Demystifying Psychiatry for the Church – Part 2
How does the Christian church view mental illness?
Isn’t the joy of the Lord supposed to be our strength?
How can we sing about peace and joy and at the same time be drowning in sorrow and fear?
Often we find ourselves saying, “Just surrender it to God.” Yet mental illness is not something we can just pray away.
The prevailing culture of silence, along with misguided attitudes and erroneous expectations, often causes suffering believers to feel shamed, blamed, and unsupported. Individuals frequently end up isolated and rejected They cannot share the burden they carry and they fear the stigma of a mental illness diagnosis.
As believers, we tend to frame everything in the context of spiritual issues or demonic manifestations. Perhaps we need to build a framework of understanding how the biology of the brain operates.
Why are we in the church fearful of medication?
If we have gastrointestinal upset, difficulty breathing, or sudden dizziness, we seek medical help to determine the cause of the problem. If our brain is having trouble functioning, why would we not go to the doctor?
Clearly there is a need for the mental health community to build a dialogue with Christian leaders and vice versa.
There are many factors that impact mental health – environment, GMO foods, pollution, living longer, 24-hour news cycle, trauma, broken homes, war, bullying, video games content, and substance abuse are some of the obvious.
Medications
In the 1960’-70’s psychiatry shifted the psychoanalysis focus on free association and investigating conflict between Id, Ego and Super Ego to a focus on biological science. There were significant discoveries of medications to help those who suffered from “insanity” or psychosis.
We learned that the primary chemicals in the brain which affect mood, focus, energy, and perception were a balance of norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. These are the 4 primary targets of medication management today.
In 1960’s we had veterans of the Korean conflict who had returned home with battle fatigue or shell shock – a malady that impaired the individuals’ ability to emerge from the horrors of war. Later, in the Vietnam era, it was more aptly named Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is descriptive of the root cause of the dis-ease
By bringing mental illness out of the shadows of the church, offering acceptance and support, creating a community of understanding and encouragement, individuals will be more open to seeking the treatment needed to stabilize their mental health. Once stabilized, the healing work can begin by addressing past trauma, childhood wounds, or faulty belief systems. Studies have shown that pairing psychotherapy with medication has the quickest recovery and the greatest success when treating mental illness.
