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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Don Mackintosh

Dealing with Depression, Anxiety, and Discouragement

Father in heaven, Lord, thank you today that we can come here to Advent Hope.

And we're thankful for the opportunity we have to worship you.

Now, I actually work 50 days out of the year with depressed and anxious patients with Dr.

Nedley, and then we have a team of marriage and family or cognitive behavioral therapists, And then we have the spiritual section.

And actually Priscilla used to work with us right here.

So if you have any problems with depression, she's right here in the second row with the green sweater on.

And as I looked at the stats, as a matter of fact, 1 of your regular attendees here except for today, Daphne, you know Daphne and Carlos, how many of you know Daphne?

She gave a beautiful testimony last night and she talked about her experience in medical school and how it was quite stressful.

And I imagine any other school is stressful as well, but I'll just focus on the statistics.

She said last night as she was citing a JAMA article, she said 30% of medical students suffer from depression.

So 30% suffer from depression, 1 in 10 have suicidal thoughts.

And in looking at this, it was academic competition, it was curriculum volume.

How many of you are concerned with curriculum volume?

Something like a fire hydrant of, You know, information.

Could you give us just 1 more chapter to read?

And then they're associated, they see for the first time many times, sickness and death, They come face to face with many things they've never seen before.

It leads to sleep disorders, either increased or decreased.

An interest deficit, guilt, energy deficit, concentration deficit.

Appetite, maybe not deficit, maybe increased appetite.

Mood foods, psychomotor retardation or agitation, and Like I said, suicidal ideation.

So, and as a matter of fact, in the study that I was looking at this morning, another study, it was interesting that, you know, the people that are the most depressed that are in medical school are those that are going into it for the money.

The people most depressed in medical school are those going into it for the money.

It seems that they can't really handle the stressors of medical school as effectively as those who are going in it for simply a service attitude.

So academics and materialism can become a real idol.

And whenever you're worshiping an idol, it ends up being depressing.

Because ultimately, you find out that the idol isn't really that valuable.

Now in my line of work, you know, 50 days out of the year, I do other things than that because I want to keep busy, you know.

But in my line of work, you don't know how many people I've met that are maybe in their 40s, mid-50s, maybe a little older, and they tell me, you know, I got to the top of the hill in my profession, maybe a dentist, maybe a doctor, maybe a banker.

And when I got to the top of the hill I realized there's nobody there.

They were like the person who said, look, I tried to get in myself and discover my inner core.

When I got there, it was like an onion, the same thing on the outside as in the inside.

And by this time, they're a slave, because everybody wants them to make money, but they're not really in relationship with them to a large extent.

And they're lonely, and they're upset, and they're somewhat even angry.

And they usually are also, when they see me, not just because of me, before they see me, let's say before they see me.

They're usually either atheist or agnostic.

And the reason is, as I've listened to them, is because they say, you know, God's not helping me out.

I've tried to reach out to God, but he's not there.

And you represent God in the program, and so their anger towards God, you know, I get to be the wonderful recipient of that.

So people would come in and say, you know what?

If this program doesn't work, I have a gun and I'm gonna shoot myself.

And I always say, look, thanks for the heads up.

I just wanna make sure that you're not thinking of doing that now or here.

And that's a very serious business, right?

So, now the joyful result, to give you some hope before we look at some more of the, nuts and bolts, the joyful result is that in 10 days' time, we have a 100% response rate to our program.

Well, you're getting, well, that's not a big deal.

Everybody responds, maybe it's negative, maybe it's positive, it's not enough.

Before you get too excited, maybe you wanna ask that question, right?

We're training critical thinkers here and discerning readers.

So the Beck inventory, for those of you who are into the technical things, it goes up.

There's other different measures of depression.

We've had different students from different programs that come.

They're able to gain things that can help them not only survive but thrive as they go forward in life.

And it's 1 of the most gratifying things I think I've ever done.

I mean it's nice talking to you guys but it's not like that.

When to see someone who's young, you know, we have people as young as 16 and as old as, you know, 95.

But to see the young people turn around, oh, man.

As a matter of fact, for many years, I went on my vacation time to do depression recovery programs, can you say that's sick?

It's not really sick, but I went there because it was so amazing and I would just see people's lives grasped from the abyss and then they come back and they they're filled with hope and happiness and joy.

That was the ultimate vacation, to see that.

So now I get to do this like 5 or 6 times a year.

I just finished a large program this past Monday.

What is the role of spirituality as it relates to recovery from depression.

So, when people come, I realize that many of them are really low on the hope scale.

And so the very first thing I've got to do, and all of us in the program need to do, is to instill hope.

I hope what I just told you was already hopeful, was it?

The very first thing, very first thing when I would see anybody, you know?

It's like the doctor I used to work with when I worked in the trauma center.

And he was 1 of these doctors, you know, that kind of had ADD, elemental PQRS, and TUZ.

And if he didn't have someone that he was suturing or something, he would go into the parking lot looking for patients.

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Dealing with Depression, Anxiety, and Discouragement

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