• 44:30 - 45:00 would get a lady like this it would be very normal for her to say something like I just get up suicidal in the morning when I went to bed I was fine I got up the next morning I was so depressed I was suicidal when a red flag like that runs up the pole you can say oh oh I really need to recommend that she go to an astute physician and let him check her out to see whether or not she has some sort of hormonal deficiency or imbalance and I emphasize astute
• 45:00 - 45:30 physician I don't mean to be critical of anybody but different mechanics of automobiles are better on carburetors than they are on brakes and vice versa and astute endocrinologist is typically very skilled at identifying this problem now I'm not a physician so I can't diagnose this but where there's smoke there's fire and I have learned how to be a fairly good smoke detector we're
• 45:30 - 46:00 going to be talking about this a little more later but suffice it to say at this point that when there is a problem of this type then the physical problem has to be treated first before you can begin with the spiritual counseling [Music] during the original recording of this material we took time out to answer questions submitted by listeners to the
• 46:00 - 46:30 broadcast joining bill and Annabel and answering those questions is the president of lifetime guarantee Preston Gilliam and acting as moderator for the discussion is Mike Middleton our first question comes from a listener who says Annabel would you say that your depression might have been partially due to some physical problem now that you've become more knowledgeable did it intensify at that time of the month and do you still have a struggle with depression you've got three questions there and let me say two the first two
• 46:30 - 47:00 due to some physical problem and did it intensify at that time of the month I would say that it was not due to some physical problem because the Lord did give me victory over that and if it had been a physical thing I'm quite sure I would have battled that also but I never analyzed it might it be a physical problem might there be something causing this I never placed any blame on anyone other than myself now that's going to be my unique version of the flesh that's
• 47:00 - 47:30 the way I handled it I always would analyze what had gone wrong and it was always Annabelle's fault because I was a performer there this was my lifestyle to perform for people to get them to love me and I didn't love Annabelle because of what was happening bill didn't love me and to cap it all off God didn't love me because I put him in the same ballpark with everybody else now then you say do you still have a struggle
• 47:30 - 48:00 with depression very definitely I have a struggle with depression but it's not a lifestyle anymore and I am going to struggle with depression probably for the rest of my life because that's my unique version of the flesh and this is the way Satan is going to give me thoughts to try to get me to walk after the flesh you don't erase 40 some-odd years of patterning in two weeks two months two years you begin to put new
• 48:00 - 48:30 thoughts into your thinking processes but I would have to say yes I do definitely still struggle with thoughts that would tend to lead me in to depression but it is not a part of my life anymore that's right you don't get depressed I mean everybody gets a little down yeah yeah but as you say a bad hamburger can make you get depressed but in terms of your lifestyle you don't have depression
• 48:30 - 49:00 but you still battle the thoughts know why because they're not your thoughts they're being served up to you by the power of indwelling sin aren't they right I'd like to speak though to this question and bring up the subject of PMS premenstrual syndrome we run into this frequently owners live seminars like the last seminar we did this little housewife came up with her husband and she was talking about her experience
• 49:00 - 49:30 that the week prior to the onset of menstruation she says she just becomes a bear and she was wondering you know if this was just a spiritual problem because she tries to appropriate her identity in Christ and it just doesn't work for her it works the other three weeks but not this particular week and she was wondering what to do about it and so I was able to steer her toward groups that do deal with this problem I
• 49:30 - 50:00 don't know all of these groups around the country but I do know that most major cities at least have some physicians who specialize in dealing with helping women with premenstrual syndrome various kinds of medication diet regulation and these kinds of things exercise programs that can really be a great help in this area which reminds me I didn't answer one of these questions did it intensify at that time of the month it was intense all the time
• 50:00 - 50:30 I can't say that it intensified during that part of my life how much of a factor is spiritual warfare and this whole area of depression and how do you factor that in when you've just had a really wonderful spiritual experience Oh Mike I think that it's a tremendous factor the fact is that if your depression is not something that's physical then most certainly it is
• 50:30 - 51:00 spiritual spiritual or because I mean we are spiritual creatures and we are well the Bible says were created in the image of God and God is spirit so that means that we are spirit and if we are going to be attacked we're going to be attacked through what we commonly put under the heading of spiritual warfare now there's lots of sub points underneath what is spiritual warfare but yes it definitely plays a huge part in there you know I think of a biblical
