In this week’s episode, We break down what exactly mental illness and mental health are, what is happening in the brain, and how the church can respond in ways that help us all to be healthier individuals and begin to build a more understanding, empathetic and healthy community.
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After three depressive episodes connected with heightened stress in my job and the community I was in, I was diagnosed with burnout and the psychiatrist said I had run myself into the ground, and that thereby I was lacking serotonin to regain a state of mind to overcome my exhaustion. It’s likely that my psychiatrist was highlighting the potential impact of stress on neurotransmitter levels, including serotonin, and how this can contribute to symptoms like emotional exhaustion.
However, it doesn’t seem to be a seldom occurrence in communities, since I have heard of similar instances since then. In most cases, it has been a high identification and commitment to the community, and I was working as a nurse in a church retirement home as well, where the same idealism was encouraged and rewarded. One thing I noticed is that we all tended to ignore the symptoms until our body striked, and we all carried consequences from the illness. Nobody contacted me from the community, and even later, nobody spoke to me about it, although I had been a high-profile volunteer and Elder in the community. It does tell a story, doesn’t it?
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An important topic. Words and teaching are not enough, considering and improving mental health starts from acts.
The caretaking should start by taking care of the workers - being a lonely pastor or priest can be very stressful and lead to burnout if the person is not aware of the danger and does not get sufficient support and guidance from others. A mentally healthy worker can contribute to a mentally healthy atmosphere in the church.
For other members and visitors, the atmosphere matters. Is it demanding, restricting, tense, or accepting and loving? In a loving and accepting atmosphere, people can relax and start loading their mental batteries. In such an atmosphere, people can also be more open and honest about their life, including matters related to mental health. Sharing the life can build mental health.
I have met too many burnout or otherwise mentally suffering people in churches (including the person in the mirror) and would like to get a positive change in the matter - even if telling about the basics may sometimes sound like boring repetition. I hope that telling about these matters repeatedly slowly affects the attitudes and acts of those having to listen.
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Lack of serotonin is probably not the cause of depression, maybe rather a contributing symptom. I have been told that the main benefit of depression medication is to make the brains more plastic, which makes it easier to change the attitudes, thinking and life style. There is always a need to make changes in the life, possibly with the help of therapy, to overcome burnout and depression. Without changes in the life style, medication may even lead to deterioration of the condition because medication may give surplus energy to overdrive the body towards deeper depression.
Sounds typical, both in church work and the life of academic researchers aiming to success.
There are reasons why people do not speak about your mental problems.
One reason may be that people do not know how to talk about the matter. They may have compassionate thoughts but are afraid to open talk about the matter because they fear they will somehow cause more damage than good. This may be one of the areas where teaching might help.
In some communities, mental problems still carry a stigma. In those cases, people may feel that talking about you mental problems is like talking about your prison sentence or adultery. A broken leg is a safe topic but broken brains are not.
I hope this kind of thinking is disappearing.
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I didn’t claim it did, I said:
I did not doubt what you told. Just added some information to it.
The causes of depression are a debated question. It may be that depression is not a single disorder but rather a fever-like symptom common to many disorders. When experiencing depression personally, a more interesting question is whether the medication helps. In most cases it seems to help, at least after a suitable drug has been found through trial and error. My current understanding is that depression medication does not heal, it only gives a better start to the natural healing process.
I think it is important that churches are not against using medication, understand that mental disorders are health issues comparable to broken legs and fever, and give some sort of encouragement during the healing process that may take several years after severe depression.
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As a medical professional who has developed outlines for care planning for so many illnesses, including depression, taught staff on the do’s and don’ts of dealing with depressive patients, the personal experience is sobering. I found that I had used my knowledge subconsciously to overcome the symptoms, and considered the stress related causes paramount and therefore my problem was that I was tired. Being an introvert, knowing that we tire easy when we have too much social interaction, and having a continuous flow of social activity over ten and twelves hours a day, I considered that to be the problem.
It took a psychiatrist to sit me down and run through the events of the previous ten or so years to make me see where the episodes had been more than tiredness and had slowly reduced my ability to react, and finally causing a breakdown. I had been pushing myself physically as well as mentally, with physical training three times a week before work, trying to combat the tiredness with exertion – which is one of those left-hemispheric, narrow-minded, and almost schizophrenic reactions, totally contradictory and unrealistic.
