Coping with Depression: The "Common Cold" of the Emotional Life

by Siang-Yang Tan, John Ortberg Jr.

A virus is never pleasant, but it need not degenerate into pneumonia. Depression is never pleasant, but it need not become a disabling emotional crisis.

Almost everyone feels down sometimes. But "down" doesn't adequately describe the hopelessness, lost confidence, and confusion some people experience. Here is a guide to techniques for coping with depression and direction to determine whether outside help is needed.

Coping will become easier once you understand what takes place: Activating events trigger unhealthy Beliefs about yourself and lead to lingering Consequences of sad feelings.

As you discover why you feel the way you do, you will also learn to use simple relaxation and "thought-stopping" techniques. Written from a Christian perspective by a psychologyst and a pastor, Coping with Depression is one of ten volumes in the Strategic Christian Living series.

-from the back cover

Genres: Christian, Mental Health

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Siang-Yang Tan is director of the doctor of psychology program in the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. His Ph.D. is from McGill University.

-from the back cover of Coping with Depression (1995)

Reviews

[Richard Angelus · Rating 3 out of 5]

To depress something is "to move it from a higher level to a lower level." Ask depressed people how they're feeling and there's a good chance they will respond, "Low." When you're depressed, you find yourself struggling for energy. Your food seems to lose its flavor, tasks, and relationships that used to energize you now feel so draining as not to be worth the effort, and you feel as if you can hardly drag yourself through the day.

Tasks as simple as choosing a menu at a restaurant or writing an email (or assignment) feel as though they would require superhuman effort. Watching TV/movie/anime or scrolling mindlessly on social media is as far as your ambition goes – if it goes as far as getting out of bed...

To read my review of Siang-Yang Tan & John Ortberg's Coping With Depression (1995, 2004), CLICK HERE: https://www.richardangelus.me/2018/07...

[Alex Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I found this book helpful for dealing with depression, however I am not a Christian so the tie ins with the church and god did not sync with me. This book is still worth the read if you are battling with depression and need some coping mechanisms. Whenever they mentioned god or the church I would just change this to what ever spiritually you are into.

[Amy Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for an overview of strategies for coping with depression. I like that it covers affective, cognitive, and behavioral strategies. Great definition of depression, but I found the theory of the etiology of depression to be a little weak.

[SteFF · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoiler alert. This book states the answer to depression is church itself. They should put that on the cover so it focuses only on Christians who regularly attend church. Most of the book explains what depression is, along with links.

[Kaitlyn Gertner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful. I really liked the case study at the end that helped to put all the tips and tricks together.

[Elizabeth]

Ugh... books that talk about various kinds and degrees of depression and emphasize that depression is Srs Bznz and distinct from just an occasional low mood -- and then go on to outline various cognitive and behavioral strategies that seem really aimed at people who are experiencing only mild depression. (They do say that if you're experiencing severe depression, medication can be a very important tool and isn't anything to be ashamed about, etc. etc.) Yes, these are good tools regardless of your level of depression, but there's this sense that you can just retrain yourself and be cured, which isn't how it works with severe depression; you learn ways to manage it and to keep yourself safe and all that, but you're not necessarily "cured." (And it feels too pat and easy even for people who are essentially just struggling with low periods. They do reiterate that this is a process and takes time and all, but then they have "inner healing prayer" -- pp. 53-59 -- which is basically a guided meditation with a lot of explicit prayer incorporated in -- and you're going to heal the pain of an incident in your past that has haunted you in ONE session?)

I honestly don't quite understand who they perceive the target audience of this book to be.

"Types of depression" (pp.24-27) seems to indicate that they're taking about Srs Bznz depression -- they cite the DSM-IV, for example.

Dr. Archibald Hart has pointed out that because depression has many types, it is more correct to think of depression as a "spectrum" disorder. However, despite its complexity, he notes that it is helpful to view depression as being one or a combination of the following three things or meanings (see Hart 1987, 43): (1) it can be a symptom of something else (e.g., depression can be a side-effect of a serious disease or influenza); (2) it can be a reaction to life events like bereavement or losing a job, (i.e., reactive depression); (3) it can be a disease or disorder in and of itself (e.g., when the body is suffering from some disorder of the biochemical system that usually keeps it in psychic balance or equilibrium). Dr. Hart has also recently written a helpful book no how depression can be a healing emotion when you learn how to cooperate with it (Hart 1993).
-p.27

Causes of Depression (pp.28-34)
* Physical Factors
* Temperament Vulnerability ("Depression-Prone Personality")
* Sin
There are times and occasions when depression may be a consequence of sin in a person's life, but this does not mean that all depression is always due to personal sin. Some examples of possible sinful causes of depression include: negative, sinful attitudes or feelings like bitterness, resentment, hatred, etc.; guilt and unrepentance over present sinful behavior and attitudes; backsliding or turning away from the Lord and his Word; fear of the future and lack of trust in God as sufficient provider; and unbelief in general.
[To their credit, earlier, the authors talk about how it's a bad thing that Christians often suffer in silence, believing that if only they had more faith, were better Christians, etc. they wouldn't be suffering -- e.g., "She received a general message that depression was the result of a lack of faith, that mature Christians were immune to it, that a truly spiritual person could simply make a "quality choice" not to be depressed, and that depression was evidence of an inferior prayer life. There was no acknowledgment of the complexity of where depression comes from -- that, for instance, it might involve a genetic predisposition. [...:] It might have been some consolation to her to learn that great leaders of the faith throughout history have struggled with depression" --p.20]
* God-Sent Trials
Difficult, painful, stressful times of trial or struggle may lead to periods of depression. Such God-sent trials are meant however to prune or purify us, so that we can bear more fruit (John 15:2; 1 Peter 1:6-7). As someone has put it: "God tries to bring forth the good in us, whereas Satan tempts us to bring forth the evil or worst in us."
* Demonic Attacks
Satan and his demonic forces can attack and oppress people to the point of feeling depressed and oppressed (see Eph. 6:11-12; 1 Peter 5:8-9).
* Loneliness
* Triggering Situations
* Irrational, Unbiblical Self-Talk or Misbeliefs
*Anger Turned Inward against the Self
* Biological Constitutional Factors
* Existential Vacuum
* Spiritual "Dark Night of the Soul"
* Interpersonal Factors
* Larger Societal/Cultural Factors

... I don't even know where to begin with that.

I had tagged this book "despite possible theology fail" because I was hesitant about it, and I would generally recommend giving this book a miss, but it definitely wasn't egregious. (It also suffered from giving such surface treatment to various things -- there are various things mentioned/cited in it which in probing sound rather different -- sometimes better, sometimes worse -- than they sound in their passing mention.)

[Paul Dubuc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good place to start for Christians who may be experiencing depression. It gives a good description of what depression is and isn't, some helpful means of coping with causes of depression and ways of getting relief and some valuable references to other sources of help. It's not a comprehensive guide, but it is a good book to start with, especially for people in the early stages of depression or with relatively mild symptoms. It's a good book for pastors to read and use in their counseling since they may be the first person that depressed people turn to for help. There is good advice in here about how they can help people with milder cases and when people with more serious depression need to be referred to other professionals for help.

[Sondra Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.....John Townsend co-author was expecting more