• 51:00 - 51:30 example here Jonah when he had this tremendous experience with the whale I don't know if he or the big fish I guess the Bible says and I don't know if he'd call it a tremendous experience he he probably felt you like to be a fish babe and we call it a great experience anyway as long as it happened to him and not me but the point is is that he goes and preaches to Nineveh I think hoping that God was gonna he's gonna see quite a lightning storm there
• 51:30 - 52:00 as they raced them all and smoke them a smoking hole over there and instead they repented and he got depressed it was tremendous spiritual experience for him as well as for the Ninevites I'm sure to get right with the Lord and yet the enemy attacked him here in a tremendously difficult frontal assault to where he labored with self-pity and depression and so on and cried out that
• 52:00 - 52:30 God would even kill him if he wasn't gonna kill and innovates it was really a low time for him and so most definitely spiritual warfare is a tremendous factor many times in depression I agree and you spoke about spiritual high Mike and then getting depressed after that well if you are on a high let's quantify that on a 1 to 10 so let's say that your spiritual experience is an 8 ok now how long is
• 52:30 - 53:00 that last it certainly has got to go down all right what does depression mean it means depress it means go down so your emotions are already going down and so what's the evil one gonna do if he catches your emotions on a downward trip then let's jump on this guy's back and push him as low as we can push him sure let's key into these things and say wow have I lost something here and my emotions are going down and oh it was
• 53:00 - 53:30 such a glorious thing just a few minutes ago what's happening to me I remember times in my life for instance I remember one time I had been to our church camp called Falls Creek as a counselor my goodness what a spiritual high that was it was just wonderful even the ride home on the church bus with all the kids was great well that was a huh and I walk in my house nobody's interested in my spiritual high
• 53:30 - 54:00 you know I want to share it with people I want to talk to them about it and they aren't interested and so it I was really knocked down I think that Satan will very often use insensitive people after a spiritual high to bring you down to depression you know that they won't respond as you think they should and then of course as you've said through your thought life and here you are on
• 54:00 - 54:30 the mountaintop experience and all at once these thoughts start coming to you oh if only I could stay here but I've got to go back and there's washing going to be piled to the ceiling the house is going to be a mess the dog is going to have torn up the backyard and all these thoughts will begin to come to you and the first thing you know you're depressed even about going home it's in our thought life isn't it this spiritual warfare yeah let me just clarify something on that point
• 54:30 - 55:00 or ask you to do that I'm in this whole area of spiritual warfare someone summarize for us what Satan can and cannot do to us in the spiritual realm well that's a tremendous question because there is so much misunderstanding about this and I mean not just on layman's levels but I mean even in the theological realms they talk about you know is Satan omnipresent is he not on the president you know all these things and the point is hey who
• 55:00 - 55:30 cares all I know is I'm under attack here the point that I would like to follow up here though with Mike is that Satan cannot make me do anything that's one point that I'd like to make Satan cannot make you do anything this old adage that kind of became part of society from the old TV program about the devil made me do it oh yeah that's all it was was just a joke on a TV program because it's certainly not true the devil can't make you do anything
• 55:30 - 56:00 the second thing that I want to point out is that Satan cannot do anything that the Lord does not give him permission to carry out God is in control of this universe and as one of his children he is in control of my life and he will not allow anything the Bible says to come into my life that is too great for me to handle given the
• 56:00 - 56:30 resources of him in me and so on that he talks about in his work right I agree with that completely somebody has said it like this about Satan that a confrontation with the devil is not a power struggle it's a truth struggle hmm it's a truth struggle Satan if you'll examine it it says that he bought into the lie not a lie but V lied the big lie
• 56:30 - 57:00 being God is not worthy of being who he is he's not worthy of running this place so I'll be going so I'll be God that is the lie and if you don't study Scripture you'll see that cropping up through your body the lie so we've got to understand we are in a truth battle not in a power struggle would it be fair to say then for those people who are struggling with depression and we don't want to lay a guilt trip on them but would it be fair to say that in essence they believed a lie yes yes that is right they are
• 57:00 - 57:30 believing that they are the source somehow that they have to have the somehow the capability of digging themselves out of this hole that they're in but God is that source they need to understand how to relate to him as God wants them to real and this emotion of depression is not the barometer of true that's right [Music]
• 57:30 - 58:00 this concludes part 1 of the lifetime guarantee audio series free from depression to hear more go on to part 2