The idealistic component, having taken up nursing as a vocation through coming to faith, and working in a church atmosphere, using my brash confidence to include spiritual aspects into my professional day, holding devotionals for staff and patients, and working myself into a position in which even priests and pastors were impressed, contributed to a kind of affirmation that becomes toxic at a certain stage. Working with such a high ethical standard, challenging previous practise, developing plans for new projects brought the first crisis, which I solved by changing from a Catholic to a Protestant environment.
Unfortunately, it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire, and the acceptance into a nursing management position, after facing the elders of the parish and the pastors in an unusual job application, brought me into a high-profile diaconal organisation in a smaller town, in which my first impressions of it being exactly what I wanted, were abruptly interrupted. A former nursing manageress of the organisation, who was still a volunteer, warned me about the high expectations that had made her sick, and I soon came into conflict with a religious idealism that failed to take the needs of staff into account. Six years of believing I could protect the staff from these expectations, and still contribute to a high ethical standard, combined with becoming an elder in a parish in which strife and disagreement broke out, caused a first episode that I judged to be exhaustion.
Changing the town in which I worked, but remaining within the diaconal system, I was faced with expectations that my reputation excited, and working over and above my role as nursing/general manager, I was told for the first time when stumbling that I needed medication for depression. It took seven weeks to recover, and I was advised to change my environment and my habits, although therapy was not available, and I took a job in a secular house, in which the situation at first relaxed. It was here that an aversion against my own idealism rose, and finding no support from the parish, I estranged myself, connecting in my mind the expectations with the religious aspirations.
However, promotion to regional manager representing the managing director, and then a takeover from a French corporation, which changed all directions and concentrated on profits, and being told that my values were unimportant, finally broke me and I was fortunate to go from therapy into retirement. In therapy, I was asked whether my high ethical and religious standards were perhaps a problem, and I had to accept that it had been a considerable contribution to my condition. We discovered that I had developed an unspoken ethic that said that a devotional life is only successful if it gives everything and dies after a fulfilled life – but you don’t die so easy, and you have family around you.
I think it is understandable that I am critical of religious zealots to this day.
@Rob_Brewer, our background and history is different but there was much in your story that sounded too familiar.
Being a former religious zealot, this comment made me stop and think. What is it that makes religious zealots so often problems, rather than persons with working solutions?
I do not think that being devoted is a problem. Too often the problem seems to be mental blindness in combination with some form of hubris. This leads to a lack of humility and a distorted view of own capacity and the world around the person. In many cases, it also leads to bad theology - maybe some kind of Dunning-Kruger effect?
Based on own experience, when a person gets exhausted, the field of view becomes narrower and the ability to make wise decisions is lost. Instead of pushing the brake, the person may push the accelerator pedal in his/her life. Simultaneously, tolerance for disagreements gets lower. That may make an exhausted religious zealot a problem. Too bad if that person is a pastor or other worker in a church.
This kind of symptoms can be found also outside religious circles. Academic circles with strong competition for limited positions and funding may favor individuals suffering from the same problems. If you are not smarter than your peers, hard work is the way to earn the needed merits and acceptance. Overdrive may work for some time but with age, it leads to exhaustion with the unwanted side effects. I guess that is one reason why people in senior positions include so many persons with a promising future in the past but not anymore.
Medical experts can see the broader picture better but these are some notes based on a limited sample size.
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The problem with religious zealots is that they make faith into an ideology, which tends to overwhelm normal Christians and can be attributed to several factors. Above all, religious zealots often adhere strictly to a particular interpretation of their faith, rejecting alternative viewpoints or interpretations. This rigid adherence tends to make them intolerant and uncompromising, which can even create tension within religious communities.
People who are not well-versed in the history of Christianity may have a limited understanding of its nuances and variations. This can lead to the oversimplification of religious beliefs and practices, making it easier to conflate zealotry with the entire faith. They are also often resistant to education, dialogue, and fostering understanding between different religious groups and within faith communities themselves. Several I have known were critical of psychology, although it could have helped them understand that they might be overwhelming other believers.
I found that promoting open-mindedness, respect for diversity, and a deeper understanding of one’s own faith can help bridge the gap between zealots and moderate believers, but there must be a readiness for this.
