June 7, 2025

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, June 7, 2025, and this is episode #7 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “The Truth about Depression.”

In the past few months, I have received far too much tragic news about people who have committed suicide. Some of these were middle-grade and teenage children!

Friend, this should not be. These tragedies lead us to ask ourselves what is going on? Why is this happening? And why is it happening at younger and younger ages? Also, why is depression now so commonplace, to the point that it has become an epidemic and a household word?

When I was a young teen, I was excited about my future, despite the fact that I was then living in a very difficult family situation. I had dreams and goals and the hope and ambition to pursue them. But far fewer young people today have that same hope and ambition. Instead, they are drowning in a sea of depression and despair, with no seeming way of escape.

But young people aren’t the only ones affected by depression and hopelessness. More and more people are complaining of being trapped in the grips of depression, with no hope for a future. The number of people taking mental health medications has skyrocketed, to the point that these people cannot function normally without them. Anxiety prevails, causing people to resort to drastic measures to obtain a semblance of peace.

Something has gone drastically wrong. And while the solution is right under our noses, few are willing to look there.

So, let’s explore this problem of depression and uncover what is really going on behind the scenes.,

I think you will agree that for every effect there has to be a cause. This is simple logic. While we may not know the cause, we know there is one because logic demands as much. So, when we witness increasing incidences of depression and despair in a culture, a despair increasingly resulting in suicide, we need to trace these effects back to their original cause. Once we know the cause, we can take measures to alleviate the cause and, thereby, create a different effect.

With that thought in mind, let’s take a look at the last 75 to 100 years in America and in western civilization as a whole. How would we describe the state of the world 100 years ago vs. the state of the world today? What is the mindset of people today vs. the mindset of people living in the first part of the 20th century? As you follow along with me, I think you will discover some very interesting facts.

Having conducted my own research on the topic—and, better yet, having lived on this earth through nearly 80 of those 100 most recent years—here are two observations I have made:

1) One hundred years ago, in the first half of the 20th century, the cultural consensus was rooted in a Judeo-Christian philosophy of life. While many people were not Christians, the majority of the population respected and lived by the Judeo-Christian principles espoused in the Ten Commandments. Lest you do not know what these principles are, they can be summed up in what we call the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, treat other people as you would like them to treat you.

In fact, 100 years ago most people lived by these principles. Yes, there were evil people back then just as there are today and have been throughout human history. But the culture as a whole did not look favorably upon evil people. Their behavior was considered shameful. And that public disapproval—that peer pressure, as it were, against wrongdoing— provided a great deterrent to evil.

Take pregnancy outside of marriage, for example. A girl in my high school became pregnant outside of marriage and was expelled from school. A stigma of shame rested upon her and the young man who fathered the child. This shame was a powerful deterrent to other young people to refrain from having sex outside of marriage.

Now, I’m not saying that the young pregnant girl should not have received help. What I’m saying is that society, at the time, looked on having sex outside of marriage as a sin.

And it was! And still is!

But today, we don’t disapprove of sex outside of marriage. We celebrate it!

In the first half of the last century, most people tried hard to live a decent life. They did not cheat or lie to their neighbors. They did not steal from them. They did not riot in the streets, ransack businesses, and destroy their neighbors’ property. They did not commit adultery with their neighbors’ spouses. They did not walk by a person in danger but, instead, stopped to help. They did not film a rape but rescued the victim by fighting off the perpetrator.

Recently, an example of the lawlessness dominating our culture today took place right outside my home. The back of my house faces a busy street. One Saturday evening, I was sitting in my home when, all of a sudden, I heard a tremendous roar outside my window. When I looked outside, I could not believe what I saw. Approximately 100 motorcylces raced down the street, with their drivers performing dangerous stunts called “wheelies” where they lifted their front wheels and performed these stunts in the middle of the street. These cyclists drove cars off the road, disobeying traffic signals, and nearly caused serious injury to innocent drivers. Moreover, we later learned that the cyclists robbed a local convenience store owned by an elderly couple.

This kind of behavior was unheard of 100 years ago.

In short, most people lived by the Golden Rule. And the Golden Rule implies an unselfish heart. Interestingly, as a result of living by the Golden Rule, people were far happier than they are today. Society was far more stable than it is today. Our country was far safer than it is today.

Why?

Because people, as a whole, considered the well-being of others as well as their own. Sometimes even more than their own.
And doing that makes for a safe society.

2) Seventy-five to one hundred years ago, people believed in God and honored Him. Indeed, their adherence to the Golden Rule stemmed from a respect and reverence for God. It was customary for families to attend church services together. In my own public school, my first-grade teacher, Miss Ritter, kept a Bible on her desk. Every morning she would begin the day by reading to us from the Bible. We were required to stand in respect as she read from the Word of God. Afterward, we saluted the American flag and then continued into our school day. We learned respect for God and country.

