Spirituality Helps Achieve A Balanced Mental Health

“It is not that ‘spirituality can cure depression, but [that it] may provide a

grounding in the midst of despair…”

~ Rev. John Parker Maxwell, Baltimore’s First Unitarian Church

                One of my personal, working definitions of spirituality is “engaging my faith in God to help me remain hopeful about the future.”  Another one is, “using my relationship with God to cope with daily life experiences.”

                Depression and anxiety are my normal, habitual responses to life events.  Denying the existence of these conditions leads me back to self-destructive responses when life seems too much to bear.  Therefore, I tap into my relationship with God as an additional support to manage my mental health.

                Now, many people believe that faith or spirituality alone is all a person needs to achieve a balanced, mental state.  I tried it that way.  It doesn’t work for me. 

                For me, I need to exercise my faith and step outside my comfort zone, and society’s expectations, to take care of me.  For this reason, therapy, medication and attendance at 12-step meetings are the additional tools and resources necessary for my continuous, uninterrupted recovery from my co-occurring disorders.  I use those tools in conjunction with prayer, medication and reading the Word of God.

                If the church, as Jayson Bradley states in his blog post, Sinners Anonymous: Less Church, More Recovery, could successfully minister to ALL people struggling with mental illness and addictions, then “outsiders would come to us for sanctuary from themselves.”

                I’m a member of the clergy and learned, a long time ago, not to share my personal pain and emotional struggles with many people in the church.  The church’s hands-off approach towards mental illness feeds the stigma and pushes those of us who seek to reconcile our weakness with our faith -- outside the doors of the church.  Is this really what Christ intended?

                I think not.

                So, many days, I practice my spirituality in private by listening to sermons on YouTube, reading the Word of God and speaking with my therapist, in detail, about myself, my thinking, my behavior, weaknesses and struggles in light of my perceptions of God and how the Word impacts my thinking and behavior.  So far, so good.  I’m healing one day at a time.

                The results of my faith grounding me looks like my mind is more settled, I am causing harm to myself less often and I have taken several steps away from self-destructive thoughts and behaviors.  I’m not cured yet, but, I am on the path of recovery from co-occurring disorders. 

Yes, “they” also forgot to tell us depression and anxiety can be cured with an 80% success rate! 

So, this post is a word of encouragement to those of us that are not “normal” and need to creatively sustain our productive, healthy existence on earth.  Remember, We Do Recover! Therefore, creatively use your faith to ground you in your recovery and sustain you in managing life.

Be Blessed,

M