The statistics are troubling: According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, nearly one in five adults in the United States lives with some type of mental illness and less than half of those receive help. Applied across a church congregation of 250 members, the statistics suggest that as many as 50 people in the congregation are living with a diagnosable mental illness.
Most common are anxiety disorders, with severe depression a close second. And the stigma associated with mental health issues prevents many from seeking treatment, according to Holleigh Woodward, licensed professional counselor with Silver Linings Neurodevelopment in Huntsville. According to Woodward, three false beliefs contribute to the stigma surrounding mental illness:
- Those with mental health issues tend to be violent.
- The person is responsible for his or her symptoms.
- Mental illness is a weakness.
One of the most insidious aspects of mental illness is that a person knows something is wrong but often is not able to ask for help.
“Upwards of 74% of those with mental illness don’t look for treatment,” Woodward said.
Add to that the stigma perpetuated by society and the Church and getting the needed support can be much more difficult.
About 80% of people with a psychiatric disorder eventually seek treatment but often only after a long delay — on average 10 years after symptoms first appear, according to a 2014 study by Harvard Medical School.
Awareness needed
Awareness of what most mental illnesses look like is one key to help those who are unable to help themselves.
If you know someone living with a diagnosed mental illness or suspect someone close to you has an undiagnosed mental illness, what can you do?
Nick Longshore, pastor of worship arts at LifePoint Church, Albertville, recommended three ways to help:
- Listen. Practice the skill of active listening and reflect back what was said. Though listening alone won’t cure a mental illness, it can make a big difference.
- Learn as much about the mental illness as possible. Author and mental health advocate Kay Warren offers many resources at her website, kaywarren.com. A comprehensive mental health resource guide is accessible at tabonline.org/hope-guide. Pastors also may request resources from Saddleback Church at saddleback.com/connect/ministry/mental-health-ministry
- Encourage the person to seek treatment. Unfortunately, part of mental illness can be an inability to recognize a problem exists. If possible, get a medical professional involved. If your friend or loved one still refuses to seek help, go to counseling yourself to be better prepared to provide support.
Language matters
Whether you know someone dealing with a mental illness or not, everyone needs to pay attention to one thing — how he or she speaks. It’s easy to throw around comments like, “You must be OCD because you need a picture to be straight” or “You are bipolar because you have mood swings.” But this can trivialize the disorder and make those living with it feel it’s not that important, Woodward said.
“Hopefully we can become a society that views both physical and mental health through the same lens, and by doing so, eliminate unnecessary barriers to mental health treatment.”
Trust God’s provision in the past while coping with pandemic challenges, experts say
Everyone has emotional baggage. Everyone is affected by stress. Everyone deals with struggles and uncertainty.
The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified all of these elements of life, and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety have multiplied. Everyone feels grief due to so much loss, said Grace Freeman, an Atlanta-based health care chaplain and panelist in a recent webinar, “Maintaining Mental Health During a Pandemic,” hosted by Baptist News Global.
“People are grieving the normal things, the things that they would do in life, [like] the 4th of July picnic that never happened. I had a patient who said, ‘I feel like it’s still March because there are these markers in life that I didn’t get to do,’” Freeman said.
Eric Minton, a psychotherapist in Knoxville, Tennessee, said decisions like whether to send children to in-person school have made everyday life more challenging because what has worked in the past doesn’t work now.
“We are being asked to make decisions about things that we don’t have skill sets or experiences to make accurately,” he said. “We are not just growing tired or isolated or frustrated, but there is this rattling exhaustion about being tired of making decisions that [we] don’t have the skill sets to make and [we] can’t do it anymore.”
Doyle R. Hamilton III, a pastoral counselor in Rowell, Georgia, said, “COVID-19 has been an isolating process. Think about the rituals of worship. … We’ve lost a lot of rituals of community. Isolation is a major problem.”
Hamilton noted many assisted living facilities have had weeks where clients had to stay in their rooms, even for meals.
An elderly client told Freeman, “I’m not sure this is worth it. This could go on another year, two years, and I’m not sure how long I’m going to live. I just want to hug my children, hug my grandchildren.”
And the list of concerns goes on.
Disrupted safety net
“We are concerned about those who are dealing with abuse in the home,” said Brad Schwall, president and CEO of the Center for Integrative Counseling and Psychology in Dallas. “When things started opening up, there was an influx of calls because kids didn’t have their normal outlets of reporting or there weren’t others in their lives who could detect abuse.”
Schwall said the pre-COVID-19 distractions of life “helped us ignore mental health-related challenges, [but] stress and isolation have uncovered these and aggravated diagnosed mental health conditions.”
But hope remains.
Panelists suggested several ways for individuals and families to cope with pandemic-related challenges:
- Remember we are not in control. Consider God’s provision in the past and trust it will happen again. Use what you’ve learned in overcoming previous challenges and have confidence that you can work through this.
- Give others and yourself permission to say that you shouldn’t be OK right now; it’s a terrible thing that’s occurring.
- Acknowledge that what used to be good isn’t good now, and explore what that means. Process those thoughts out loud.
- Find ways to connect with others.
- Take part in activities that distract you from thinking about what’s going on — including the same things you did before March 16.
- Develop daily schedules, rituals and routines, such as taking a bath to relax before bed every night, to acquire a new normal and help anchor time.
- Be open to counseling and self-reflection. Twenty percent of Americans deal with depression or anxiety so be aware it could happen to you or someone you love. Journal what you feel and process your grief.
- Normalize from the pulpit that it’s OK to talk to a professional to get help.
- Remember, one day we’ll be able to hug some of those we haven’t been able to hug and be close to those we haven’t been able to be close to.
Suicidal thoughts
To those who have considered suicide, Mark Wingfield, BNG executive director and publisher, gave practical advice.
“I’m someone who has been where you are,” he said. “If you are in that position, we are all saying to you, ‘We want you to live.’ … In times like these, in my experience, we think things have reached the end because we can’t envision more of the story happening, even if it’s just that the story is going to be very different than it was before.”
Wingfield said he had a friend with the courage to ask him, “Would you promise me that if you plan on harming yourself, you call me first?”
Wingfield encouraged others to ask the question of anyone suspected of being suicidal.
“Anyone can be that person,” he said. “Take a risk. It’s worth it. I was not offended in that moment. I was feeling, ‘I’m done.’ [You have] the potential to help someone live.”
What will life look on the other side of COVID-19? Panelists agreed that remains to be seen.
One thing is certain, however, Hamilton said.
“The problems we had before COVID-19 will be problems we’ll have afterwards,” he said.
For additional articles on the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, go to tabonline.org/bng-mental-health.
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