Over the past several months our faith community has been engaged in several conversations regarding what the Church’s role is with mental illness. Through a friend of mine who is bi-vocational as a pastor and a social worker, we’ve begun an unofficial partnership with ACCESS Services of Montgomery County to learn and serve those with mental retardation and/or mental illness. Movies like A Beautiful Mind, I Am Sam and, most recently, The Soloist, thrust the issues of mental health to the forefront of culture. At least for a little while.
Last week I was driving in the car when I heard an interview on NPR (that’s how I know I’m now officially old) with a psychiatrist who has worked in the mental health field for over forty years. I didn’t catch his name, but I did remember this snippet. The interviewer asked the gentleman what healthy rhythms people should participate in regularly to promote their own mental health and wellness. He said:
Are these rhythms a part of your regular day/week?
DougG said...
1JR, Very interesting stuff that spawns questions for me:
a. How does mental illness relate to the biblical presentation of sin (our sinful nature as a cause), possession, forgiveness, resolving issues, etc.
b. How do the physical aspects or causes (chemical, brain function) meld with accountability for actions, grace, God’s discipline and punishment, etc.?
c. How do you balance “victimizing” everyone with resolving legitimate issues such as co-dependency, paranoia, phobias, etc.?
d. What is biblical counseling? (I have friends who have gone into “biblical” counseling that didn’t sound very biblical to me.)
Note: One of my current thoughts, as I deal with older family members who are not followers of Christ, is that living for so long in an unredeemed state that has not been dealt with creates an outlook at life that is very negative and a desire to grasp for any happiness or temporary contentment that can be found usually at the expense of others. Ultimately, it leads to unstable mental patterns when dealing with people and life which I don’t feel comfortable labeling as mental illness. A friend of mine looked at mental illness from a Christian perspective (as you are) a few years back and said a mental health pro told him a bulk of his patients could probably resolve many of their issues if they could just receive (feel?) forgiveness from God and others. I am still learning.
Great posts, DougG
05/28/09 9:59 AM | Comment Link