Mental Constipation

Constipation Is To The Body

What Depression Is To The Mind

by Sharon Woolbright

Recently a dear friend of mine ask for prayer for depression. When I read her text request Holy Spirit spoke to me and said: ” Constipation is to the body what depression is to the mind.” “Now write about it.”

As usual I am being set up by George to dig out the parallel. No pun intended. It seems that depression is to the mind somewhat what constipation is to the body. Stop laughing and listen to what I’m seeing. LOL

Having experienced constipation but not being an expert on constipation of the body I began to research. Having never heard the term constipation of the mind I will have to continue my writing and wait for George to unpack the parallel. Again no pun intended.

When our food reaches the large intestine it has already been seen, smelled, tasted, chewed, swallowed, dissolved, nutrients extracted, vitamins and good bacteria created and then if the right elements are not present it becomes the potential constipation.

Constipation is one of many issues we can experience when our digestive system is not working properly. Prolonged digestive and elimination issues if left untreated can lead to life altering changes in our daily habits and in the case of colon or rectal cancers even to death.

Constipation can make us feel bloated, irritable, sluggish, we may experience pain and if untreated even death. With constipation the whole digestive system has been involved but only the last stage of the process is causing us problems. The other stages of digestion can contribute to the end result, but the inability to pass the waste will be mostly felt in the lower abdomen.

Constipation is the slowing down of waste material moving through the large intestine. This material is what the digestive system didn’t or couldn’t use. The stomach breaks down and dissolves the food we eat. Then releases it through to the small intestine. There the small intestine assimilates the digested material and absorbs the nutrients.

From the small intestine nutrients have been sent into the blood stream and then to various parts of the body. Where they are used to nourish and heal the body. The small intestine has extracted the good, released it into the blood and has now moved the left over material to a holding place for elimination. Anything that wasn’t absorbed in the small intestine will move into the large intestine, mostly fiber, bacteria and water.

**Following excerpt from article: At wholelifebalance.com

Digestion 101: Last Stop Large Intestine.

The large intestine basically has 3 jobs:

• Absorbs Water: A healthy colon absorbs 80% of the water that passes through it. The longer food sits in the colon, the more water is absorbed which means constipation. Not good. If food doesn’t spend enough time in the colon, not enough water is absorbed and then you end up with diarrhea. Also not good.

• Feeds Bacteria: The colon is a haven for bacteria. Sounds terrifying, but it’s not supposed to be a bad thing. When the colon is healthy, we have about an 80:20 ratio of good to bad bacteria. We need the good guys to fight off the bad guys, which means bacteria are part of our immune system! Bacteria also basically eat fiber, which passes through most of the digestive tract untouched. Unfortunately, if the small intestine isn’t working properly these bacteria will also feed on any undigested food particles, will produce hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. Then there’s gas. And if sulfur is there, well then there’s a smell…

• Produces Vitamins: When they’re not producing unwanted gas, bacteria feed on the waste to produce vitamins; Vitamin K and biotin to be exact. We need vitamin K for blood clotting and biotin is great for skin, hair and nails. In fact, E.Coli is actually the bacteria that produces Vitamin K. So we actually NEED a little bit of E. Coli in our lives. Weirdly fascinating, right?

All of these things happen as the waste moves from one end of the colon to the other. Mucus keeps everything from sticking to the colon walls (gross, I know), especially as less and less water is present further down the line. When the colon reaches a certain point of fullness, muscles everything into the rectum and then guess what? You guessed it: poop. ** end of excerpt from www. wholelifebalance.com

The lack of moisture, water, some types of medications, or being sedentary can cause this waste material to sit in the large intestine and not move forward out of the body.

Old non absorbed material can build up in the colon and narrow the track which fecal matter passes through to be eliminated. The colon can also expand and hold massive amounts of waste if the colon is not functioning properly. There is a rare condition called Hirschsprung’s Disease where the enteric nervous system fails to develop in the womb. This causes the muscle layer that lines the intestines to not be automatically controlled and the intestines can’t move the waste material along.

In Shanghai China, doctors removed 28 pounds of feces from the bowels of a man who was reportedly constipated since birth. The unnamed 22-year-old had 30 inches of his grossly enlarged bowel removed by surgeons at Tenth People's Hospital of Shanghai in China. It is believed the young man had Hirschsprung's disease, which causes the bowels to swell because the nerves that are supposed to control the gut are missing. **excerpt from https://www.menshealth.com/health/28-pounds-poop-mans-bowels-hirschsprung... Photo at top of this article.

*HIRSCHSPRUNG’S DISEASE

Hirschsprung's disease is a rare condition that causes feces to become stuck in the bowels. It'a a congenital condition that mainly affects babies and young children.

