Overcoming Anxiety & DepressionSample

The Side Effects of Isolation

Many times, depression can leave us feeling alone. We aren’t alone. There are millions of people who are fighting depression. Some of the heroes in the Bible faced it too.

Elijah’s battle exposes both problems and solutions. In 1 Kings 19, we find Elijah’s struggle, but the two chapters before make it seem out of place. We expect depression when things are bad, not after a win. When we go through 1 Kings 17 & 18, Elijah prophesies a drought, is guided by God, and fed miraculously as birds deliver food to him. When the river dries up, God provides him with a widow and her son through a daily ongoing miracle. He has a showdown with King Ahab and the 450 prophets of Baal. God shows up as Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice. The people of Israel rally around him and destroy the prophets of Baal. He calls for rain after three years of drought, and the rain comes. This streak of wins is enormous, yet in chapter 19, he is battling depression and ready to die. Jezebel threatens him, and he is filled with fear, which turns to depression and thoughts of suicide. NKJV says, “When he saw that,” speaking of her threat. It stopped mattering how many victories he had experienced; it stopped mattering how many things he had to give thanks for. All he saw was the threat, the problem, the challenge, the internal shortcomings… So he ran and isolated. In isolation, he became vulnerable to deception, discouragement, self-pity, depression, anxiety, and shame. He ran and hid, focusing on his shortcomings, declaring himself no better than his fathers, and asking for God to take away his life.

No matter how much we have to be grateful for, if we focus on the problem, all that we do have is lost to view. Problems become all-consuming. Like Elijah, they can drive us into isolation. In isolation, we become vulnerable to the enemy, his lies, and deception. We are warned in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil hunts like a lion. Lions isolate their prey.

In Verses 9-14, Elijah states his case to the Lord. Six times he used the word “I” declaring how alone he was, and four times stating how all the people were against him. In verse 18, God lets him know there are 7,000 who had never bowed to Baal. The note for us, though, is that depression isolates, and in isolation, we tend to become self-focused and easily deceived. Elijah wasn’t trying to lie to God about his situation. It was truly what he thought and how he felt. It is easier to isolate today than ever before. We can work from home, order what we need to be delivered, and fill time with screens. But in isolation, we become easily deceived and depressed. When God made man, He said it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). We are made to do life in relationship. In God’s response to Elijah, there were directions to get Elisha, who would be with him and would help him. American Sociological Review states, “One in four Americans report that they have zero friends to confide in with important matters, which has tripled in the last thirty years.” Science now sees that “Having weak social connections is as bad for our health as being an alcoholic and twice as bad as being obese. Social isolation sets off a cellular chain reaction that increases inflammation and inhibits the body’s autoimmune response to disease. We can not only go mentally insane from isolation and loneliness, we get physically sick!” While depression can cause us to isolate and self-focus, isolation and self-focus causes us to be depressed. God’s Word gives us more than 30 “one another” commands, love one another, be kind, forgiving, encouraging, pray for, …. It tells us not to forsake gathering together. This isn’t just for others' benefit, this actually helps us and our mental health.