THIS IS A TEST SITE
Mental health concerns in the context of faith:
A Christian Perspective
Meet Mary-Anne:
Mary-Anne is a Christian, she lives with an eating disorder and often suffers from severe anxiety. She belongs to the church prayer team where she serves faithfully. Mary-Anne wrestles deeply with the promise of Christ’s peace. Her anxiety persists even though she prays for the experience of peace regularly. As a member of the community, she is invited to attend church potlucks every month. She experiences tremendous difficulty being surrounded by so much food. Mary-Anne’s bulimic compulsions overtakes her and she often binges on food only to throw it up when she returns home.
Mary-Anne moved to this community some five years ago. In her previous church, where she attended with her family, she felt welcomed. The scheduled activities, including worship, bible study, service to the poor, etc. gave her a weekly structure that helped her manage her anxiety. Yet she would ask God in prayer “why me? why do I have to go through life with so much anxiety?”
In her previous church she was comfortable enough to share about her eating disorder with a very small group of friends. They got together on a regular basis on Friday nights for prayer and sharing. Often they would talk about how God strengthened them in times of emotional struggle. They would encourage each other by exploring the profound and mysterious idea that “God’s strength was made perfect in our weakness.”
Mary-Anne remembers this time and shares: “I had friends, I felt loved and accepted, I had hope, my weeks had structure and rhythm, and if the week was hard I knew that I would find comfort on Friday nights. In exploring the meaning of suffering from the Bible together with other friends I found new insights. I had hope. I never felt alone although I spent many hours on my own.”
She moved to this new city and the first thing was to search and find a new church because she knew of the gifts of a Christian community. Because of her anxiety she can be a bit abrupt and short in temper, and also her physical appearance makes people uncomfortable. She came to a welcome dinner and ended up sitting all by herself the entire time. This added to her feelings of anxiety and stress. She began to overindulge and felt ashamed. The one interaction that she did have she ended up being harsh and abrupt. She thought that all people could see was a woman with mental problems.
Mary-Anne now shares: “I have been living here for several years now. I have no friends in my community, just acquaintances. People talk to me but no one gets close. I haven’t been able to go to worship regularly because instead of helping me with my anxiety the experiences make me more anxious.”
How could this have been different, how could Mary-Anne also receive the gifts this new church offers?
Mary-Anne longs for this community to become a welcoming place where:
Each person is unique. There are needs to be aware of, and gifts to discover. The idea is neither to fix nor ignore, but to “walk with” in loving community – being patient and tolerant, but also calling to responsibility. Being real and vulnerable. Taking-off the masks of “I’m alright”. The importance of safety. The necessity of creativity. The Christ-path of empowerment.
In a nut-shell; a coming-out about our collective fragility, and our awesome strength in the Spirit.
There is no one “answer”. No program. No policy, dogma, or morality pasted-on that will change our attitudes from marginalizing, victimizing, and stigmatizing to healthy, whole, and life-giving. But we can start. We can pray. We can listen. We can admit our fears and our need to integrate this part of the human experience, so that we all may move closer to wholeness and the life abundant. So that we all may be open to do God’s work in this amazing and troubled world.
Click here for resources for wellness and recovery in the context of spirituality:
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/visions/wellness-vol7/spirituality-a-resource-for-wellness-and-recovery
