Loretta Dalton is a life-long resident of Habersham County and a teacher in the public school system. She and her husband Anthony live in Baldwin. The Dalton’s son Jonathan committed suicide when he was 18.
The little girl hoped that today would be one of those special days: a day when, if she was good enough or quiet enough or helped enough, her daddy wouldn’t be sad. She hoped today was one of those days that her daddy would let her ride along with him and stop at the old store with the wooden floors; a day when she would see her daddy smile as they took the long way home.
As time passed, the little girl found it harder and harder to be good enough or quiet enough or help enough. Her world took on a darker hue of grey each passing year. Was she to blame?
What she didn’t know was that an unwelcome stranger was really to blame for the grey in her world; a stranger that lurked silently in her home affecting every aspect of her family’s life. No one knew very much about the stranger, especially how to make him go away.
The stranger lived unchanged among her family for years although his power seemed to ebb and flow. No one ever talked about him or discussed his power. The house seemed to hold its breath when company would come hoping the stranger would stay hidden among the walls or perhaps locked in a closet until the guests were gone.
As the girl grew, she finally met the stranger and found it harder and harder to keep him away from her. Hadn’t his purpose always been to accompany her daddy? Why had he suddenly decided to get to know her? She soon learned the stranger’s name and spent a lifetime trying to escape his influence.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness describes depression as a “serious medical illness that affects one’s thoughts, feelings, behavior, mood and physical health.” It is truly an unwelcome stranger.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Depression isn’t a weakness or something you can ‘snap out’ of, yet one-half of those affected never seek treatment.”
Although depression and other mental illnesses are disorders of the brain and not a result of personal weakness or poor-upbringing, countless mentally ill patients and their families routinely find themselves on the opposite side of a pointed judgmental finger. No one ever tells the parents of a diabetic child that perhaps if they had been stricter their child’s pancreas wouldn’t be diseased. Because of the stigma of mental illness, many suffer in silence and hope the stranger goes away, but he hardly ever leaves on his own.
In the book of John 9:1-5, Jesus and His disciples come upon a man who was born blind. The disciples questioned Jesus about to whom the blame should be placed. The disciples asked Jesus if the man’s blindness was caused by his or his parent’s sins. Jesus quickly told them that they were asking the wrong question and focusing on the wrong thing. Jesus told them the man’s blindness had nothing to do with his sins, or the sins of his parents but that the power of God might be seen at work in him.
Depression is just one of many mental illnesses that affect those we love, live near and work with everyday. As a community we can be the hands and hearts of change. We can be slow to judge and quick to help. We can ask the right questions. We can focus on the right things. We can pray for God’s power to be shown in the lives of those who suffer everyday. We can help make the unwelcome stranger go away.
