I have surely experienced those feelings of not wanting to live, I know how that dull heaviness settles on the brain and how, when this happens, nothing in life has any meaning - and how at such times even our most cherished of dreams and ambitions lose all meaning. 

Some of the symptoms of my particular brand of depression included feelings of self-hate, antisocial feelings - even fear of mixing with people. In my case, bouts of terrible anxiety sometimes accompanied my depression and these were sometimes harder to deal with than the depression itself.

The good news, however, is that though I have suffered from almost every manner of depression, I am now depression-free and, as such, I do believe that I may be able to help you to overcome this cruel condition. It cost me six years of study and a small fortune to track down the cause of my second spell of depression and, knowing what I now know, I am sure I can help you - and save you much time and money.

In my own experience I have isolated four major causes of depression and I have confirmed that in each case the depression always lifts when we remove the cause - and it will always lift permanently if we permanently remove the cause.

So please be encouraged. Your depression is not your unlucky lot in life - you are not a victim of fate - you are not a "depressive" and destined to always remain that way. While psychiatrists will usually try and blame your depression on something in your long-forgotten past, I encourage you to first believe that your depression has a present physical cause that needs to be removed. Then, provided you are willing to take the necessary steps, your life will soon be back to normal, and your enthusiasm for living will return.

The major causes of depression that I have isolated include . . .

I will only briefly deal with each of these points in an effort to help you to identify the cause/s of your depression. Then I will refer you to appropriate websites that should provide the information that you will be needing.

1: Food Sensitivities

For some reason I have a sensitivity to cheese - any cheese. If I eat cheese today, even a little cheese, I can rest assured that I will be severely depressed tomorrow - and the depression will usually continue for ten to twelve hours. 

We have an Italian cheese factory down the road, and I just love Mozzarella cheese - either as is, or on pizza. So, as you can imagine, I ate a lot of cheese and, as a result I suffered a lot of depression. Only after some years did I manage to link my depression to my consumption of cheese. When I cut out the cheese, the depression left me.

If your depression is caused by a food sensitivity, the hard part is to identify what food it is that is causing the problem. The easy part is to stop eating that particular food.

The following pulse test might help you to identify a particular food or food type that your are allergic to. 

If the pulse test does not help, then go on a fruit only diet (with the best water available in between meals) until your depression lifts - even if this takes a few days. Then slowly introduce your favourite foods into your diet - only one new food per meal and watch for the return of your depression. You will need to keep a written record of everything that enters your mouth - and suspect even your toothpaste or deodorant. When and if your depression returns, it is probably related to some food that you have recently introduced to your diet.

If these steps do not highlight the cause of your depression, then you might want to take a gluten intolerance test. Gluten, as found in Barley, Rye, Oats and Wheat (BROW) is a major cause of depression. Health stores will be able to supply you with gluten-free alternatives.

2: Antagonistic Chemical Substances

There are tens of thousands of chemicals in the environment today. These range from dangerous toxins to relatively harmless substances. Over-exposure to any toxic chemical can cause severe reactions in the human system - one of which could be depression.

To help you to recognize the very real dangers that threaten us in our modern, scientific world, I will briefly tell you about what must rank as the very worst experience in my life - one that included the very worst bouts of depression you can imagine.

At my worst stage, I could hardly sleep at night, I could not cope with stress, I could not go to work, my memory was very poor, and I was sensitive to noise and light. When speaking, my words would get mixed up, I experienced terrible anxiety attacks, I had frequent bouts of unbearable depression and, perhaps worst of all,  I could not socialize freely because I had become strangely shy and was easily embarrassed - for no apparent reason.

Then, while visiting with a good friend, I happened to pick up a book and there I noticed all of my symptoms mentioned under the subject of Mercury Toxicity. With sheer unbelief, it dawned on me that my condition, which at that time had been my lot for almost three years, was related to the silver/mercury fillings in my teeth (shiny silver or black fillings). Yes, that's right, mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive substance in the world. It has no place in the mouth of man. Mercury is a major cause of depression and of suicidal and anti-social feelings

You can read about my experience at www.keepwell.com/dental.htm. If you wish to study further into the matter, then please visit www.hugnet.com. Here you will find excellent links as well as the protocol for amalgam removal - which protocol MUST be taken seriously if you wish to have your silver/mercury amalgams removed.

