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Is your group a safe space for young people to share their thoughts and feelings? Are your leaders equipped and prepared for young people to ‘spill out’ their worries? Do they know what do if this happens and where to find support for themselves?

You will need: Bibles or print outs of Matthew 26:37-39 and print outs of the verses from ‘Depression is like…’

 

True or false?

10 minutes

It’s time to run! Identify one end of the room as true and one end as false. Read out the following statements - or create your own - and ask the group to run to the side they think is correct. You could even ask one of the group members to be the ‘quiz master’!

  • You can snap out of depression if you think positively.
    False: Depression is a serious illness. Many never seek treatment but people can get better with the right treatment.
  • The best way to help someone who is depressed is to try and cheer them up.
    False: The best way to help someone is to encourage them to seek help by speaking to a person they trust and heading to their GP.
  • Christians can’t suffer from depression.
    False: Christians can suffer from depression just like they can suffer from the flu or any other illness.
  • One in ten children and young people are affected by a mental health problem.
    True: That’s around three children in every class.
  • No one in the Bible suffered from depression.
    False: There’s some strong evidence that a whole heap of people did - Elijah, Job, Moses, Jonah and even Jesus!

Gather the group together at the end and ask if anyone knew the answers already. Have a mini discussion at this point about what they already know about depression.

 

Depression is like…

5 minutes

Say: Depression is a huge topic. It’s one word that has so much linked to it as we’re going to discover today. Depression appears in both the Old and New Testament and people are experiencing it this very day. It’s real and it’s time to start getting clued up about it! Talking about our emotional health can be difficult at times, especially when it comes to explaining what it feels like.

Lay out the following verses facedown and ask each person to pick one up and read it out in turn. Use this time to discuss any reflections the group has on these descriptions of what depression is like.

  • My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” Psalm 38:4.
  • “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” Psalm 42:11.
  • “He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors’” 1 Kings 19: 4.
  • “Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live” Jonah 4:3.
  • “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” Matthew 26:38.

 

Jesus’ strategy

20 minutes

Say: As we look through the Bible at Jesus’ life we can see that he also suffered from bouts of depression - just like you and I might do in our lives. But we also know that Jesus brings hope. If we delve into Matthew 26 we can see how Jesus brings hope to depression. If we look closely at what happened in Gethsemane, he provides a strategy of what to do when depression begins to take over.

Ask a volunteer to read Matthew 26: 37-39. In small groups, ask them to see if they can identify the strategy Jesus uses.

Here’s the strategy: there is no set way this needs to be done so feel free to be as creative as you like, making sure it is clear. You could write each point down and make a flow chart out of them and ask the young people to annotate it.

  1. He chose close friends to be with at this difficult time (v37).
  2. He opened his soul to them, telling them how he felt (v38).
  3. He asked them to be with him (v38).
  4. He poured his heart out to his father (v39).
  5. He rested his soul in God by trusting in his will (v39).

Provoke a discussion around their thoughts and opinions of the strategy. Is it something they could do? What could the strategy look like for them? Can they identify the close friends they could open their soul up to? What could it look like for them to rest their soul in God by trusting his will? Can they provide examples? The strategy can be used by anyone as a tool to help our emotional wellbeing.

 

Reflection

10 minutes

Ask everyone to find a space in the room to sit and pause, closing their eyes if that’s helpful. Take a moment of silence to reflect on the session and pray about the strategy they have just learnt. As you close, don’t forget to remind young people of where they can go if they need extra support from this session. Click here for some helpful links.