MENTAL HEALTH MYTHS
Despite millions of Americans every year struggling and suffering with mental health issues such as chronic anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and addictions, there are still many myths about mental health in our world today.
And unfortunately, many churches, Christians and Christian leaders have perpetrated myths that have kept people from getting the help they need. We live in a world where mental health is a major crisis. It affects millions of people. Some people deal with anxiety and stress or other issues on a daily basis while others deal with full blown episodes of clinical depression or schizophrenia. But regardless of the level of your mental health issue, it is real, it effects your life and it can be debilitating.
While the church should be leading the way in reducing the stigma around mental health issues and calling for people to get the help they need, it hasn’t always done so. I want to address what I see are the two biggest myths that have been perpetrated in the church that have kept many from getting the help they need.
1. CHRISTIANS SHOULDN’T HAVE MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Why shouldn’t Christians have mental health issues? Because they believe in Jesus? Just because you believe in Jesus or follow Jesus in your life doesn’t make you immune to anxiety, depression or the effects of trauma. However, some Christians leaders do teach that if you pray more, worship more, read your bible more – do more “spiritual” things - then you won’t have any mental health issues.
I know one pastor personally, despite his own daughter having mental health issues, insisted that if people just pray more and trust Jesus more, then they wouldn’t have any mental health issues. Yet the bible tells a different story. Many of the Psalms reflect sincere people struggling with fear, despair, anxiety and darkness in their lives. Several of the giants of the faith that are highly esteemed struggled with mental health issues including David, Elijah and Jeremiah.
To tell people they just need to have more faith, only causes them to feel worse and isn’t an answer that is going to help them. We need to remember, that Christians are first human beings. And all human beings are susceptible to mental health issues as well as physical, emotional or spiritual challenges.
Just as we wouldn’t tell someone with a broken arm to just pray more or have more faith, we wouldn’t treat those with mental health any differently. If someone had a broken arm, we would tell them or even help them get to a hospital or doctor to get it taken care of so their arm could be healed. We should do the same for those with mental health issues – we should help them get the help they need so they can find healing.
2. NEEDING HELP MEANS YOU ARE WEAK
This one has really made Christians feel guilty. Needing help means you haven’t been trusting God enough – that’s what some have been told in the church. So what do people do when they have a mental health issue? They hide it. They bury it. They deny it. They pretend they don’t have a problem. And as they do, their problem grows bigger and more out of control.
The lie is, getting help means you are weak. But the truth is, asking for help is a sign of both strength and wisdom. Asking for help actually comes from a place of strength, humility and wanting to get better.
We rarely get better at anything without getting help. This is true at work, in school, in sports or in almost any other area of life. We go to school to learn. We get a tutor when we are struggling. We get a coach – a life coach, a sports coach or a business coach, if we want to get better or improve a skill. If we aren’t feeling well, we go to the doctor to get better. If we have a problem with our car, we take it to a mechanic.
In almost any other area of life, we don’t hesitate to reach out for help. But why when it comes to mental health do we hesitate to get help? Because there is a stigma about it. We in the church need to work at reducing this stigma by saying to people, “it’s okay and normal to have problems and it’s certainly okay to reach out for help.”
The Body of Christ is all about people – people helping other people grow and deal with problems. May we be part of the solution rather than part of the problem by affirming people getting the help they need. Let’s help change the narrative together by telling people to get the help they need if they are struggling with mental health issues because God care about them and so do we!
