Depression is a disease of the 21st century

Depression is a disease of the 21st century. Low self-esteem, unwillingness to do anything, frozen blood, suicidal urges, and so on and so forth. That's one hell of a condition.

We must understand that it is mostly the devil who is discouraged. He has no hope. He is desperate. He has no aspirations. He knows he is cursed. He knows that everything about him is already hardened. The sentence has been signed. And he is in a terrible state. He has no joy. There is only a terrible sadness. A terrible sadness drives his fallen nature to destroy as many people as possible with him and make them participants in his own destruction. And he breathes this air on us, and we are infected with this condition, infected with dejection.

We doubt God, have little faith, look with sorrow or fear into the future, overlook the beauty of the world around us, exaggerate our sins, our guilt before God, and so on.

St. Ephraim the Syrian asks in prayer:

"Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, lukewarmness, and idle talk."

"Do not give me" means do not let me enter this state.

He who is discouraged, cheer up; he who is longing, shake up; he who is despairing, strengthen in hope. God is near. We must not forget that.

And discouragement, which is the fruit of all our sins, and one of the heaviest attacks of the enemy, it must be endured and cheered up. For example, by work. The person gets up, takes a broom and sweeps the entrance... Slowly, the blood in him/her, the life is revived in him/her, and the person is redeemed.

The more you work, the less discouraged you will be. You have to move...

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev