by Dr. Cecil Clements (16th October 2012)
As I have been reading newspapers and magazines over the last 6 months, I have found that there are many people who suffer from depression, and very few people know what they are going through. Sadly, before anything can be done to help them, they decide to take matters into their own hands, which is really detrimental to themselves. I looked at this in dismay, thinking that depression is something that is so easily worked with. Most clinical psychologists and counselors will be able to help a person through depression, to the point where they are once again working optimally.
I wondered why it is that we don’t see these things early? Why is it that even if we do see it, we don’t do anything about it to help these people so that fewer accidents take place? This has really bee an area of concern for me. I was talking to my wife who is a clinical psychologist about what could be done to help people who are depressed.
As I was preparing for my Tuesday morning talk with you, I was thinking about the workplace and the marketplace and how depression actually stalks the corridors of the offices as well. And yet within your workspaces, there is very little time for you to actually check out of your own work or the demands that you have or schedules that you need to keep, to look sideways at a colleague. Even if you do wonder whether that person is doing okay, whether you have the time or the inclination (if I can say that gently) to ask that person or even be able to help that particular person.
I wondered whether that was something about which I could speak to you all. I was reading an article on depression by Christopher --- who is well versed with this topic. He says that many people are vulnerable to having depression, but there are typical stressors that trigger depression in people if it’s raised at inordinate amounts or levels. It particularly affects:
As I have been reading newspapers and magazines over the last 6 months, I have found that there are many people who suffer from depression, and very few people know what they are going through. Sadly, before anything can be done to help them, they decide to take matters into their own hands, which is really detrimental to themselves. I looked at this in dismay, thinking that depression is something that is so easily worked with. Most clinical psychologists and counselors will be able to help a person through depression, to the point where they are once again working optimally.
I wondered why it is that we don’t see these things early? Why is it that even if we do see it, we don’t do anything about it to help these people so that fewer accidents take place? This has really bee an area of concern for me. I was talking to my wife who is a clinical psychologist about what could be done to help people who are depressed.
As I was preparing for my Tuesday morning talk with you, I was thinking about the workplace and the marketplace and how depression actually stalks the corridors of the offices as well. And yet within your workspaces, there is very little time for you to actually check out of your own work or the demands that you have or schedules that you need to keep, to look sideways at a colleague. Even if you do wonder whether that person is doing okay, whether you have the time or the inclination (if I can say that gently) to ask that person or even be able to help that particular person.
I wondered whether that was something about which I could speak to you all. I was reading an article on depression by Christopher --- who is well versed with this topic. He says that many people are vulnerable to having depression, but there are typical stressors that trigger depression in people if it’s raised at inordinate amounts or levels. It particularly affects:
- People who depend on harmonious interpersonal relationships.
- People who obtain a high amount of positive recognition for high achievements.
Let me stat that again just a little differently. He says, “Depression is triggered even more in people who place a high amount of fulfillment in their own lives, on the harmonious interpersonal relationships that they have.” In other words, there is a sense of well-being and equilibrium with themselves if there are harmonious relationships all around them; that they are all working well, there’s no conflict, there is peace around them. Then they feel that life is going well. But they can easily go into depression if there is conflict or when their peace is broken.
About the second point, he is basically saying that when people do something and then feel the need for people to say, “You’ve done a great job” or “Man, that was an excellent piece of work.” If they don’t get it, then they tend to move into depression.
As I was reading this article, I thought that both of them have to do with a dependence on others, other people’s responses and reactions and interactions rather than their own well-being. They allow themselves to go downhill because there is a dependence on other people bringing fulfillment to their lives, either in terms of harmony around them or in terms of positive recognition for their own work.
Reflecting on that, I thought that it was pretty much par for the course for most people. It’s human nature for us to need harmony around us, it’s human nature to want our achievements to be applauded or even be noticed. And yet you need to be able to tie that in to a personality type or your own sense of how you see yourself. It all boils down to whether you are comfortable with yourself or not, whether you are at peace with who you are, or whether you depend on others to fulfill you?
I don’t get the opportunity of interacting with you all individually, but I wonder whether there are some of you on this call who do depend a lot on these 2 issues. Are you prone to depressive thoughts? When you don’t get these 2 issues looked after in your life, does it begin to take you downhill? Or do you see it in people around you? How do you recognize it in people around you?
