Seeing Beyond Depression
Jean Varnier, the founder of L’Arche Community, also the author of Seeing Beyond Depression, says that the key to handling depression is to recognize human frailty.
The L’Arche Community provides group houses and spiritual support for developmentally disabled people. It has 120 communities in 30 countries.
Varnier states that depression is a not a mental disability but is a spiritual malady. To tackle depression the people around the depressed victim must accept and love the victim as they are with their frailties. The depressed person shouldn’t depend of medication alone for cure but must be courageous to also discover the meaning of being human (again?).
The role of those around the depressed person is not to change them but to love them as they are. Therefore, the first step of helpers is to change ourselves to not want to change the depressed person but to love them instead.
Read the full article in Zenit.
