Religious Cures for Depression

The world contains many different religions, but two of them claim more than half the population of the world: Christianity and Islam. Islam claims more than a billion followers and is the second-largest religion in the world. Christianity claims more than two-billion followers and is the largest religion in the world. These religions have different treatments for depression.

Islam

In curing depression, Islam emphasizes the importance of discovering the source of depression. There are many possible explanations for depression, and not all of them have to do with spiritual causes. Psychological, physical or other causes may explain an individual's depression. But outside events causing depression, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a home, is not considered as the only reason for depression. Thus, two siblings may suffer the death of a common parent, but only one develops chronic depression and the other doesn't. The depressed sibling may suffer from a spiritual sickness that manifests itself in sin. Sin causes a person to worry, feel sorry or be extremely sad. A depressed individual discovering that sin has caused his depression must remedy his sin. Islam teaches that the remedy to sin is Allah's (God's) forgiveness. Allah forgives only if a person repents of his sin, is a Muslim and does good deeds. Islam teaches that being a Muslim is necessary for forgiveness because Allah will not forgive those who do not believe in him and his prophet Mohammed. Allah commands good deeds for sins in order to atone for the sin. Once Allah forgives the sinner of his sin, the man who had suffered from depression as a result of this sin can recover.

Christianity

In curing depression, Christianity emphasizes Jesus Christ and the power of forgiveness that He has imparted to His followers. According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ came to the world to free humanity from its enslavement to sin and open the doors of Heaven to those who accept Him. He provided believers with a means to salvation but did not eradicate all suffering in the world. Thus hunger, war and disease (both mental and physical) still remained. Nevertheless, Christ also left his followers the power to forgive others, which could include not only forgiveness of sins but also power to heal from all types of hurt and pain, such as depression. In order to benefit from this power, the person seeking healing must be a Christian. A person becoming a Christian may have to follow different procedures depending on the Christian denomination, but it typically includes baptism whereby he or she is immersed, sprinkled or washed in water. If the depression remains, and the individual believes it was a person or persons who caused his or her depression, then the individual would have to articulate his forgiveness of the other(s).