{"id":9074,"date":"2017-03-24T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9074"},"modified":"2017-03-17T19:07:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T23:07:00","slug":"fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9087\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"sad-864399_1920\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/>&#8220;It&#8217;s hopeless! Nothing will change and I just feel so discouraged.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0Depression has a voice that comes from our thoughts.\u00a0The voice of depression is hopeless, anxious and negative\u2014all counter to the Word of God.<\/p>\n<p>When you listen to the voice of depression, you give the enemy a stronghold, an area of your life in which to defeat you. So we\u00a0fight those negative thoughts, behave positively and renew our mind through the promises of God. Here is how to do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acknowledge the depression (Proverbs 12:25)<\/li>\n<li>Trust in God to help you (Ps. 46:1)<\/li>\n<li>Praise Him despite the circumstances (Ps 34:1)<\/li>\n<li>Speak hope to into the situation (Ps. 39:7)<\/li>\n<li>Renew your negative thoughts through the positive Word of God\u00a0\u00a0 (Phil. 4:8)<\/li>\n<li>Take steps to correct your behavior. Take care of your body and get active. Make yourself <u>do<\/u> Don\u2019t wait\u00a0to <u>feel<\/u>\u00a0better. Act your way into feeling better.<\/li>\n<li>Address the causes of the depression that deal with your thinking and relationships -e.g., deal with anger, settle family conflicts, resolve inappropriate guilt, forgive those who hurt you, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nothing is hopeless or impossible with God. Be encouraged. God\u2019s Word gives us several examples of people struggling in the depths of despair -Moses, Job, Peter, the Israelites, Naomi, the prophet Jeremiah, David and even Elijah when he fled to the hills to escape Jezebel.<\/p>\n<p>The most powerful example is\u00a0Jesus: The night He grieved in the garden over His impending death, \u201c\u2026He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed\u201d (Matt. 26:37). Jesus, confronted with despair and all alone, responded by praying even more earnestly. He submitted to the will of the Father. As He was nailed to the cross, He thought of others. Facing death He was concerned that we be forgiven, that His mother was cared for, that the thief next to Him enter glory. What a model for us: Confront our darkest times, submit to the will of the Father, turn our attention to the needs of others, and praise God for the victory of the cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hopeless! Nothing will change and I just feel so discouraged.&#8221;\u00a0Depression has a voice that comes from our thoughts.\u00a0The voice of depression is hopeless, anxious and negative\u2014all counter to the Word of God. When you listen to the voice of depression, you give the enemy a stronghold, an area of your life in which to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[916],"tags":[304,512,1160,1696,1112,513],"class_list":["post-9074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-relationship","tag-depression","tag-discouragement","tag-hopeless","tag-negative-thinking","tag-negative-thoughts","tag-sad"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;It&#8217;s hopeless! Nothing will change and I just feel so discouraged.&#8221;\u00a0Depression has a voice that comes from our thoughts.\u00a0The voice of depression is hopeless, anxious and negative\u2014all counter to the Word of God. When you listen to the voice of depression, you give the enemy a stronghold, an area of your life in which to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-24T10:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-17T23:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression","og_description":"&#8220;It&#8217;s hopeless! Nothing will change and I just feel so discouraged.&#8221;\u00a0Depression has a voice that comes from our thoughts.\u00a0The voice of depression is hopeless, anxious and negative\u2014all counter to the Word of God. When you listen to the voice of depression, you give the enemy a stronghold, an area of your life in which to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2017-03-24T10:00:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-17T23:07:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html","name":"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2017-03-24T10:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-17T23:07:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/03\/sad-864399_1920-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/03\/fighting-negative-thoughts-lead-depression.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fighting Negative Thoughts That Lead to Depression"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. 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