Reflection & Prayer Prompts: Depression
These prompts are designed for personal processing — either on your own or as a supplement to group participation. There's no right way to use them. Some people journal extensively; others sit with a question and think. Some pray aloud; others sit in silence. Use what helps.
If you're currently in a significant depression, be gentle with yourself. You don't have to do all of this at once. Pick one prompt that resonates and sit with it. That's enough.
Personal Reflection Questions
Take your time with these. You might sit with one question for an entire week, or move through several in one sitting. Let them surface what needs to surface.
Understanding Your Experience
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If you were to describe your current emotional state honestly — not the version you present to others, but what's actually happening inside — what would you say?
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When did you first start feeling this way? Was there a trigger, or did it come on gradually? What was happening in your life around that time?
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Of the factors that can contribute to depression — biological symptoms, isolation, powerlessness, unprocessed grief, feeling inferior, negative thinking, triggers from the past — which ones feel most relevant to your experience?
Connection and Isolation
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Who knows how you're really doing? Not how you say you're doing when someone asks, but how you actually are. If no one comes to mind, what makes it hard to let people see this part of you?
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When you're struggling, do you tend to reach out or withdraw? What drives that pattern? What would it take to move toward connection even when you don't feel like it?
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Is there a relationship in your life where you feel controlled, manipulated, or unable to be yourself? How might that be affecting you?
Grief and Loss
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Is there a loss in your life — a person, a dream, a role, a version of yourself — that you never fully grieved? What made it hard to process that loss?
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What happens when you allow yourself to feel sadness? Do you resist it? Numb it? Get scared of it? What did you learn growing up about whether sadness was okay?
Identity and Worth
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Do you tend to feel "one-down" to other people — inferior, like your opinions don't matter, like you're the only one struggling while everyone else has it together? Where do you think that feeling comes from?
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What does your internal voice say to you when you make a mistake or fall short? If you said those things to a friend, how would they feel? Why do you talk to yourself that way?
Hope and the Future
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Right now, can you imagine your life being different? If yes, what does that look like? If no, what makes it hard to picture?
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What would it mean for you to believe that recovery is possible — not just in theory, but for you specifically?
Guided Prayer Language
These prayers are offered as starting points. Adapt them, add to them, or simply use them to orient your heart. If prayer feels impossible right now, that's okay. Sit with the silence, or let these words stand in for what you can't say.
A Prayer for Honesty
God, I don't want to pretend with you. You already know what I'm carrying, even if I've been hiding it from everyone else — maybe even from myself.
The truth is, I'm struggling. Some days I can barely function. Some days I can't see the point. Some days I feel nothing at all.
I don't know how to fix this. I don't even know how to want to fix it. But I'm willing to be honest with you about where I am.
Meet me here. Not where I should be, but where I am.
Amen.
A Prayer When Hope Is Hard
God, I know I'm supposed to have hope. But right now, I don't. I can't feel it. I can't even imagine things being different.
I'm told that you can hold hope for me when I can't hold it myself. I need that to be true. Because I'm empty.
Help me take the next small step, even when I can't see where it leads. Help me let people in. Help me believe that this isn't permanent, even though it feels that way.
I'm not asking to feel better right now. I'm asking for the courage to keep going.
Amen.
A Prayer for Those Who Carry Grief
God, there's something I've been carrying that I never fully let myself feel. A loss I pushed aside. A wound I tried to ignore.
I didn't know how to grieve it. Maybe I didn't have permission. Maybe I was afraid of what would happen if I let myself fall apart.
But I'm starting to see that the weight hasn't gone away — it's just gone underground. And it's heavier than I realized.
Give me safe places to bring my grief. Give me people who can sit with me in it. Help me let the tears come, if they need to. Help me trust that I won't drown in the sadness, and that something can be released.
Be close to me in this.
Amen.
A Prayer About Medication and Help
God, I've struggled with whether it's okay to get help — whether taking medication means I've failed, whether seeing a therapist means I'm weak, whether admitting I can't handle this alone is giving up.
Help me see this clearly. If my body needs help to work properly, that's not failure. If I need someone to walk with me through this, that's not weakness. You created us for connection and community, not self-sufficiency.
Give me the humility to accept help. Give me the wisdom to pursue the right kind of help. Take away the shame that keeps me stuck.
Amen.
A Prayer for Someone Who Feels One-Down
God, I feel small. I feel like everyone around me is more competent, more together, more worthy of respect. I feel like a child at an adults' table — like my voice doesn't matter, my opinions don't count, my presence isn't quite welcome.
I know this isn't accurate. But it feels true. And that feeling has weight.
Remind me that I have value — not because of what I produce or how I compare, but because of who I am. Help me take my seat at the table. Help me believe that my thoughts, my feelings, my choices matter.
Grow me into the adult you made me to be.
Amen.
Optional Journaling Prompts
These prompts are for written processing. Write as much or as little as comes. Don't edit yourself — just let the words flow.
Prompt 1: Letter to Depression
Write a letter to your depression as if it were a person. Tell it what it's taken from you. Tell it what you're no longer willing to give it. Tell it what you're going to do differently.
Prompt 2: What I Wish People Understood
Write about what you wish the people in your life understood about your experience. What do they miss? What assumptions do they make? What would help?
Prompt 3: The Loss I Haven't Processed
Write about a loss you've never fully grieved. It doesn't have to be a person — it could be a dream, a season of life, a version of yourself, a relationship that changed. What happened? What did it cost you? What would it mean to finally let yourself grieve it?
Prompt 4: When I Last Felt Like Myself
Think back to a time when you felt alive, engaged, and like yourself. Describe that time. What was different? What was present then that's missing now?
Prompt 5: One Step I'm Willing to Take
Write about one small step you're willing to take toward recovery. It doesn't have to be big. It might be making an appointment, reaching out to someone, or just telling the truth about how you're doing. What would that step be? What makes it hard? What might make it possible?
A Final Word
If you're reading this in the middle of depression, we want you to know: this is not permanent. Even if it feels permanent. Even if you've felt this way for years.
People recover from depression. People who felt exactly what you feel — the hopelessness, the emptiness, the conviction that nothing will change — did the work, got the help, and found their way back to life.
You don't have to see the whole path to take the next step. You don't have to feel hope to move toward it. You just have to be willing to try — to reach out, to get help, to let someone walk with you through this.
You matter. Your life matters. And there is a version of your future that depression is working very hard to keep you from seeing.
Keep going.
Crisis Resources
If you are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please reach out immediately:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 (US)
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
- International Association for Suicide Prevention: https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
- Emergency: Call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room
These thoughts are symptoms of depression. They are not truth. Please reach out.