Hope Past Burnout and Depression

THESE TWO don’t always present at the same time; they’re not necessarily linked. But very often they are. As depression and anxiety tend to feed off each other, so too do burnout and depression.

Though it is arguable whether this age is any busier than any previous age, the one thing we can know is there are orders of complexity in this world that there has never been in any previous era. Sure, we are the same broken vessels to choose many unwise ways, and that has always been the case, but now we have this exponential factor of chaos plunged into the depths of our lives by sheer Western influence at the outer fringes of postmodernism. Enter the technological age where gadgets are designed to make our lives easier, but only ever end up supporting the opposite effect if they aren’t used wisely. Most people get it wrong most of the time.

The technological age is just one factor. There are many more sociological factors too intricate to deal with here. But we can see what is patently apparent—burnout and depression are on the rise.

Sorting the Cause from the Effect

The great unfortunate thing in this age, with many problems abounding, is we look for a fix regarding the effect of our problems and don’t sufficiently interrogate the cause.

For a little bit more effort, with a little more curiosity, by being a little more focused, we can work on the cause and, thereby, obliterate the effect. The cause of our problems is a lack of God. If we had God in adequate measure we would prioritise life in such a way as to be able to diligently walk the ancient path that God anoints for anyone to travel upon.

The ancient path of abiding in God’s ways is effective for life in every era.

Certainly, in some ways, we need belief beyond the entrapping fear of the burnout and depression double blow; we need hope beyond the nemesis that each is.

When we re-sort our priorities and implicate courage by creating change we smash burnout, yet we may need rest beforehand to have the energy to do that. When we no longer cruel ourselves for feeling depressed, and we deal with our thinking, going gentler on ourselves, hearing God’s affirmation in the order of our obedience, we negate depressed feelings.

One day at a time we can recover past these two, but we will need to change. We will need all the courage we can enlist, but none of that is beyond us. Let us seek God, the Healer.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.