Participants: Bill Santos
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201208
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00:02 >>Bill: In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy. He was
00:06 filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn't eat, 00:10 and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found 00:16 that he was in prime physical condition. Concluding that his 00:20 patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in 00:24 town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi. Night after 00:30 night he had the people rolling in the aisles. "You must go and see him," 00:33 the doctor advised. "Grimaldi is the world's funniest clown. He'll make 00:37 you laugh and cure your sadness." "No," replied the despairing man, "he 00:42 can't help me. you see, I am Grimaldi!" 01:03 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time. 01:04 God's book, The Bible 01:08 Still relevant in today's complex world. 01:12 It Is Written. 01:15 Sharing messages of hope around the world. 01:43 According to Health Canada about 9% of adult Canadians will experience 01:47 a major depression or anxiety at some point during their 01:52 lifetime. In 2003 11.6 million visits to doctors across Canada were 01:59 depression or anxiety related. Twice as many women as men are diagnosed 02:06 with depression/anxiety. However, this may simply indicate that men are less 02:11 comfortable seeking help or do not get an accurate diagnosis. In Canada, 02:17 suicide is the second highest cause of death for youth aged 10-24. Each 02:26 year, on average, 294 youths die from suicide. Many more attempt suicide. 02:35 One of the reasons I love the Bible is that it is not afraid of the truth, 02:43 even the sometimes sordid truth about its heroes. Abraham lied. Jacob stole. 02:50 Moses murdered. King David committed adultery. Heroes of the faith, everyone of 02:57 them, but the Bible refuses to gloss over their shortcomings. It 03:02 shows them "warts and all." We find another "wart" in our lesson from 03:08 I Kings - one of the greatest of the prophets - Elijah. 03:19 To briefly recount the background of the story, three years before, at the 03:23 urging of the Lord, Elijah had announced a drought as punishment on the nation 03:28 of Israel for its idolatry and worship. A contest was arranged on Mount Carmel 03:34 between Elijah and the prophets of Baal to determine once and for all 03:39 just who was the real God of Israel. Each would build an altar for their 03:44 god and then a sacrifice would be made. The god who answered by fire, 03:48 consuming the sacrifice, would be the winner. All day long the prophets of 03:54 Baal danced and prayed, sang and prayed, whined and prayed, all without 03:59 result. Finally, at the end of the day, Elijah prayed his relatively 04:05 short prayer and God answered by fire! Now, the prophets of the Baals 04:13 had been exterminated, the rains have begun again, and except for the very 04:18 real threat of retribution from Jezebel, Elijah should have been feeling 04:23 pretty good. But no - he was, well, depressed. He went out into the 04:33 wilderness, away from all human contact, slumped down under a tree and 04:38 said, 04:58 Quite a speech. One might expect that the Lord would respond with something 05:04 like, "It's all right. You are doing a fine job. Don't be so depressed. It 05:08 will all work out in the end." But the Lord does not say that. The Lord 05:13 does not say anything. Just silence. You can picture the prophet 05:19 looking around him after that emotional outburst. "Is anybody there? Does 05:24 anybody care?" Finally, Elijah took that time-honored way of 05:29 temporary escape - he fell asleep. 1 Kings 19: 5a 05:41 Why should Elijah be so terribly depressed? After all, as much as anyone 05:47 alive he had seen the evidence of God's power. He had watched as God 05:52 provided an unending supply of food for the poor family that had 05:58 offered him hospitality for three years. He had participated in God's 06:02 restoration to life of a desperately ill young boy. He had been God's field 06:08 commander in that great victory on Mt. Carmel. One would expect that Elijah 06:13 of all people would never hit bottom. But he did. 06:20 What causes such depression? In Elijah's case a good part was sheer 06:27 frustration. Now I've asked a specialist to join us, her name is Dr. Leader 06:34 from Toronto's York University. Dr. Leader is an expert and she is going 06:41 to help us better understand this. Dr. Leader, thank you for 06:45 joining us. Let me ask you, can frustration with one's life lead to 06:48 depression? 