The article goes on to say, “There are always indicators in people. You will see that there are changes in personality or attitude or mood, or productivity or efficiency goes down. Or it could be that there is absenteeism, or the energy level is not there, or even personal appearance might change. But for us to recognize these changes, we need to be able to be empathetic with situations around us.” Which begs the question: Are we? Do we have the time to do it?
But when we look at all that is happening around us and we see the way people are taking such drastic measures because they cannot handle depression, I think the onus is on us to be able to help them, to be able to do something, to be able to use lenses that say, “I can see and I will do something, because this should not be happening on my watch.”
I had 2 thoughts this morning. That was the first and the other was on the Space Shuttle Endeavor that was being put out to pasture. It’s done its job of going out to space and it began its 12-mile journey from Los Angeles airport to the California Science Center where it’s going to be the centerpiece of a new exhibit. I love aircraft, aviation and those kinds of things. They impress me. It was interesting to see that this entire journey to move was a 2-day journey. It moves at 2 miles/hour and it took 2 days to move this Space Shuttle the 12 miles. It took an army of workers to cut down hundreds of trees, raise telephone lines, cover streets with steel plates to protect underground wiring as it made its way past. It was placed on a 160-wheel transport system.
I was thinking about the Space Shuttle and the many times it went up. If you know a little bit about the Space Shuttle, it goes up very slowly and it’s taken up by 3 engines at the bottom. But then it also has solid rocket boosters, 2 of them on either side. Once it reaches a particular altitude, these 2 rocket boosters have done their job and they fall off. As it climbs even higher, the external fuel tank which has done its job, also falls off.
I reflected upon that. For the Space Shuttle to do its job, things need to fall off. If we can apply that analogy to our own work, as we go about our different jobs, we find that there are people who are great at launching. They are great at taking it up a certain way. Then we need to move even more with the new team or a new group of people. And sometimes we tend to forget that the people, who launched or carried us to a particular place, are important in the whole sphere of things. We always need to come back to these people and continue to use them rather than allow them to think that they have been discarded when they were the initial inspirers at the beginning.
I am going to just loosely let it lie out there in terms of the overall talk on depression too. But somehow we need to be able to have a team ethic that says everybody in whichever part of the job you were used in, is important.
In the closing note, the Space Shuttle was built at a cost of $1.7 billion. But they reduced the cost of it because they used all the parts that were left over from the previous Space Shuttle. They took all of that and put it back together into the Endeavor. I thought how important it is that we use all the parts in whatever capacity they were used or continue to be used in our work, and say, “We are a team. We work together.” Even if one person is feeling left out, we need to recognize that that person too, was instrumental at one point in the entire process. If we begin to think like that, we would be able to look at our colleagues with different eyes. We would be able to see things that we need to see and be able to in some measure, help to reduce depression in our workplace.
We ought to be complete in God. (Colossians 2:10) That’s my closing thought. We need to be complete in Him, not based on other people’s opinions. God has made us in His image and we need to be completely satisfied with that. I want you to think about that through this day.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God. On each one of these precious ones on this call, I pray your blessing. I pray an opening of our eyes that today we may see things around us. We may see colleagues who may be a little hurt. We may see people who have been part of a launch of a project who may feel they are not needed anymore, who may be going into depression. We pray that we would be able to reach out, to give us eyes to see the whole picture and to compliment maybe, to say the right things, to bring everybody on board and make everybody feel that they are useful. Give us those eyes and that wisdom and only You can do it. So we ask that in Jesus’ name. Amen.
About the second point, he is basically saying that when people do something and then feel the need for people to say, “You’ve done a great job” or “Man, that was an excellent piece of work.” If they don’t get it, then they tend to move into depression.
As I was reading this article, I thought that both of them have to do with a dependence on others, other people’s responses and reactions and interactions rather than their own well-being. They allow themselves to go downhill because there is a dependence on other people bringing fulfillment to their lives, either in terms of harmony around them or in terms of positive recognition for their own work.