It depends really on how devoted one is. Some people with excessive devotion may develop perfectionistic tendencies, believing they must be flawless in their religious observance or moral conduct. The unattainable goal of perfection can lead to frustration, self-criticism, and feelings of inadequacy, which are common in depression and may lead to burnout, as individuals push themselves to engage in excessive community involvement. As a result, burnout can manifest as physical and emotional exhaustion like in my case, which is a risk factor for depression.
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That is some heavy stuff. I appreciate the chance to read your story, thanks for sharing it.
How different is my own story, and yet how they intersect.
The one thing I would push back against is the view that peace can be found in open-mindedness and respect for diversity. Or it’s not as you expect. As I believe the trinitarian nature of God is such that unity and diversity are ultimately real and coequal.
I suspect that the symptoms you described are more related to personality issues (+ often teaching that encourages or apparently favors unbalanced life) than devotion. A person can be deeply devoted but live a balanced life. Rather than saying that devotion may develop perfectionistic tendencies, I would say that perfectionistic tendencies may develop unhealthy forms of religious observance or conduct.
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… and I would say that it can be exactly the other way around, or develop together. I have experienced quite a few people in whom that is the case.
I am not an expert in psychiatry so I can buy the opinions of experts, but only after some chewing. My own experience is based on a limited sample size and probably encompass only a part of the broad spectrum.
Unbalanced teaching may lead to unbalanced behaviors in the devoted listeners. In that sense, I accept the idea that devotion building on wrong teachings or personal perceptions may lead to an attempt to be ‘perfect’ or investing everything to following religious rules, possibly self-made ones, at the cost of the other areas of life and health. What I wonder is how much this is dependent on the features of the personality (or person), how much on the environment where the person is living or has lived, and how much on the interpretation of particular passages in the biblical scriptures?
Maybe the reasons why devoted persons decide to become monks or nuns would give some perspective to the general question? I realize that the reasons to become monks or nuns are not always dependent on being a devoted believer. I meant those persons whose decision is based on devotion.
The issue is far more complex and has to do with the level of commitment that one shows. This commitment is generally welcomed, and little consideration is given to the expenditure that incurs, because we tend to look at people superficially and only from the angle of what good will it do. I learnt early on in my nursing career that volunteers often trust themselves to do more than they can, and they have to be protected from overexerting themselves mentally, so I restricted the commitment to a manageable employment of their talents, which led volunteers to later thank me for doing so.
Unfortunately, I was less attentive to my own physical and mental expenditure and made the mistakes that I protected others from. In my case, which is perhaps what many do, I thought of my particular gift as indispensable, and that I would be irresponsible if I denied my service.
The answer is easy, because I had the thought myself. Being able to devote oneself without the conflict of having two responsibilities, one to service and one to family, seemed a desirable state to be in, and if I didn’t already have a family, it may have been the way I would have chosen. Retaining integrity is strenuous with multiple facets in life, as I soon realised, and the internal conflicts one has tend to take their toll quietly, and even if you notice, you don’t admit them – paradoxically, because you would then be relieved of your responsibilities, which is really what you need.
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My wondering included also the level of commitment. So, what makes some to be totally committed and others less so? What makes some to interpret the meaning of ‘100% commitment’ in a different way than others?
It seems to be a common tendency that mature, balanced Christians interpret ‘100% commitment’ in a broader sense than those that are young in faith and age. There are exceptions, like those suffering from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder or some other personal problems. Also exhaustion tends to affect the attitude as it leads to a narrowing field of view and a narrowing set of criteria one is looking as a measure of commitment.
It is also good to remember that the second rule given by Jesus was to love your neighbor AS yourself. Treating yourself as you would treat those you love. That is easy for some but may be a difficult lesson to assimilate for some others.
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Some mysteries may never be solved 
Two of my favorite authors, Allender and Longman, do a study on Ecclesiastes together in the book Bold Purpose, one of these days I hope to read it
The difficulty between mental health and the church is the overlap between brain function/chemistry, the mind, and the spirit. These refer to different things but they are interconnected. They easily affect each other making it difficult to sort out the needed solutions and often a solution in only one of these areas only ends up exposing an underlying (or additional) problems in a different one of these.