Muscles in the gut are normally under involuntary control from the nervous system.

Muscle layers in the gut are connected to an automatic nervous system which controls many of the body's organ, and in the gut this network of nerves is called the enteric nervous system. It's responsible for moving the gut, helping it move food along the intestines, helping break food down and finally compacting it to form feces.

This connection between the nervous system and the gut is formed early in life - in the womb.

In people who have the disease, the nerve cells fail to migrate to the gut during development in the womb, so the important connection is impaired.

This means that the muscle layer which lines the intestines isn't automatically controlled, so the intestines can't move the feces along.

In terms of treatment, the only effective way of resolving the condition is surgery, however other therapies, such as stem cells therapy are being developed.

Hirschsprung's is associated with certain inherited conditions, such as Down's syndrome and other abnormalities present at birth, such as congenital heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. ** article copied from internet…

Constipation happens when the body has not been able to evacuate the discarded waste material produced by what is ingested through the rest of the digestive system. We must eat to sustain our lives. Everything we eat is not absorbed into our bodies and produces nourishment and energy. There are always waste materials passed to the large intestine where it uses these discarded materials to still produce necessary bacteria and vitamins needed to keep us healthy.

Now the parallel, Ok George, show me the parallel. LOL Here we go!

The mind is a part of the digestive system of the soul. The mind takes in the experiences of life. When we smelled, tasted, chew and swallow what the eyes and ears have seen. The emotions then receive the soul food and begin to secrete thoughts, emotions and opinions to break down the experience.

The reduced product is then passed to the (small intestine) heart or belief system to begin to extract the nutrients from it. Here I assimilate each detail and absorb it into my system of beliefs the undigested rest is passed to the holding tank of the memory(large intestine). In the holding tank of my memory the experience of seeing, eating, understanding, extracting the good or bad of the situation has already taken place.

Here in my memory if the right conditions do not exist or have not developed from the womb of my spirit I can become depressed!

Depression is the result of unresolved issues in the memory. Please understand I DO know there are other causes for depression. Some brought about from medications, chemical changes, allergies and many others.

For the purpose of this teaching I am primarily looking at depression from the position of backlogged emotions not dealt with on some level, conscious or unconsciously. I am looking at this perspective because this is the area Holy Spirit spoke to me about.

For me, most of the depression I have experienced has had a huge element of emotional experience to build this backlog of negative emotions. Most have been gained from my interpretation or inability to digest the whole truth of an event. Mind you I was not aware at the time that this backlog of negative emotions were making their way into the holding tank of my memories and were void of enough water of the word and lubricating oil of the Holy Spirit to allow them to pass.

Just as one does not experience physical constipation as a result of only one food eaten and processed. It is the compilation of many and varied things consumed digested and the left over matter passed to the holding tank of my memory. In thinking I have dealt with the process I am unaware that the accumulation of several undigested situations are clinging to the sides of my memory and refuse to be eliminated, without outside intervention.

Emotional constipation is not the result of only one ideal or event. As the digestive process takes place in my soul system the breaking down has taken place, I have assimilate each detail and absorb it into my system of beliefs. I have decided what I believe the truth to be and my emotional self is now functioning on that which I have absorbed as truth. I may have feelings of happiness, peace, joy, grief, fear, anxiety, terror, some or all now loosed through my emotional digestion of the consumed situation.

What I haven’t broken down and used is then passed into the holding tank of my memory. There it will join the previously discarded waste of my past and wait for the automatic elimination process to take place.

The residue of past needed nourishment or passions consumed, when digested leave a residual of fibrous, thick hard to pass emotions that can clog the ability of my memory to allow them to pass. Thus depression is the byproduct.

When all of the water, the life sustaining force has been extracted and the immobility of not moving ahead with past or present issues has attached itself to my mind, and my emotions have extracted all the water of the word, but there still has been no movement forward in a given situation or area of my life then I become depressed.

Emotionally constipated. I feel emotionally prolonged dejection and sadness that can cause me to withdraw from my normal daily activity. I may feel nauseous or irritable, isolating myself from others or causing them to remove themselves from my presence for their own survival. LOL

Definition for depression **excerpt from On Line Dictionary

*Depression

1 sadness; gloom; dejection.

2 Psychiatry. a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason.

**Dejection…

1 depression or lowness of spirits.

2 Medicine/Medical, Physiology. a evacuation of the bowels; fecal discharge.

b excrement.

—Related forms self-de·jec·tion, noun su·per·de·jec·tion,

Wow. I am amazed to find this definition of dejection in the Online Dictionary. Of course George is not! And no I did not make this up! I’m not that smart!