06:52 >>Dr. Leader: The term "depression" is used to describe a variety of 06:55 situations related to mood. It is a complex illness with many 06:58 contributing factors. Some call depression a disease Others dislike the idea of 07:03 labelling. Often enough, when someone is described as "depressed", it is more 07:09 accurate to say that person has symptoms of depression, is sad, lonely 07:14 or grieved. All of us at one time or another encounter phases when we 07:18 become discouraged, are down on ourselves, and feel dejected for one 07:23 reason or another, real or imagined. There is a lot that can be said about 07:29 depression. Clinical depression requires the presence of a number of 07:33 symptoms affecting a person's "normal" functioning for a period 07:37 of time. For the purposes of this discussion, the question is whether 07:42 frustration with one's life can lead to depression. The causes of 07:47 depression are many, frustration being only one of them. Some causes or 07:53 situations that can lead to depression include abuse; certain 07:57 medications; conflict; death; major life events/changes-even 08:01 positive ones; loss-of a dream, a life, a home, etc; other personal 08:07 problems; serious illnesses, including chronic pain, diabetes, 08:12 heart disease, arthritis, kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, and hypothyroidism. Some 08:20 symptoms of depression may be confused with other conditions, but here are 08:25 some: alcohol or drug abuse; insomnia or excessive sleep; 08:30 heightened irritability; loss of interest in people and activities that once 08:36 were pleasurable to the individual; a sense of hopelessness and 08:39 helplessness; negativity; persistent thoughts that something bad would 08:44 happen; thoughts of death; withdrawal from social intercourse; dark themes 08:49 in their work and conversation; decreased motivation and 08:54 productivity; crying spells. At its worst, one can become suicidal. Some 09:00 possible warning signs include extreme mood swings; anxious and 09:05 agitated behaviour; reckless behaviour; talking about not wanting 09:10 to be a burden to others; or about not wanting to be here; feeling trapped or 09:15 in unbearable pain; talk about feeling hopeless and having no reason to live; 09:20 talk about wanting to die or kill himself. One writer noted that 09:27 depression is a problem between the person and his/her world. A way to 09:32 look at depression is that it sets in when we have reached the end of our 09:38 rope/efforts, and find there's nowhere else to go. In Elijah's case, he 09:44 had just done wonders in God's name on Mt. Carmel, and then found himself 09:49 running for his life from Jezebel. At the cave he told God he was sick of 09:55 living, and complained about how he stood alone. If you look closely, you 10:00 will notice that there is that element of self-pity in this story of Elijah. 10:06 People were out to get him. Put another way, when we perceive that we 10:11 are not able to control our lives and situations; when things are not 10:16 working out the way we wanted them to, we crash into feeling like 10:20 failures, feelings of guilt and even anger, leading to depression. 10:26 Could it be that we fall into depression when we take our eyes off God and 10:30 fix them on ourselves and others; When we fix our focus on our failures and 10:32 shortcomings; on our culpability and guilt; on the gross wrongs others 10:41 have done to us (self-pity), and how unfair life is? Our focus 10:46 should be on God. There's no better or more capable individual to whom to give 10:53 our feelings of depression. He made us, and is more than able to 10:59 take us over the hump. Thank you. >>Bill: Well thank you Dr. Leader for 11:05 those insights. People work so hard to do the best possible job and then 11:11 find they are out of work because some corporate bigwig decided to move the 11:18 company. A father and mother try to give their youngsters a proper 11:22 upbringing but are now crazy with worry because their teenage son has been 11:27 arrested for selling drugs. A husband sits quietly by, unable to do 11:33 anything, as his wife slowly wastes away, the victim of the unstoppable 11:38 advance of an incurable disease. A marriage that had started with such 11:42 promise of excitement years ago has now drifted into day after day of 11:47 mutual boredom. A marriage that stayed wonderful through the years is now 11:52 over, ended by the cold hand of death, leaving the survivor to wonder if 11:57 there will ever again be any laughter in life. Is there any word from the 12:05 Lord on this? Is anybody there? Does anybody care? As I said at the 12:13 beginning, one of the reasons I love the Bible is that it refuses to be 12:17 blind to human frailty, even among the heroes of the faith. But another 12:22 reason is that the Bible does have a word from the Lord. It offers strength 12:27 to overcome the frailty, in this case the feelings of depression that 12:34 sometimes come to even the strongest of us. Please do not misunderstand - 12:40 what I am talking about here is not some automatic cure-all, but I believe 12:46 for many of the feelings of despair and hopelessness there are 12:51 some practical remedies that will work. See what happens with Elijah. Verse 12:58 5b 13:24 It hardly comes as a surprise that proper nutrition and rest are 13:28 critical to a decent mental attitude. Overstressed, underpaid 13:35 workaholics will inevitably have trouble. Elijah's body and mind 13:42 were an integrated whole. His body needed to be right before his mind 13:49 could be right. I wanted to explore this a little more so I asked my friend 13:56 Dr. Fereira to join us. Many of you know Dr. Fereira as our medical 14:02 expert. Dr. Fereira thank you for joining us. Let me ask you this, does what we 14:08 eat affect our mental state? 