How could a man like Charles Spurgeon be so depressed?

I have struggled most of my life with depression or with bouts of it off and on. Up until maybe a few years ago I started to get attacked with the feeling of darkness on me where their is just a great feeling of fear and almost like everything would close in on me in a sense. Everything was going okay in my life at the time, their was struggles here and their, but it came out of nowwhere and i remember it would try to come when i was driving in the car with my wife and i would try to shake it off. But their was a verse that really helped me reject this darkness, it was 2nd timothy 1:7: King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

When i realized this darkness was a spirit of fear i then realized it was not from God, but from satan so i rejected the fear and almost everytime it would flee. Now this was back when i wasnt in as much bondage.

Where there is an imbalance however, taking anti-depressants only covers up the problem and leaves the patient with unwanted side effects and a dulling of emotions.

The cause is sometimes due to genetic defects which mean that essential nutrients for correct neurotransmitter function, are not synthesised in sufficient amounts or enzymes are not being produced for correct liver function impacting on mental health. These nutrients can be supplied to the body in a bioavailable form and give relief. Orthomolecuoar biology has made great advances. A search on the web will show this.

http://www.integrativepsychiatry.net/

I believe I have read somewhere that Spurgeon had problems with his digestive system, and that he was over weight, he certainly looks obese on some pictures. This could indicate that he suffered from some biochemical dysfuction.

I am not a medic. I only know what I have learned by research on my own physical problems.

Spurgeon also said, “There are dungeons beneath the castles of despair.”

His church family at Metropolitan Tabernacle was once amazed to hear Spurgeon begin a sermon from Isaiah 41:14 with these words in his introduction: I have to speak today to myself and whilst I shall be endeavoring to encourage those who are distressed and downhearted.

I shall be preaching, I trust to myself for I need something which shall cheer my heart—why I cannot tell, wherefore I do not know, but I have a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.

My soul is cast down within me; I feel as if I had rather die than live; all that God hath done by me seems to be forgotten, and my spirit flags and my courage breaks down. I need your prayers." C. H. Spurgeon..[ Thread base.]
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"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life."

[ That means we did not want to live....]

" Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead."..Paul the Apostle

"You mean that God actually kills us?"

"Why do I take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in my hands?"

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.
He also shall be my salvation"
For a hypocrite could not come before Him.

I have touched these dungeons that Spurgeon speaks of, and have done much to escape them, rather than allow the fires to burn me; resisting to the end, to save my life.

But, they always come back, and always will, until His work is finished; the continual consuming fire.

"Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire."
" You who laid the foundations of the earth..
So that it should not be moved forever"

I call it the high rent district. There is a cost to live there. How Much?

Everything you are, and everything you ever will be. Every hope, every possession, and everything you love, and ever hope to have or love that may. This is the rent.

Remember the Pearl of great Price? How much? Written above.

What is confusing to me is the pain. Fire hurts.

“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness."...God.

Empty and Clean: This is His desire so that He , not me, can possess the vessel. This cleansing comes only by fire.

" I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

We are given the cup, just as Jesus was, and it is not a one time affair. We must really be put to death; crucified, and the blood, sweat and tears become ever so real.

In this affair, No one can help you, for as you stand alone before God in the end, you must be made holy here. We must invite death by the Spirit, for only the dead in Christ may become the Resurrected in Christ.

We may comfort one another to endure, but in the end, we must die alone to live., no one can walk that lonesome valley for you.

Depressions are apart of the "Normal Christian Life". It comes under the heading, "A Man of Sorrows and Acquainted with Griefs".

It comes under another heading, "Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death".

"Thou Art With Me", but so is the Shadow of Death. Most times we sense the Shadow of Death more than the Presence of God, but God is there.

We have been duped by another way of thinking that we have been brought up with the idea that Christians should not be experiencing depressions, that is the result of false brethren who have come in unawares delivering messages of falsehood.

Believers need to expect anything and everything to come at them, both the Joy and the Disappointments. Both Good Times and Bad Times. Both Heaven and Hell. Both Peaceful Times and Times of Tribulation and Persecution. We need to Arm ourselves with this knowledge that they that live Godly in this life, shall suffer persecution.

Persecution can come in many different forms and ways. It can come without you and within you. It's not unusual for great men to fall into depressions. Brother Carter Conlon was attacked repeatedly with Panic Attacks, a fear would come upon that was literally trying to kill him. He was being persecuted within. Panic Attacks are just not one thing, it brings in more attacks like Depression and Anxiety, fear harasses the mind wildly.

Most of the time we deny it's happening because of our training that we received years earlier that Christians don't have these sorts of things. In our desperation we read every 'good' scripture that we can find to cheer us up. We hear all the promises in scripture and quote them like some incantation or ritual that we can find to delivers from all evil.

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but GRIEVOUS: nevertheless AFTERWARD it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

I think we are getting things a little confused. Spiritual depression is not the same thing as organic depression, or depression caused by Satanic forces.

The cure for spiritual depression is to allow Christ to bring us through trials to purify us and then we will know what overcoming means. Organic depression can be caured through biochemistry and the third needs deliverance through casting off the lies of Satan.