Christian and Depressed: What Churches Can Do to Help Persons with Mood Disorders

“I’m a Christian, and have been struggling with depression and my faith since my brother took his life 2-1/2 years ago. I joined your group for friends and tips on dealing with problems with Major Depression. I feel like I just make my church friends uncomfortable, and they can’t understand why I haven’t snapped out of it and declared amazing victory through my faith.”

I experienced that too, which was very disappointing. Because my faith is such a huge part of my recovery from depression and addiction. I didn’t understand why so few Christians, and even fewer pastors or religious leaders, knew what to say. One time in college I stood up in the middle of a homily and walked out. The priest going on and on about how the faithful should flock to the confessional instead of a psychologist’s office because the real battle is fought in the soul, and a bunch of diagnoses and medication prescriptions only legitimize the behaviors and thought patterns that we should regard as sins.

Rev. Mark Brown, who used to write “Brownblog,” and now writes “Journey Deeper Into God’s Word” asked me awhile back to write about what churches need to do to help the folks in their congregation that struggle with mood disorders, and I would bet a third of them do, based on the newest mental health statistics I covered the other day.

I think it’s important to go over them again, in the hope that some of these suggestions will reach ministers who can make a difference. Here, then, are just a few ways that churches might begin to help those who suffer from mental illness.

1. Get educated.

One of the members of Group Beyond Blue, recently started a discussion thread called “Church + Mental Illness” and posted the thoughts of John Clayton, a well-respected author and speaker who was interestingly enough a devout atheist until his early twenties. He wrote this:

The first thing the Church and its leadership must do is become educated about the mentally ill. Education will remove misconceptions, fear, and prejudice. There are many in the Church that can help us in this education, especially those in our Christian schools and in our larger congregations who are full-time psychologists and psychiatrists. The worst mistake we can make is to expect preachers and elders to be able to solve all the problems the mentally ill and their loved ones have. Doing this is analogous to expecting a preacher to do bypass surgery, and the damage done can be equivalent.

It can be as easy as browsing some mental health websites, like Psych Central, MentalHealth.com, Web MD, Revolution Health, and Everyday Health; checking out nonprofit groups such as NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) or DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance), and others; visiting a library to see what kinds of literature they have available on mental illness; attending a lecture by an expert in the field at a nearby college; tuning into one of the top 10 psychology videos found on YouTube.com; visiting an expert’s website or blog; and finally, making an appointment to speak to a psychiatrist or psychologist in the area.

2. Talk about it.

As I said in my introduction, I’m disappointed that I don’t hear more about the problem of depression and anxiety in sermons today. I mean, if the landmark survey of over 9,000 people in 2005 published in the Archives of General Psychiatry was accurate in reporting that one in four adults have symptoms of at least one mental disorder each year–typically anxiety and depression–and that nearly half of all Americans suffer from a mental disorder at some point during their lifetime, with only a third of those seeking help, half of which are incorrectly diagnosed, than there are a lot of people in our world that are suffering. Why not address it from the pulpit?