But first to clarify what these three areas I am talking about are:
spiritual - this is about the choices we make and identity we derive from these choices. The problems is while some choices are simply a matter of preference, other choices are not equal in the effect they have on our lives.
mind - this is about how we think about things. It is how we put our experiences, feelings, choices, and reasons for doing things into words. The problems is that while there are many ways to say the same thing in different words there are some ways of saying things which lead to problems or just make life more difficult.
brain function/chemistry - in some ways, what this consists of is obvious, while on the other hand it is also likely the least well understood. Perhaps the most important thing to understand is how this affects and interacts with the other two rather than being entirely distinct from them. Problems in brain function/chemistry can be an underlying cause of problems in the other two areas, or they can be an effect, or both as the three areas feed into one another.
It is very natural and understandable that the church focuses on the spiritual because it is really the most hopeful of the three. It is where we can see the greatest chance to affect the other two. But difficulties can arise when another of these others area is not properly addressed, not only when another area is the underlying cause, but also when the effect in another area is too great. Often the church addresses the way we use the wrong words for things giving us a effective psychological solution, but it doesn’t always succeed in this and so sometimes a more specialized focus on the mind is needed.
The mind and psychology also promises a great deal of hope for solutions to problems with a simple change in the words we use for things. But again if the underlying cause is neurochemical or even if a neurochemical effect is too great then it might not be enough.
So I think the overall lesson is we must not make the mistake of thinking any one of these is any kind of cure all – not only as they are but even as they should be. I don’t think the church should or can be changed to take the place of psychology or medicine, any more than psychology or medicine can be changed to take the place of religion.
I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but these many words do not add up to something meaningful, except to say, “it’s complicated!” Perhaps that is normal for someone giving themselves the designation Scientist and Christian.
I am confused, probably because I disagree but am still trying to find something meaningful here. It is good that you want to clarify yourself, but I feel that the waters are still muddy. For me the word spiritual has always meant that relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul, as opposed to material or physical things. That means for me the less tangible but intuitively perceived aspects of life: the inspiration between the lines, the beauty of a landscape, the love of my partner, those “inbetween moments,” or that which we perceive as it passes, sensing the opportune moment. It has less to do with choices, which are decisions, and the spiritual may demand a decision ultimately, but isn’t that in itself.
Mind is for me our receiver, where all the stimuli of our senses come together, and a working model is sorted out so that we perceive the important detail as well as the overall situation. It first and foremost the experiencing and sorting function, a place of impression, processing, and expression, whereby our expression is indeed limited by language. A disturbance of mind can arise from false perceptions (a false interpretation of input), or an obsession with particular thoughts, leading to a looping, repetition or narrowing of thinking, or a habitual restriction of our perception.
And brain function/chemistry is just the physical workings of those processes, the outward appearances of inner experience, but can also reveal a physical disorder that influences the inner experience. Certain areas of the brain can be influenced to give us certain sensations, even deaden sensations, or turn off functions. This is particularly interesting in that it shows how the interaction between the two hemispheres is important for a clear perception of reality, and strokes or other disruption of brain functions show us how the specialisation of the various areas can be impaired.
I think that a church that is primarily focussed on the less tangible aspects of life is “out there” somewhere, and without both feet on the ground, and a functioning perceptive ability, it is doomed to become estranged from reality. We have numerous interactive systems in our bodies, and when these do not harmonise, or work for the whole organism, we become ill. I have indicated how that can happen above, and any diagnosis must find out where an impairment occurs and the reasons for it, but to round it up, the areas of psychiatric focus, although each is covered by a whole spectrum of tests, are the somatic functions of the brain, the perception and ability to form concepts, and the imaginative and expressive function.
The cure for mental health disorders is a reordering of processes, some which the brain can do itself and some which need intervention. In many cases a change of input can help, but also a change of habits, which thereby can have an effect on the plasticity of the brain. Sometimes it is as simple as making sure that people get their needed sleep, so that the brain can sort itself when the wakened consciousness is subdued.
I hope that my reaction, which was caused by my unhappiness with the way you expressed yourself, isn’t an affront for you, but I think that if we want clarity, then so that everyone understand, and obviously I hope that my words are clear. A full description of medicinal, psychiatric and psychological measures would go too far and the article quoted gives us an idea of the complications involved.
For me also, but the only way I could see any meaning in these words/ideas was they represent an identity created by our choices.
Not always, maybe not even most of them. But the point is that these are not merely circumstances but what we do with what we are given. So by choices I include the differences in all living things which are obviously not deliberative or mental decisions most of the time.
I think it is the same with God, who is not defined by attributes like power and knowledge which He has by nature but by what chooses to do with them and this is why “God is love” is a truism.
