“A high percentage (approximately 30%) of mentally ill Christian congregants who seek counsel from the Church have interactions that are counterproductive to successful treatment.“
This month, I’ve discovered the quickest way to put myself in an existential funk that no amount of suit-buying can cure: get access to psychology journal databases and read peer-reviewed articles that have conducted studies on Christian perceptions of mental illness.
End rant? Not quite.
Apart from feeling terrible for my colleagues and flatmate who have to cop an earful every time my impassioned self gets worked up over reading yet another set of horrifying stats, I find myself asking deeper questions of how our social and theological frameworks of health and sickness shape our responses for many who are struggling with long-term unseen conditions that impair every day functioning. In other words: what on earth is up with the church and her often schizo (pun intended) response to mental illness?
If you read the mainstream stats, alarm bells should sound. Loudly. In the Land Down Under (represent!), the most recent ABS stats tell us that around 6% of Australians deal with depression every year, while 14% deal with an anxiety disorder of some kind. Stateside (because I’m aware that as an Aussie interloper, my local stats are of no real use to most reading this), the most recent National Institute of Mental Health numbers are just as alarming–roughly 7% for major depression and 18% for anxiety disorders.
With a good one fifth to one quarter of the population dealing with depression and anxiety alone at any one time–not to mention the less frequent, but perhaps more overwhelming instances of schizophrenia, substance abuse disorders and other conditions unnamed–the helpful reaction of the Christian community is vital. This is not a minority issue, not by a long shot. Yet, an overwhelming silence is often conveyed to the pews on the front of mental health issues.
OK, I lie. We do learn things about how we should respond to mental health issues if we are present in Christian community long enough, but these responses are not uniform and they are certainly not direct.
We learn what these responses are when someone asks a depressed person, “Aren’t you over it yet?”, or when we read in popular Christian literature that all schizophrenia is demonic and the depressed person needs to simply get closer to God to get out of the pity rut. Yet, of course, that is a generalisation. Alison Gray, in a peer-reviewed article published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture notes that mental illness has, within the Christian community, been viewed in a variety of manners-most often, as a biological problem to be endured/managed, or a spiritual problem requiring deliverance. [2]
The problem, of course, is that these varying responses are categorised with polarity–manifoldly unwise. Firstly, polarised responses hint that the person is somehow a trichotomous or dichotomous being, whose biological and spiritual elements can be split up into neat categories to be separately addressed. This is a gross misunderstanding of biblical anthropology that negates the incredibly integrated nature of our humanity, not to mention the value that God places on the physicality. After all, we follow a Christ who is raised and transformed in body, not in ethereal spirit.
Secondly, by adopting one position or another, we also negate the factor of complex social environments in which daily pressures, family crises and unrealistic expectations often shape how we live our lives, contributing to extreme stress often leading, along with genetic predisposition in some cases, to the brain’s inability to cope.
Lastly, both those operating in ministry and those being ministered to will find that polarising perspectives on the causes and treatment of mental illness is anything but helpful. Those seeking some kind of spiritual guidance will feel alienated if the person ministering has a response that is purely biological (“Go see your doctor, I can’t do anything for you.”), whereas a response that treats depression, anxiety and other mental health issues as purely spiritual issues (repentance, deliverance prayer and Christian self-help books, ahoy!) will often prevent a much needed referral to professional psychological and medical services, also resulting long-term in potential pastoral burnout from dealing with situations completely beyond their ministerial capabilities.
Of course, for many Christians, the issue is not a lack of genuine concern for people going through hard times–it is simply a case of ignorance, truncation and ill-equipment. The complex nature of mental illness requires that those in ministry know the important role they play in the recovery of a person in providing spiritual and practical support–but in addition, for a person to receive holistic care, biological and social factors also need to be addressed in a timely manner.
Addressing biological factors requires that churches seriously consider networking with appropriate psychological and medical services in their area–not only for the sake of parishioners in ensuring appropriate and well-researched referrals, but also in fostering a dialogue that breaks down the suspicion that often builds between religious and scientific parties and provides each the chance to learn from one another. How incredible would it be if a local non-Christian psychologist was welcomed by the faith community as a resource for healing and in turn came to understand how the Christian worldview and its related spiritual practices could be used for Christian clients as tools for recovery?
On top of this, addressing social factors requires that pastoral carers not only work towards removing their own ignorance and prejudices by educating themselves, but also seeks to remove these from the community they shepherd, so they will become safer environments of understanding and restoration for individuals and families dealing with mental illness.
The ways this can be practically imagined is plethoric. Let’s promote theological frameworks that minimize shame and guilt, that broaden the causes and treatment of mental illness as multi-faceted, integrated and holistic. Let’s create opportunities for congregants to be educated on how to identify the early stages of depression and anxiety. Let’s create safe forums for them to hear the stories of those around them on a journey of managing their condition. Let’s encourage our communities to participate in events that raise awareness and funds for research (Movember, anyone?).
Indeed, to quote Sanford, “Ignorance is simply not an excuse for a community of believers that has been called to ‘bear one another’s burdens.’” [3] Let us take seriously the holistic well-being of our Christian communities and start to creatively engage with the true needs of the people we call our brothers and sisters.
It is time we took seriously the black dog in the room.
Endnotes:
[1] Matthew Sanford, “Demon or Disorder: A Survey of Attitudes Toward Mental Illness in the Christian Church,” Mental Health, Religion and Culture 10:5, (2007): 448.
[2] Alison Gray, “Attitudes of the Public to Mental Health: A Church Congregation,” Mental Health, Religion & Culture 4:1, (2001): 73.
[3] Matthew Sanford, 449.