14:14 >> Dr. Fereira: Thank you Bill! We all know that caffeine may help a person 14:18 more energetic and that alcohol may calm one down but what I hear you asking 14:23 is if foodcan in fact affect the way we feel and think. The answer is Yes, 14:28 even though there is not enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions yet 14:33 but the evidence does suggest that a healthy diet also protects our 14:38 mental health. Years ago, Dr Andrew McCulloch, the chief executive of the 14:44 Mental Health Foundation, in the UK said that and I quote "We are well aware 14:50 of the effect of diet upon our physical health, but we are only just beginning 14:55 to understand how the brain ,as an organ, is influenced by the 15:00 nutrients it derives from the foods we eat and how diets have an impact on 15:05 our mental health" end of quote. I think we need to look at this by asking two 15:11 main questions: the first is "can my diet affect the way I feel, in other 15:17 words, can it make me feel good or fell bad? The second question is: Can it 15:23 affect my reasoning and memory? Let's have a look at this. Our brains are 15:28 amazing organs that depend on the production of certain chemicals to 15:33 function well. Let's take a substance called dopamine, for example, 15:37 which is produced by the brain and allows information to travel from 15:41 one part of the brain to another. Dopamine is very important for reasoning or 15:46 processing information at an intellectual level. It also helps one get 15:51 motivated, to feel sad or excited, to concentrate, and it is also related 15:57 with sleep as well as feelings associated with sexual gratification.Some 16:02 of the practical implications are that a low dopamine level in the 16:06 brain may make one feel down, less motivated and with less capacity to 16:12 reason about issues. Now, let's go back to your question, could it be that 16:17 dopamine has something to do with food? Well, the brain uses certain types 16:22 protein to make dopamine and where do these come from? Exactly! From food! 16:29 This also means that if we are deficient in them we may end up with lower 16:34 dopamine levels and feel lousy, for example. But dopamine is just one 16:39 example. Let's look at another one which is serotonin. Research shows 16:44 that people who are depressed often have low serotonin levels. Many 16:49 medications raise the amount of serotonin in the brain but could food also 16:54 affect it? The answer is yes! You see, just like with dopamine, the brain 17:00 uses some types of protein to make serotonin. Here is an important word to 17:05 remember - tryptophane. This is a type of substance used to make 17:11 serotonin and you can just guess that what we eat may affect how much serotonin 17:16 we may produce. What about our memory? Could it also be related to the food we 17:22 eat? The answer again is "yes" and not only about what you and I would call 17:27 normal forgetfulness but also in the development of Alzheimer's disease. A 17:33 recent study showed that people who simply ate more calories than what they 17:38 needed had more chances of developing mild memory loss, when compared with 17:43 those who ate fewer calories. That's astonishing! Now, which 17:49 are the best foods for the brain? We need to look at it as a complete package. 17:55 By that I mean, let's avoid foods that are not good for the brain and eat 17:59 more of the ones that help us. This means, we should normally eat less meat and 18:05 foods high in saturated fat such as cured cheeses and processed meats. It 18:11 also means that we should eat less refined starches for example, cakes, 18:15 biscuits and white bread. On the other hand, we should be spending more of 18:20 our money on good things like whole grain, high fiber cereals for 18:25 breakfast, with little sugar added, more fruit, in fact, plenty of fruit, 18:29 plenty of vegetables and good plant sources protein such as beans, lentils, 18:31 chick-peas or carbanzos, soy beans or tofu which also helps to increase 18:41 serotonin. Soy milk is a very good substitute for cow's milk I would chose 18:47 to add it to the morning cereals to start with, if taste is an issue. Now 18:53 something about fats. The best fats are found in nuts, avocado pears and 18:58 olives. Nuts are excellent for the brain but it is better to take them 19:03 unsalted and not fried. How much? A handful of nuts a day is probably 19:08 enough and it is better to take them at breakfast or lunch. Add a tablespoon or 19:12 two of ground flaxseed to your soups or cereals and you have a winning diet 19:19 for your brain. By the way, flaxseed can supply some the body with some 19:23 omega 3 rich oils, and have similar effects to eating fish but without 19:30 the risks associated with eating it. Just a word or two about caffeine and 19:35 alcohol. The best is to avoid them. There isn't a good enough reason to take 19:39 them and, in a long run, even when taken in so called "moderation" they 19:44 can have serious consequences for our health. And to finish all 19:49 this? The cherry on top is plenty of exercise, enough rest and a positive 19:55 attitude in life! Bill, it was a long answer but I hope I have answered your 19:59 question! Now it's back to you. 20:03 >>Bill: Let me thank you Dr. Fereira for those important words. 