When I experience depression I feel dejected, look at the medical definition above (Evacuation of the bowels: fecal discharge, excrement), the medical community uses dejection in relationship to evacuation of the bowels, as well as lowness of spirits.

I may feel sluggish and irritable, it can be hard to think clearly, much like the symptoms of constipation. I can have pain in my emotional gut, much like constipation. If untreated this depression, the holding in of old waste material emotionally can cause a cancer of my emotions, which may have to be surgically removed. Emotional constipation if left untreated may even end in death or the taking of ones own life.

Like digestive constipation I may not know what I ate, what I haven’t done or need to do to relieve the symptoms. I rack my brain trying to figure out why I am feeling this way.

There are many and varied products on the market for physical constipation. The constipation of the mind, will also have many and varied choices as to the method of relief.

Although my whole mind has been a part of the process, the symptoms of depression are usually felt deep in my emotional gut. The Bible in speaking of the whole armor of God, gives us instructions to girt our loins with truth. I did a teaching on this years ago.

The word girt means… **Online dictionary: to prepare oneself for action, encircle or bind with a belt or band.

The physical area of the loins is where our reproductive organs are found. I believe the girting of our loins with truth is the encircling and binding myself with truth. Actively covering the reproductive area of my mind with truth, so that when I conceive a matter it will be covered in truth and reproduce truth. Any residue passing to the holding place of my memory will be saturated with the water of the Word and pass through easily.

When we are experiencing physical constipation we can sometimes strain and force the waste to pass. In mind constipation, or depression we can strain and try to force the hard painful emotions to pass. Both of these solutions will tear and cause pain, and even lead to infections. Taking a product to soften the hardened matter will take some time, but is effective. Increasing water intake will also help to move things along more quickly. Meditation on the Word can soften the hardened matter and that too will take some time.

If you are like me when physical constipation or emotional constipation comes you just want the quickest relief possible. I may take a stool softener or a liquid medication formulated for just this condition. These products have to go through the digestive tract and can take some time. Suppositories can soften a small area and allow for some relief. They are formulated to be used closer to the problem and work somewhat faster than liquid stool softness or constipation medications.

Deposits of the Word will give some relief but will not always resolve the impacted issue. Oh yeah, and the enema, now thats the one we all want to avoid at all cost. An enema goes directly into the situation and forces the release of backed up material to be released. Some enema solutions contain a saline or salt which increases fluid in the intestine. The directions also tell us to hold this solution for a long as possible. Really? The very result we want to reach is even delayed by the solution to alleviate it.The spiritual equivalent may look something like deliverance! Where everything is cast out in one explosive rush of relief!

I am trying to deal with my physical digestive health in a conscious manner and avoid the complications of constipation. What I eat, the amount of it I eat, and it's nutritional value all have an effect on how it is digested. Maybe I also need to give more attention to what I am putting in my emotional digestive system to avoid depression.

Constipation is also an imbalance of fluids in my system that has many and varied contributors. Depression is a chemical imbalance, that occurs for many and varied reasons as well.

I want to know the great physicians prescription for both! Don’t you?

I want to be sure that I don’t have the emotional equivalent of HIRSCHSPRUNG’S DISEASE the afore mentioned condition where the bowel is incapable from the womb to move along waste material.

I don’t want to have my emotional inability to pass waste to build up and look like the man who had to have 30 inches of his colon removed because of 28 years of built up waste material.

It’s unbelievable how much old waste we can hold in our memories. Things that get stuck because we are incapable of automatically moving them out. Things that are void of nutrients and cling to the walls of my mind and cause me to be dejected, withdrawn and sad.

I don’t know everything, what I do know you could put in a thimble and still have room for an elephant. What I do know I have learned through the stages of life and lots of emotional issues that have brought about depression and blockage of the soul.

I had never looked at depression as a blockage of my soul, complete with its will and emotions. I have mostly looked at depression from a social, and clinical standpoint.

I have experienced different levels of depression and I have tried anti depressants, which I might add do cause physical constipation. LOL

Antidepressants have a reverse effect on me. They make me more depressed. They increase the frustration and anger that often accompanies depression.

Depression has made me feel like there was no way out in the natural and that everyone would be better if I was not the issue. I can see that the blockage of old ideals and emotions had stopped and set up in my emotional inability to move forward in a healthy manner.

Just as I don’t want any old food waste left in my elimination system, I don’t want any old depressive residue impacted in my soul! I am going to call Dr. George and ask for a prescription that will prevent the hardening of my emotions and keep my soul healthy and regular. Getting plenty of fiber will keep my physical system clean. Getting plenty of the meat of the word may just keep my soulish system cleaned out!