Dear Mr. Walsh

Earlier I saw a post from Matt Walsh, if you don't know who he is go ahead and Google him because I won't take time to talk about that due to the fact that I have a lot to say today.

In this post he discusses Robin Williams' death and suicide in general. In his blog post he makes several faulty claims about depression and suicide, and in a tweet he made one utterly egregious statement.

The main premise of Walsh's blog post is that suicide is a choice. This statement, in and of itself, is true. However, he goes on to discuss depression in a way that is inconstant with scientific findings.

No matter how bad depression is, suicide is still a choice. I can agree with this 100%. Depression can be a very debilitating disease. Especially in the Christian community, I see so many people discuss depression as if it is just someone feeling sad or having a lack of enthusiasm about life.

This is wrong.

Depression is just as much a disease as cancer or malaria. It can incapacitate it's victim for long periods of time, gradually or suddenly. It can chip away at a person's physical and mental capabilities, it can cause any number of symptoms such as exhaustion, headaches, muscle aches, nausea, etc. as well as the things you may normally think of, such as disinterest, sadness, and emptiness.

While suicide is a choice, and a "selfish" choice, people who come to this point often feel like they don't have a choice, they don't feel like there is any point in living. They do not necessarily mean to be selfish, because they have honestly come to believe that no one would even care about them, many say in their suicide notes that they feel others would be better off without them. Much of this is due to the attitude many people (*cough* Christians *cough*) have taken towards depression.

The most outright frustrating, and honestly extremely offensive thing Mr. Walsh said, and I have heard many others say especially in the Christian community is this: "When we talk about depression we shouldn't pawn the whole thing off on 'chemical imbalances.' It's not just clinical. It's spiritual."

It is terrible to me how much I hear this. Trust me, I know what being out of sync with God can be like, and it can cause some really terrible feelings, but to say that depression can be eradicated or even controlled by religion is extremely uneducated and naive. Walsh makes a comment that we cannot completely separate our spiritual self from our physical self. To a certain extent that is true, but your body being sick is not always a direct indicator that your spirit is sick. Sometimes that is the case, but you (or more specifically Matt Walsh) cannot make this claim for every single person, only for yourself (or himself). This is like saying to a person with cancer, "You have this because you are not right with God." Would you say that? If you would you are a really horrible person.

Don't misunderstand, I believe God has the ability to treat and heal all diseases, but depression, like any other disease, is not necessarily to be cured by prayer. God has the power to heal, but sometimes it is not His will. Sometimes Godly people die of leukemia, sometimes people on fire for God suffer from acute chronic depression.

When I was in high school I had a close friend who lost a brother to suicide, and I know many other people who have been touched by tragic suicides, I have know many people (and myself) who suffer from depression. Suicide awareness and prevention was a passion I had. I approached the superintendent (of my Christian high school) to allow me to recruit and perhaps make a presentation to get other students at my school involved with the program I was working with. Do you know what he told me? These are his exact words:

"That's not a problem in our community." Students at this school don't struggle with depression or suicidal tendencies.

No? Imagine what went through my head. Not only is this something I am passionate about, but something I have experienced and gone through. And I know several other people here struggle with it as well. Apparently my disease isn't real. (Besides that we should be reaching out to the communities around us, not just worrying about ourselves.)

This was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life.

Please do not make these same mistakes.
Please do not think that depression is a result of a poor relationship with Christ.
Please do not tell people that their problem is spiritual and not a real medical condition.
Please do not ask people to "just cheer up" or say "your life isn't that bad".
Please do not make jokes about suicide.
Please do not make the mistake of assuming people you care about are "fine".
Please do not make people feel ashamed of asking for help.
Please do not keep your children from taking medications that could help them. (I've heard this a lot actually)
Please have a Christian attitude and reach out to the sick and the hurting.