20:07 Then there is another step. When Elijah woke up again, the narrative says, 20:11 verses 7 and 8 20:34 I do not believe the message here is to overcome depression by 20:39 running away from problems or even going off on an extended vacation. What is 20:45 significant is Elijah's destination. Mt. Horeb was the place where Moses 20:52 first met God in the burning bush. It was also known as Sinai, the place 20:58 where God gave the Law. For Elijah, a trip to that holy mountain was a 21:04 pilgrimage to his spiritual roots...a place to rekindle memories, to 21:10 recall all God had done throughout history. More was needed, of course. The 21:16 next step was conversation with the Lord - a prayer, if you will. Elijah set up 21:22 camp in a cave, and as scripture has it verse 9 22:00 Quite a prayer. 22:04 Have you ever prayed one like that? There is nothing the matter with 22:09 it. It is not as if God does not already know how we feel. God knows. But I 22:13 think letting it all out can be therapeutic. I am reminded of words of the 22:20 famous hymn . 22:26 Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because 22:32 we do not carry Everything to God in prayer 22:40 Then there is another important lesson here verse 11. God told Elijah 22:46 . 23:18 The message for those who are occasionally deeply depressed is that furious 23:24 activity - wind, earthquake, fire - is not the answer. A time is 23:29 needed for quiet reflection, to feel the Lord's presence. Psalm 23:36 46:10 says . 23:49 To be sure, Elijah is not the only person in scripture who at times was 23:53 depressed. It happened to Jesus. He was frustrated that even his closest 23:59 disciples often misunderstood him. He stood on a hill 24:03 overlooking Jerusalem one day and broke into tears because the people would 24:07 not listen. One night, as he prayed in a garden, his distress was so great that 24:12 scripture says he sweat great drops of blood and begged for escape. 24:21 The word from the Lord in all this is that deep depression occasionally 24:26 happens to the very best. The story of Elijah offers a prescription for dealing 24:33 with it. We need to do a better job taking care of ourselves physically 24:37 (eating right, proper rest, exercise). Do not neglect our roots - set 24:47 time aside for things that are ultimately important (quiet time for prayer, 24:53 study and reflection) And we need to remember that we are not alone - there 24:59 were and are caring and supportive friends, and especially the one 25:05 scripture calls "the friend who sticks closer than a brother," our Lord 25:11 and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who invites us, in our deepest, 25:18 darkest moments, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will 25:26 give you rest." 25:32 Let us pray. Father in heaven, I pray that you draw near to those who are 25:36 suffering at this time. Particularly those that are in the midst of 25:41 depression and anxiety - bring comfort to their souls, to their hearts and 25:46 to their minds. Be with each and every viewer I pray in Jesus name, Amen. 26:12 >>Dave: God is great and beyond all human comprehension. We are told 26:15 that his eyes are even on the sparrow, therefore his eyes are on us. Pastor 26:21 Bill has prepared a book that includes all of the messages in this series. 26:25 The book is called "Fear not, for I am with you" We would like to send it 26:30 to you as our gift. Here is the information you need to get your copy. 27:33 >>Bill: We've come to the end of another It Is Written program, I want to 27:35 thank you for joining us. Remember to visit our web-site 27:38 www.itiswrittencanada.ca On the web-site you can see all of our program, 27:45 they are all archived there, you can chat with us live, if we're 27:50 available, you can find out where the It Is Written team may be 27:55 appearing, you can send a prayer request, you can even donation online. 27:58 Please know that any donation you send is used to keep this ministry on 28:02 the air. You can also watch our programs on our Youtube channel 28:07 (youtube.com/iiwcanada) and you can even follow us on twitter. I hope and 28:12 pray that you will be back with us again next week, we long to be here and 28:15 that's what our prayer will be. Until then remember, It Is Written, 28:23 man shall not live by bread alone, but by every work that proceeds from 28:27 the mouth of God. |
Revised 2015-02-06