Reflecting on that, I thought that it was pretty much par for the course for most people. It’s human nature for us to need harmony around us, it’s human nature to want our achievements to be applauded or even be noticed. And yet you need to be able to tie that in to a personality type or your own sense of how you see yourself. It all boils down to whether you are comfortable with yourself or not, whether you are at peace with who you are, or whether you depend on others to fulfill you?
I don’t get the opportunity of interacting with you all individually, but I wonder whether there are some of you on this call who do depend a lot on these 2 issues. Are you prone to depressive thoughts? When you don’t get these 2 issues looked after in your life, does it begin to take you downhill? Or do you see it in people around you? How do you recognize it in people around you?
The article goes on to say, “There are always indicators in people. You will see that there are changes in personality or attitude or mood, or productivity or efficiency goes down. Or it could be that there is absenteeism, or the energy level is not there, or even personal appearance might change. But for us to recognize these changes, we need to be able to be empathetic with situations around us.” Which begs the question: Are we? Do we have the time to do it?
But when we look at all that is happening around us and we see the way people are taking such drastic measures because they cannot handle depression, I think the onus is on us to be able to help them, to be able to do something, to be able to use lenses that say, “I can see and I will do something, because this should not be happening on my watch.”
I had 2 thoughts this morning. That was the first and the other was on the Space Shuttle Endeavor that was being put out to pasture. It’s done its job of going out to space and it began its 12-mile journey from Los Angeles airport to the California Science Center where it’s going to be the centerpiece of a new exhibit. I love aircraft, aviation and those kinds of things. They impress me. It was interesting to see that this entire journey to move was a 2-day journey. It moves at 2 miles/hour and it took 2 days to move this Space Shuttle the 12 miles. It took an army of workers to cut down hundreds of trees, raise telephone lines, cover streets with steel plates to protect underground wiring as it made its way past. It was placed on a 160-wheel transport system.
I was thinking about the Space Shuttle and the many times it went up. If you know a little bit about the Space Shuttle, it goes up very slowly and it’s taken up by 3 engines at the bottom. But then it also has solid rocket boosters, 2 of them on either side. Once it reaches a particular altitude, these 2 rocket boosters have done their job and they fall off. As it climbs even higher, the external fuel tank which has done its job, also falls off.
I reflected upon that. For the Space Shuttle to do its job, things need to fall off. If we can apply that analogy to our own work, as we go about our different jobs, we find that there are people who are great at launching. They are great at taking it up a certain way. Then we need to move even more with the new team or a new group of people. And sometimes we tend to forget that the people, who launched or carried us to a particular place, are important in the whole sphere of things. We always need to come back to these people and continue to use them rather than allow them to think that they have been discarded when they were the initial inspirers at the beginning.
I am going to just loosely let it lie out there in terms of the overall talk on depression too. But somehow we need to be able to have a team ethic that says everybody in whichever part of the job you were used in, is important.
In the closing note, the Space Shuttle was built at a cost of $1.7 billion. But they reduced the cost of it because they used all the parts that were left over from the previous Space Shuttle. They took all of that and put it back together into the Endeavor. I thought how important it is that we use all the parts in whatever capacity they were used or continue to be used in our work, and say, “We are a team. We work together.” Even if one person is feeling left out, we need to recognize that that person too, was instrumental at one point in the entire process. If we begin to think like that, we would be able to look at our colleagues with different eyes. We would be able to see things that we need to see and be able to in some measure, help to reduce depression in our workplace.
We ought to be complete in God. (Colossians 2:10) That’s my closing thought. We need to be complete in Him, not based on other people’s opinions. God has made us in His image and we need to be completely satisfied with that. I want you to think about that through this day.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God. On each one of these precious ones on this call, I pray your blessing. I pray an opening of our eyes that today we may see things around us. We may see colleagues who may be a little hurt. We may see people who have been part of a launch of a project who may feel they are not needed anymore, who may be going into depression. We pray that we would be able to reach out, to give us eyes to see the whole picture and to compliment maybe, to say the right things, to bring everybody on board and make everybody feel that they are useful. Give us those eyes and that wisdom and only You can do it. So we ask that in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Amazing thought! One of the things I have learnt in my life was to look at people and smile while they pass you by. What better place to apply this ... than our own workplaces. We live among 'people ' and not 'products'.
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