Please do not have your silver/mercury fillings removed unless you have researched the matter thoroughly first. If your fillings are removed without the necessary precautions being taken, your condition will in all likelihood become much worse - DO NOT listen to your dentist if he tells you otherwise. I know of two people who died in the dentist chair while having mercury fillings removed.

Mercury might not be the cause of your depression, but I hope that by sharing my experience with you, you will start looking a little more suspiciously at some of the chemicals in and about your home, and especially at the metals that have been placed in your mouth by your well-meaning dentist. Mercury fillings, nickel based crowns, porcelain (aluminium) caps and root canals can all cause severe problems - all of which will be aggravated by stress and burnout. 

3: Stimulants

In our world today people thrive on stimulants to give them a "lift." Most do not realise, however, that Nature cannot be cheated, and that unchangeable laws demand that every lift (stimulation) will be followed by an equal and opposite down (depression). This is why people keep drinking tea or coffee or coke all day, or why some listen to stimulating music all day - all in a never-ending attempt to ward off the inevitable down. 

Eventually, the body revolts, and one result is depression. We have so stimulated the body that it now shifts into an extended period of depression.

When we speak of stimulants we speak of any influence that stimulates the feelings, the senses, or the body. Curry is a stimulant. Tea, coffee and soft drinks that contain caffeine are stimulants. Beat music and even loud "relaxing" music can act as stimulants. Adrenalin games and activities, such as fun-fare rides, bungee-jumping, and parachuting, these are all stimulants and they will, with constant use or practice, be followed by an equal and opposite measure of depression.

What is the solution in this case? It's simple. Cut out the stimulant and you will avoid the depression.

4: Current Circumstances And Unpleasant Memories

The words of one song go like this: 

Sometimes living takes the life out of you,
Sometimes living is all you can do . . .

I think we all have experienced times when life overwhelms us, and when just coping with everyday life takes the very life out of us. But what can we do to better cope when the pathway of life leads us to a point where our nervous energy is drained and our despairing cries bring no solution?

Friend, I would not be a true friend if I beat around the bush on this one. Millions of people have found peace despite their past, despite their present circumstances, and despite their fears of the future. I am one of those, and I do believe that I can help you to process whatever is troubling you.

In order to do so, however, we first have to investigate the matter of evolution. What - you might ask - has evolution to do with depression - plenty? Please bear with me and I will explain a little later. 

Is evolution a possibility? Right now, all the scientists in the world, aided by all the modern technology in the world, cannot make life - not even one cell. 

Can we believe, therefore, that nothing, aided by nothing, made life? No matter how many billions of years you allow for the process, it is infinitely easier to believe that the moon is made of my favourite Mozzarella cheese than it is to believe in evolution.

If we keep setting off a bomb in an aircraft scrap yard, will the pieces eventually descend to earth as an air-worthy, fully functional aircraft? Never! Yet the human body is infinitely more complex than any aircraft? So how can scientists claim that this most awesome thing called life just happened along in the process of time? Did nothing, aided by nothing, make this most complex living machine?

You see, if the evolutionary theory is true, and life began as a single-celled, uni-sexed squiggly in some far-distant celestial mud pond, then somewhere between that time and the present that little squiggly must have split itself into a male squiggly and a female squiggly. How it ever managed to do this is a mystery in itself, but if by some miracle it did manage to split itself in two, then we would have to believe that from the day that the split took place both the male portion and the female portion would have to have had fully developed sexual parts and fully-developed reproductive organs - with the female being fully dependant on the male for fertilization - failing which reproduction would have been impossible, and so-called "evolutionary life" would have ended there and then. 

Now I have stretched my imagination as far as it will stretch and I just cannot believe that that could ever have taken place. You just think about it. Truly, evolution is not even a remote possibility - and it only takes a little thought to prove it.

To illustrate: If the evolutionary theory is true, and if trees evolved along with all other living things, and if trees only ever grow from fully developed seeds, and if seeds only ever develop from fully-grown trees, then the only way that we can believe the big-bang/evolutionary theory is to believe that either a fully-developed tree or a fully-developed seed emerged out of that big bang. Now that would have to be some mighty intelligent big bang!

