Spiritual Dryness or Depression?

Many of my faith-rooted patients ask the same question: 'Is this my faith — or is this depression?' The honest answer is usually: both layers are real, and they need different tools.

How to Tell

Spiritual dryness often coexists with normal sleep, appetite, energy, and joy in other areas. It is a season in the soul.

Depression changes the body — sleep, appetite, energy, concentration, and the capacity to feel hope or pleasure in things you used to love. It is a season in the brain.

You can have one. You can have both. Treating one does not betray the other.

Five Whole-Person Steps

1. Keep showing up to community, scripture, and prayer.

2. Honor the body.

3. Talk to a clinician if symptoms persist more than 2 weeks.

4. Talk to a pastor or spiritual director about the dryness.

5. Refuse the false choice. God made the body too.

Respectfully, Beth Makar, RN, Dual-MSN, PMHNP-BC · Integrative Mind Body Psychiatry · integrativemindbodypsychiatry.com