It is your choice to value these things and I think it is offensive to make your choices a measure of everyone else. I don’t mean that all choices are necessarily equal. It is possible your choices are superior in some way, but it is also possible they are not.
Nor do I think it is helpful (let alone sound theology) to equate the most spiritual (e.g. God) with the least tangible. Sounds like you are trying to equate your God with Carl Sagan’s invisible dragon in the garage. Whereas I would respond to Carl Sagan, God is an invisible dragon who can bite your head off (at His discretion of course).
For monkeys. I agree. What they don’t have is language. And language has all the representational capabilities of DNA and much more (this is demonstrable). Thus language is just as capable a medium of life as DNA and so the human mind has its own needs and its own inheritance passed from one generation to the next quite apart from the one we have in DNA.
I was raised by a couple of psychology majors and everything I have read about psychotherapy and counseling is all about words. You want to talk about something else… fine… but it doesn’t change the fact that psychology is more than brain function.
Agreed. Therefore every way in which I see versions of Christianity being detached from reality are ones which I reject and have no interest in.
But our choices are not less tangible or “out there.” It is true I believe these choices have an impact on an existence beyond death, but only because of what they make of us in the here and now with effects which are entirely visible in the here and now.
Look… We are probably coming from opposite directions. I was not raised Christian so all the usual gobble-dee-gook doesn’t automatically mean anything to me. So the question for me is why should I see anything of value at all in any of this religio-stuff? Science is based on objective observation which doesn’t care anything about what we want or believe. But life requires subjective participation is which all about what we want and believe. And it is only in addressing the latter that I can see any point in the religio-gook. And yeah… from there I eventually chose Christianity as the one I personally thought most worth believing in.
We have only one world in which to live.
Though a different social environment often involves a significant change in the language and that can indeed help a lot.
LOL… ah… one of my favorite words: “habits.” Many are self-destructive. These are the choices we make which last. Some expand our awareness and potential while others narrow our awareness and potential.
Not at all
But one tiny observation… and I hope it isn’t an affront to you…
I was responding to the topic OP and not to you or your situation. It is only natural that my way of thinking would be vastly different than your own. I use different words with different meanings and in a way which makes better sense to me as I have encountered the world myself.
Spirituality is first of all a confrontation, and CS Lewis spoke about being confronted with aspects of spirituality for some time before accepting it for himself – or as you say, adopting an identity. Lewis called his identity a “reluctant convert.” So the perception of spirituality per se doesn’t represent immediately an identity.
How can a choice not also be a decision? Only with those things we spend little time thinking about, do we act “on automatic” as they say, but in spiritual matters, you would have to be already steeped in a faith (have that identity) to pass through the process without thinking. You seem to chop and change in your argumentation, my point was that impression, processing and expression is a simplified description of our cognition. When you make such an active choice, you are selecting one option or course of action from among several alternatives. Decision-making involves the process of considering different options, evaluating them, and then making a choice based on your preferences, priorities, or circumstances.
Here you go again, chopping and changing to suit your mood. These examples of less tangible but intuitively perceived aspects of life you deem as “valued” before first of all identifying them as perceptions. Secondly, you make an equation based on my examples, even falsifying my statement by using the expression, “least tangible,” in order to bring on your favourite rebuttal to Carl Sagan, who magically appeared in this conversation. And thirdly, since tangible means perceptible by touch, when did you last touch God?
But language is another of these processes in which we listen/read, process, and express ourselves in whatever way we choose, including with language. The next piece of woo doesn’t even belong in our conversation about neuroscience, mental health and church, and if it is an aspect of neuroscience that you want to present, then not just in passing.
Nice to know how you inherited the knowledge of your parents, and read a lot of books, I am speaking from a medical professional’s perspective who also underwent psychotherapy – from both sides of the divide if you want. Perhaps the practical application provided me with some insights that you didn’t magically inherit?
Okay, so what? Why are you using my statement in a different context to give me this gem of wisdom?
I don’t see the relevance of what you are telling me, but obviously you haven’t looked at my profile or past posts, otherwise you might consider another approach. I can’t learn anything from this, which touches on what I initially said to you. Do you actually read your stuff before posting?
Meaning you agree?
You were attempting to “clarify” but you failed dismally. Your reaction to my criticism is equally unclear in places, perhaps you were annoyed. I suggest you read your stuff through before posting.