Can the Bible Help with Depression, Eating Disorders, and Porn Addictions?

By: Kristen Clark

Jenna was your average high school girl. From the outside, she seemed happy and excited about life. What most people didn’t know about Jenna, was that her doctor diagnosed her with depression.

Jenna has been taking antidepressants for over a year now and seeing a counselor on a weekly basis. Deep down, she sees very little improvement in her life. She feels hopeless and lost on the inside.

Melanie is similar to Jenna, only she’s in college. She’s cute, skinny and all the guys seem to like her. From the outside she’s the girl that all the other girls are jealous of.

What nobody knows though, is that Melanie seriously struggles with her eating habits.

In fact, she had been diagnosed with anorexia. She agreed to go through therapy, but after 6 months, she isn’t seeing any improvement. She feels hopeless and lost on the inside.

Bryan is the same age as Jenna, only he doesn’t appear happy and excited about life. He keeps to himself and has very few friends.

A little over two years ago, his parents discovered that Bryan was heavily addicted to porn. Urging him to get counseling Bryan reluctantly agreed. Now, two years later, Bryan finds himself still addicted to porn, and feeling more guilty and more hopeless than ever before.

Jenna, Melanie, and Bryan each have struggles that are becoming more and more common in today’s society.

They are the people in your church, in your Christian school, and on your sports teams. They are regular people with tough struggles.

After pursuing the most popular routes of medicine, secular therapy, and mainstream counseling, they are each left with little improvement to show for it.

What went wrong? Why didn’t they find victory over their problems?

As Christians, we have (as a majority) bought into the secular culture’s solutions for fixing our problems.

We have closed our Bible’s and turned to “other sources” to find answers.

I’ve heard story after story of Christians just like Jenna, Melanie and Bryan who have serious issues, and can’t seem to ever fully conquer them. Is this what God intended? Is this how God wants us to live…in a constant state of struggling?

I don’t think so.

The biggest reason many Christians are struggling to find answers and permanent (lifelong) solutions to fixing deep issues is often this: they aren’t getting to the root issues.

I’ve been attending a Biblical counseling conference this past week and have heard some amazing and eye opening teaching from Christian doctors, counselors, and pastors.

They all agree that most of the secular solutions our culture offers don’t go after the root.

They shared this illustration to explain:

Imagine you sit down and unknowingly sit on a sharp tack. You feel intense pain in your lower regions, but you don’t get up. Instead, you call up your doctor right away and explain that you feel intense pain in your lower regions.

He prescribes a high dosage of pain killer for you. You take that and it eases the pain temporarily. After several days, you get an infection. Your doctor then prescribes heavier meds to take care of the infection. And on and on this goes.

From the outside, we know what the root issue is, right?? Get OFF the sharp tack. Stop fixing the symptoms and get to the root issue.

Removing the tack is the only way to permanently fix this issue.

This is a great illustration of what often happens to us as Christians. We experience struggles like depression, eating disorders and porn addictions, and we label these as the main issue. We don’t stop to consider that these struggles may only be symptoms of a deeper heart issue.

Unless we address the deeper heart issue, we will most likely never overcome the symptoms.

When we takes things deeper and address the heart issue, we often discover some form of sin lurking beneath the surface. Root issues are almost always sin issues. And when we call a sin what it is – a sin – the Bible has answers and solutions.

That is where lasting victory is found.

I have read dozens of stories about people just like Jenna, Melanie, and Bryan who have overcome intense struggles by getting to their root cause. By meeting with a Biblical counselor, they were taken to God’s Word where lasting help and hope is found.

For Jenna, she discovered her root issue was an idol in her heart that she couldn’t let go of. The more she focused on her idol, the more depressed she became about life.

It wasn’t until a Biblical counselor helped Jenna get to her root sin issue, and solve it Biblically, that she ever found freedom and victory.

For Melanie, her root issue was a fear of man which caused her to stop eating.

She believed the lie that her worth and value came from what guys thought of her. So she did everything she could to try look “pretty” to get people to notice her.

It wasn’t until a Biblical counselor helped Melanie see this root sin issue, and fix it Biblically, that she was finally free.

For Bryan, he had an extremely low view of God and a high view of himself. He put his pleasures and self-fulfillment far above serving and honoring God.

It wasn’t until a Biblical counselor helped Bryan get to the root of his sin issue, and teach Him a proper theology of God and being a Christian, that Bryan ever found lasting freedom and victory.

No amount of pills or secular methods will ever fix the root sin issue.

When we get to the root issue, and call our sin, sin, God has answers. The Bible has solutions for every heart issue we face. God created us and He knows how to help us overcome the toughest and ugliest of sins.

Yes, the Bible CAN help with depression, eating disorder, and porn addictions.

And that is exactly why I am SO excited about the Biblical counseling movement. This movement is made up of regular Christians who help other regular Christians get to the root issues of their problems using the Bible.

I can’t encourage you enough to learn more about Biblical counseling by checking out this website: www.biblicalcounseling.com. This organization if full of certified and trained Biblical counselors in cities all across America ready to help for free.

If you, or someone you know is struggling with a tough issue, I urge you to look them up.

If you are someone who is interested in getting certified as a Biblical counselor yourself (I am!), check out their website for more info.

God has answers. The Bible is filled with powerful truths that can transform any life and fix the darkness of any struggle.

How about you?

Do you believe God’s Word is able to counsel and help people with deep issues?

Do you know how to use the Bible to help someone overcome a sin issue?

How has the Bible helped you overcome sin?

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