End to depression just a prayer away

By Nathan Meno

There seems to be a recurring theme on college campuses today. It has nothing to do with dipping grade point averages, and it does not concern enrollment issues. Students just like you are attempting to deal with loneliness and severe depression.

College is one of the most crucial and mind-molding experiences of a lifetime. It’s not quite the real world just yet, but the sheltering high school environment once known to many is now just a faint memory in our mind’s eye.

In fact, a University of Michigan Health Minute update on important health issues suggests that without properly coping with this depression, students may fall behind in class, withdraw from social activities and even try to kill themselves.

Psychologists will tell you that medication and special attention from others will help combat the nasty effects of depression among college students, and they are correct. However, this is only a short-term solution to a problem with potential long-term consequences.

We try and try again to satisfy our pain and suffering with pills and doctor bills, and perhaps one or the other will, in fact, lead to a healthy, productive life. However, ask yourselves this: What is the root of life? Which philosophy do you subscribe to?

We’re faced with trials and temptations each day of the week. Are you satisfied with just making the pain go away, or are you willing to go on the offensive and take control of the way you live?

My friends, I believe the answer lies within each of your hearts. What we need is a reaffirmation of faith.

So many people who suffer from depression, among other misfortunes, completely neglect the concept that the one true medicine with the power to heal all is just a prayer away.

It’s a lonely world out there when the fragile and breakable human attempts to walk the path of life alone. Not one of us is innocent of seeking daily immediate gratification for ourselves. There’s a better way to live. There’s a meaning to all this wandering around.

Whether you’re suffering from depression or living high in the Hollywood Hills, the void that rips apart the soul lives in all of us. But there is a way to fill that void, and each one of us has a friend who desires so much for our pain to be replaced with everlasting happiness.

Before you read on, ask yourselves this important question: Do you want everlasting happiness by viewing the world through God’s eyes? If your answer is yes, it’s going to be a challenge, but once you reach the peak of that mountain, God will give you the entire world.

There will be sacrifice. Those daily doses of euphoria we’re all used to are only temporary solutions to the stressors of our lives. It will be expensive, both emotionally and monetarily. To live the life God wants us to live takes practice. It’s a muscle that must be exercised each and every day.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.