But why am I going to such pains to prove to you that God is, and that God is the only plausible explanation for life? Simply because I am a friend who cares, and in my darkest moments I discovered that God is a Friend who really cares. In fact, if not for that discovery, I doubt if I would be here today - undoubtedly I would have committed suicide.

Yes, I have been there, up to my neck in the mud and the mire of life's difficulties, and only my Father/Friend God got me out of it - and now, with hindsight, I have come to realise that only God could have gotten me out of the difficult situation that I was in.

So if you have grown up believing that God is an exacting tyrant, I urge you to rid your mind of this altogether false notion. Like any kind father, God longs for you to come home that He might lavish you with His gifts. He loves you so much that He paid the penalty for your sins and He has already written your letter of pardon - and this He wrote with His very own blood. Just give Him a chance and He will prove what a wonderful friend He really is.

If He has done it for me, as undeserving as I am, and if He has done it for millions of others, He will do it for you. He will sort out your life and He will enable you to better cope with life's difficulties. He will also help you to process the unhappy memories of past years - as only He can do. 

I promise you, if you just give Him a chance He will lift you up into His warm embrace and he will quietly but gently whisper into your ear - "welcome home my precious child - be at peace, I am here for you and I will always be here for you."

God is holding out to you the promise of rest and peace - no matter who you are, no matter what your past, no matter what your present circumstances. He is calling you to His haven of rest and He is waiting patiently to welcome you home, not just as a sinner forgiven, but as a child of His by adoption. 

So if your depression is related to your present or your past circumstances, I wish to assure you that no man can give you peace, and that no medicine can give you lasting peace, but we do have the sure promise . . .

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." (Psalm 91:1)

If your mind is troubled right now, I invite you to visit the feature "A Brand New You." God is waiting to give you a brand new start in life.

If you want to know more about God - not the harsh God that you might have heard about, but the compassionate Friend that I have come to know, then spend a little time in the feature A Friend of Friends.

If you have heard about the good news, or about the gospel, and you are wondering what it is all about, then I invite you to read the classic "Hope Unlimited, or the feature, How To Live Forever.

As I wrote this article I paused and I prayed for everyone who would ever read it. I have prayed for you dear reader. I have prayed that I might one day meet you in the earth made new. See you there.

God bless you.

For your benefit, we include below a few other common causes of depression.

Depression Sometimes Result of Sexual Excess.
`Very many families are living in a most unhappy state because the husband and father allows the animal in his nature to predominate over the intellectual and moral. The result is that a sense of languor and depression is frequently felt, but the cause is seldom divined as being the result of their own improper course of action. We are under solemn obligations to God to keep the spirit pure and the body healthy, that we may be a benefit to humanity, and render to God perfect service.' (2MCP485)

Masturbation Causes Depression:
`The practice of secret habits [self-abuse] surely destroys the vital forces of the system. All unnecessary vital action will be followed by corresponding depression. Among the young the vital capital, the brain, is so severely taxed at an early age that there is a deficiency and great exhaustion, which leaves the system exposed to disease of various kinds.' (CG444)

Temporary Depression May Follow Success.
A reaction such as frequently follows high faith and glorious success was pressing upon Elijah. He feared that the reformation begun on Carmel might not be lasting, and depression seized him. He had been exalted to Pisgah's top; now he was in the valley. While under the inspiration of the Almighty, he had stood the severest trial of faith; but in this time of discouragement, with Jezebel's threat sounding in his ears and Satan still apparently prevailing through the plotting of this wicked woman, he lost his hold on God. He had been exalted above measure, and the reaction was tremendous.' (PK 161-2)

Unhealthy conditions are established, and there is a craving for more stimulating food. Tea and coffee produce an immediate effect. Under the influence of these poisons the nervous system is excited; and in some cases, for the time being, the intellect seems to be invigorated, the imagination more vivid. Because these stimulants produce such agreeable results, many conclude that they really need them; but there is always a reaction. The nervous system has borrowed power from its future resources for present use, and all this temporary invigoration is followed by a corresponding depression. The suddenness of the relief obtained from tea and coffee is an evidence that what seems to be strength is only nervous excitement, and consequently must be an injury to the system.' (CG403)

May I invite you to take your troubles to Jesus.