Mental Health, Jesus, and Us

Recently, I have been pondering the topic of mental health and its perception within the church. This is a topic that is often on my mind. I have spent most of my life as a part of a church family and I have spent most of my professional life working in the field of mental health. Over the years, I have had a front-row seat to see the stigma that is attached to mental health, particularly within the church.

As an example, recently a prominent pastor with an international audience spoke about mental health while promoting his most recent book. The quote is long but I think it is worthwhile. This pastor said, “Psychiatry and psychology is finally admitting the noble lies that they’ve been telling for the last 100 years. And the major noble lie is there is such a thing as mental illness. Now this isn’t new. You have Thomas Szasz back in the 1950s writing a book, who was a psychiatrist, The Myth of Mental Illness. There’s no such thing as PTSD. There’s no such thing as OCD. There’s no such thing as ADHD. Those are noble lies to basically give the excuse, at the end of the day, to medicate people.”

Over the years, I have encountered this opinion more frequently than I can communicate. While I would generally agree that we rely a bit too heavily on medication here in the United States, I can assure you that mental health is, in fact, real. There are several decades of research that support this, tens of thousands of personal stories that support this, and I can tell you plenty of my own experiences that support this. On top of this mountain of evidence is the reality that we live in a fallen world. The fall that sin introduced includes the fallenness of our bodies and our brains. Mental health challenges exist. Some are circumstantial, some are a result of poor choices, and some are organic (aka biologically based) but they are real.

The denial of the existence of mental health challenges, as we see in the quote above, is often based on a misapplication of Scripture. I have regularly seen and heard of people being told that they can address the challenge of anxiety symptoms by reflecting on Philippians 4:6 or Matthew 6:25-34. I have heard similar claims made in regards to addressing depressive symptoms by meditating on Philippians 4:8. For the sake of clarity, meditating on Scripture is always helpful and always beneficial and I will always recommend it. Simultaneously, for many people, this level of intervention simply isn’t enough to address the severity of their symptoms. Additionally, there are those who are facing biologically based challenges such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Suggesting to people who are suffering deeply that memorizing Philippians 4:8 will solve their problems is not only reductive, it’s cruel. Additionally, the theology that accompanies this thought process is often faulty. As I was researching the quote above, I came across a YouTube video from Truth Unites that I thought addressed the theological aspect of this very well. You can view it here.

At this point, you may be wondering why I’m discussing this topic. Since 2020, we have seen an exponential increase in diagnosed mental health challenges. This is an area of ever-increasing struggle in our culture, particularly amongst children, adolescents, and young adults. If we wish to pass the Gospel on to the next generation of people, we must be willing to wrestle with mental health, mental illness, and everything that entails. If we choose to continue to dismiss it as the quote above does, we will lose an entire generation of people. With that in mind, I’d like to offer a few suggestions for how we can move forward as believers who are willing to engage with the topic of mental health.

First, learn to listen. We are terrible listeners in the United States. In fact, I’d argue that most of the time we aren’t listening at all, we are simply waiting to speak. In James 1:19, the Lord counsels us to be slow to speak and quick to listen. When we hear from someone they are struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, or anything else in the mental health category, let us remember to be QUICK to LISTEN and SLOW to SPEAK. The person sharing this doesn’t need your opinion, they need your compassionate, listening ears.

Second, care for yourself. If we want to be good listeners who offer a compassionate response to a suffering person, we must be healthy ourselves. Be sure that you’re spending time in God’s Word (jump into our Bible reading plan and chat group). Spend time in prayer and time meditating on God’s Word (apps like Dwell and Soul Space are great for this). Be active and eat nourishing food and spend time in God’s creation. Spend time with other people who share your faith and values. These sorts of practices allow us to remain spiritually and physically healthy, so we are ready to offer compassionate support to others.

Finally, educate yourself about mental health. Organizations such as Light University (operated by the American Association of Christian Counselors) offer courses such as Coffee Cup Counseling that will help you offer compassionate support to others. The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) has a bookstore full of great resources for learning about mental health from a Biblical perspective, including a series of mini books on specific topics. Organizations such as the National Institute of Mental Health and NAMI offer great educational resources as well.

Mental illness is real. Mental health is an important aspect of our lives. As we seek to engage others for the sake of the gospel, we must be able to recognize this and we must be willing to engage with the topic in a compassionate and helpful way. If you find yourself with questions about mental health, what it is, or what a healthy Christian response is, please feel free to reach out to me. I love talking about it!