Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Depressed and Psychotic People

In 2008, antidepressants were the sixth best-selling category of drugs in the world, antipsychotics seventh.  In 2002, some 25 million Americans were taking antidepressants, about 11% of American women and 5% of American men.  This number has been on the increase in recent years per Charles Barber, lecturer in psychiatry at Yale.  Some 227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed  in the United States in 2006. 

What shall we make of this?  Well, there is no doubt that a lot could be made of this.  But one thing is clear: we are a depressed and psychotic people.  And medications are not helping all that much.  They sometimes alleviate symptoms, but they are certainly not routinely helping or changing people significantly. 

We need to be delivered by one who alone can deal with all our miseries and soul-troubles.  We need a Savior.  Until we begin to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus as our only hope, we should only anticipate that our depression and psychoses will multiply.  May God be pleased to have mercy on a sorry lot, this human race, not least us sorry and sad Americans.

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