Today, it is forbidden to read the Bible in our pubic schools. We don’t salute the American flag. Instead, we burn it and demean it and the shed blood it stands for. We have become a nation of selfish ingrates, bent only on the gratification of our own desires.

Why?

I trace it back to one reason: We removed God from our culture. When America took prayer out of its schools in the 1960s, a downward spiral began in our land. This downward spiral can be traced statistically through myriad sociologial data. I have included some of this data in the show notes.

So what does all of this have to do with depression? And with the depression you yourself may be experiencing as I speak?

Let me answer your question, dear friend.

When we remove God from our lives and from our society, we will always experience a downward spiral from hope to depression and despair. It is inevitable.

Why is it inevitable?

Because when we remove God, we remove the Source of all hope, the Source of all peace, the Source of all joy. You see, hope, peace, and joy all originate in God. We cannot experience true and lasting hope, peace, and joy without God.

Moreover, in removing God from our culture, we removed Truth. And when we remove Truth, we inevitably fall into the Lie and all the suffering that results from believing the Lie. The Lie is that man can make it on his own, without God.

Jesus Himself said, “I am the Truth.” Without Jesus, we can never comprehend truth. And, as Jesus said, it is the truth that sets us free (John 14: 6). Without the truth, we will fall into darkness. Bondage. Depression.

Indeed, when we turn from truth, we automatically fall Into deception. And deception always and ultimately brings depression and despair. For without truth, there is no hope, and without hope, there is only despair.

Bottomline, my friend, hope is all about our relationship to Jesus Christ. Do we have a relationship with Him, or do we not?

Several years ago, I participated in my church’s ministry to the mentally ill. We would visit a local mental institution filled with people who had lost all touch with reality. They were labeled “insane,” with no hope of recovery.

But as we presented them with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, light began to shine into those dark places of their lives. Slowly, but surely, many of them came to Christ and were set free. Their minds were restored, and they left the mental institution and went on to live happy, productive lives.

Depression comes from Satan and affects not only the soul but also the body, particularly the chemical structure of the brain. At its root, depression is a spiritual ailment and can be healed only by dealing with it spiritually. Depression is caused by a demonic spirit that needs to be cast out of your life. While medications may “manage” or cover the symptoms of depression, the root cause will always remain unless dealt with spiritually. This is the reason depressed people need their medications in order to function. The root cause of their problem—the evil spirit of depression—has not been addressed.

But I have good news for you. Once the root cause of depression is eradicated, medications are no longer necessary.

If you are suffering from depression, I want to tell you that there is a permanent way out. And that way is Jesus Christ. He not only will remove the symptoms of depression from you; He will remove the root cause of depression, that spirit of depression causing those symptoms.

Won’t you turn to Jesus to be free of depression—and of every other chain that is holding you down? If you want to do so, pray this simple prayer with me now:

Lord Jesus, I want to be free from the bondage of depression. I cannot do it on my own. So I come to You now and ask You to drive depression out of my life, as well as every other evil spirit keeping me from the hope, peace, and joy that only You can give me. I believe that You are the Son of God Who died for me and Who rose from the dead. I invite you now into my life to be my Savior and Lord. Make of me who You created me to be. In Your Name. I pray. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. You have been given an inheritance by God Himself that includes hope, peace, and joy. Write to me at drmaryannn@maryanndiorio.com, and I will send you a free PDF e-booklet titled After You’re Born Again.

In case you are not aware, I write heart-mending fiction that deals with the deepest issues of life. In my stories you will find characters just like you who struggle with what look like impossible problems and situations. Check out my books at my online bookstore at shop.maryanndiorio.com. That’s shop.maryanndiorio.com. 

Also, visit me on Substack at drmaryanndiorio.substack.com and subscribe to my blog and podcast titled “The Relationship Road.” There you will find valuable information on creating and cultivating healthful relationships based on God’s Word.

Winning with the Word is available on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast venues as well as on YouTube. Check out my YouTube channel at youtube.com/drmaryanndiorio.

Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are. Yet He doesn’t want to keep you there. As you live in Him, He will help you to keep on winning with the Word.

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio
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Copyright 2025 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

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Sources Cited:
“The Stunning Evidence of America’s Moral Decline” by Robert Clifton Robinson
https://robertcliftonrobinson.com/2020/11/02/the-timeline-depicting-the-decline-of-america-since-1962/

“Banning Prayer in Public Schools Has Led to America’s Demise” by Editorial Staff
https://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0098_Ban_on_school_prayer

“What Happened When the Praying Stopped?” by Editorial Staff
https://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0124_When_America_stopped