Heaviness

 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? 

 - From Psalm 42

The Psalmist was suffering depression, brought on by the trauma of exile. He was facing continual mocking from his Babylonian captors, that laughed at him and asked "Where is your God?"

When you have experienced trauma, your life seems to stop at one point in time. Your forward movement is blocked. You freeze. Your own thoughts become your enemy. It takes a toll on your physical health. Your soul, your very spirit, becomes heavy. There is a very real sense of stress, pain, and distress, in your chest, as though it had been weighed down by some force . . . except the sensation is like the weight is attached to your lungs, your heart, your other organs, and was pulling it all away from the safety of its skeletal support. 

When my marriage was at its lowest point, I became so troubled that the physical pain in my chest became overbearing. The pain traveled to my shoulder and down my arm. My breathing became weak and my heart raced. I felt that perhaps I was having a heart attack. An ambulance trip and overnight at the hospital showed me that it was not a cardiac problem. But stress that is severe enough, will do that to you. 

The last thing you need, when you're dealing with the effects of trauma, is a crowd of people gathering around you, mocking you. And it doesn't need to be Babylonians. It can be your closest friends and family. They mean well; but their misplaced words come across as taunts, like the friends of Job. 

Today, in a conversation, someone suggested to me that everybody should receive regular therapy sessions. Those that are emotionally and mentally well would need it, for training on how better to interact with the people around them who, inevitably, suffer from hidden emotional distress. 

If we knew the harm we do to others, by way of ordinary, simple words and deeds, we might act totally differently. And the world, in turn, would be a much better place.