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Letter: Mental health and God

November 01, 2007

Dear Editor,

We should not force someone to choose between mental health treatment and God. God and church congregations, plus mental health treatment can help tremendously those who are suffering from the debilitating effects of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and anxieties/phobias. Untreated mental illnesses cost people their jobs and interpersonal relationships.

I come from a large extended family whose members have experienced a great deal of mental illness. I also come from a family with a deep devotion to God.

Over the years I have seen churches explicitly and implicitly tell their congregations that if they were "right with God" then they would have no need for psychotropic medication and counseling. I have watched as sick relatives have worked hard to regain their health, only to have it slip away from them after some well-meaning person at church convinced them to throw away their medication.

My cousin shot and killed himself three years ago. I was relieved to see that many people turned out for his funeral; sometimes families don't even have funerals when there is a suicide.

Most of those who attended were regular churchgoers. I have wondered since then how many of them would have helped my cousin seek and receive mental health treatment. I suspect that many of them would have only told him to "pray about it." I agree. I believe that prayer is powerful and can significantly improve lives. I also believe, though, that the power of prayer can work well with modern medicine. What is so frustrating is that had my cousin broken his leg he would have been encouraged to pray, others would have prayed for him, and people would have encouraged him to go to a hospital where he would have received the help that he needed.

I need to make it clear that I am a Christian, I go to church, I read the Bible and I pray. I just wish that people could share their mental illness with their congregations and receive help accordingly the way that they do with their other troubles.

Dan Phillips

Russell Springs

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