The church

Benny Birk Mortensen, priest

Can the church help people who are suffering from depression?

The answer is "yes". You can go to a church service on a Sunday and let yourself be carried along by the singing, the words and the prayers. In your everyday life, the church is a room that you can enter. You can light a candle and be enveloped by the content and meaning of the room. The church can be seen as a more visible presence of God.

You can also talk to the priest. At all churches, there will be a priest who you can contact and talk to. Priests have many such discussions and consider it to be an important part of their work. You need have no concerns about contacting a priest. You will be welcomed with open arms.

Priests do of course differ. Doctors do too. If you should find that you don't meet with understanding, you can go to another priest.

The priests have taken a vow of professional secrecy. This means that they cannot disclose any information to anyone else unless you wish them to or have given them permission to do so first.

Can you go to a priest at the same time as you are receiving treatment?

Normally, the answer is "yes". But it would be natural for you to tell the priest that you are receiving treatment. It would also be sensible to tell the person who is treating you that you are talking to a priest. This would be particularly wise if you are having regular discussions with the priest.

In some situations, it can be confusing to be having regular discussions with a psychotherapist and a priest at the same time. You can talk to the priest and your psychotherapist about this problem. Together, you will be able to find a solution.

Many hospitals have a hospital priest. You can also contact the priest directly yourself or arrange contact via a nurse.

Discussions with a priest

It is difficult to be a person if you are suffering from depression. Depression is an illness which raises many existential questions.

You will also often have to fight feelings of inferiority, self-hatred or guilt.

You may be feeling as though you are a bad person and a bad Christian. You might be feeling that other people don't want to have anything to do with you. Does God want to have anything to do with you? Or does it just feel as though God is remote?

It can be difficult to keep the hope and to keep on believing in a compassionate God. You may therefore need to talk to a priest.

The priest can support and help you with discussions. Many priests have a lot of experience of talking to people who are depressed. It is apparent time after time that it can help to talk about what hurts. And together you will be able to find the resources for life that can be found in the Gospel and core values of Christianity.

To believe is a part of our life and our psyche. When you are finding life difficult, it can also affect your belief and your relationship with God. It's the same for everyone. So it is therefore not so surprising that for some people it is particularly difficult to believe or to see any meaning in anything when they are depressed.

When your depression treatment starts to work, your emotional life and belief will generally return to as they were before. Even if you continue to experience problems when you have recovered, they will rarely be of the same intensity as during the illness.