Friday Fight 66 - Medicate or Meditate?
Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF66.
How often do we find ourselves in a low mental place and can't say for sure how we got there? We all know that walking through highs and lows is normal, but suddenly we find ourselves in a different mental state, impacting everything around us. So what do we do to make ourselves feel better or cope in times like these?
Medicate or Meditate?
Too often, people find themselves in a place of low energy, discouragement, and irritability. These are signs of depression that can be difficult for us to recognize in ourselves. I have heard medical professionals refer to depression as the "common cold" of mental illnesses. So, like with a cold, we address it as soon as possible to avoid further contamination and worsening pain. For example, last year, my husband ignored a head cold which developed into a sinus infection requiring a whole month of antibiotics. Instead of treating his cold when his symptoms started, he ignored them, progressively worsening his cold.
Where can these things lead us as we isolate ourselves, wondering how to ease the pain? My husband's head cold could have been temporary if he hadn't ignored it. However, doing so brought a more significant problem and required more healing time. Using drugs, alcohol, binge eating, shopping, or dissociation to cope or make us feel better is a temporary fix. These self-medication attempts will not help us heal and can end in more significant issues. The quick rush of dopamine is just that, quick. It prevents us from facing our struggles in a spiritually healthy way.
Darkness wants to immobilize us. To attain this goal lies flood our minds, prompting us to go back and forth between past and future thoughts, completely missing God's work in our lives. To appease the places our mind travels to, we self-medicate to comfort our flesh. Let's initiate action in the presence of God instead of contaminating ourselves and pleasing darkness.
Rather than self-medicating, let's try meditating on our thought processes in these tempting moments. If our evaluation reveals thoughts of past failures or future worries, stop and pray. Focus on what God is presently doing, and remember, you cannot move forward while still looking backward. Call a friend or prayer partner and lean into the truths of God. Finally, continue moving forward, and know that God has already forgiven us and has a unique plan to fulfill His will.
Pastor Shannon
New Life Calvert