MEDICATION

 

 

 

By itself, medicine is never a solution to spiritual darkness. All the fundamental issues of life remain to be brought into proper relation to Christ when the medicine has done its work. Antidepressants are not the decisive savior. Christ is. In fact, the almost automatic use of pills for child misbehavior and adult sorrows is probably going to hurt us as a society.

 

John Piper

The Darkness of Melancholy taken from When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper, 2006, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 27.

 

 

Medication for some people functions like Aspirin in that it might alleviate symptoms, but not necessarily treat causes. People, of course, are free to take medication. Medication should, however, come with a warning. Medication cannot address spiritual matters. It can help a person sleep, and it might alleviate some pain, but it does not have the power to build faith. Too often, those who take medication adopt the medical perspective that comes with it, that is, that the cause of depression is the physical body. Then they are less inclined to fight the spiritual battle that inevitably emerges with depression, and they are slower to turn to Christ for spiritual strength. Regardless of the cause of depression, the deepest reality is that suffering, on this side of the cross, has redemptive purposes. When sufferers understand that God has a purpose in suffering, they tend to pause before they reach for the psychiatric medication. 

 

Edward Welch

The Heart of Depression, Tabletalk, March 2008, Used by Permission.

 

 

What exactly does medication help? Medication cannot change the heart: it cannot remove our tendency toward sin, it cannot revive our faith, and it cannot make us more obedient to Christ. It can, however, alleviate some of the physical symptoms associated with some psychiatric problems.

 

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 109.

 

 

Although it is not wrong to take these medications, they are rarely our first line of attack against personal suffering. Instead, we should first consider that God can bless us through our suffering, and we might also weigh the possibility that psychiatric medications could numb us to the refining benefits of suffering. There is a worthwhile point here. Although it may sound strange or even unloving to those who don’t share a biblical position, there can be real benefits from having our faith tested and strengthened through trials.

 

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 110.

 

 

Whether a person takes psychiatric medication or not is not the most important issue. Scripture is especially interested in why someone is taking medication or why someone is not taking medication. And it is clear that medication is never the source of our hope. With these guidelines in mind, there is biblical freedom to try, or not try, psychiatric medication.

 

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 111-112.

 

 

Ritalin affects a number of areas of the brain, but its mode of action is uncertain. One thing, however, is clear. Ritalin does not treat any known chemical deficiency in a child’s brain. No one needs Ritalin. Like most psychiatric drugs (including the antidepressants discussed earlier), the best analogy would be to say that Ritalin-type drugs act like aspirin: they suppress symptoms in some people, but they are not a cure.

 

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 142-143.

 

 

It is imperative to stress that drugs cannot change a child’s heart. If a child seems more obedient when taking Ritalin, it is because an influence on the child’s life has changed. That is, in the same way that parents and peers can influence our hearts, so our bodies can influence us. Our bodies bring pleasure and pain, intellectual clarity and confusion. Such physical changes can act like a temptation to which some children respond sinfully. When the temptation is removed, these children might be less prone to certain kinds of sins.

 

Edward T. Welch

Blame in on the Brain? P&R Publishing, 1998, p. 144.