THIS IS A TEST SITE
Mental health concerns in the context of faith:
A Baha'i Perspective
Meet Mitra:
Mitra lives with depression, anxiety and a severe eating disorder. She became a Baha’i more than ten years ago in a small community in Eastern Canada and moved to this community on the West Coast when she got a job here some five years ago. In her previous community she felt integrated. There were a small group of people who accompanied her and walked with her to learn more about the Faith. She knew that every Friday night she would go to the devotional and that routine gave her structure to manage her anxiety and depression. She had been plagued, though, all her life by the idea of “why me? why do I have to go through life with so much anxiety?” She started finding answers in the Writings of the Faith that gave her understanding and patience for her circumstances. As her friendships deepened with the friends in her small community, she became comfortable enough to share about her eating disorder just with two of the people who had been her closest friends. They started getting together on a regular basis to deepen on the meaning of suffering from the Writings and even helped her talk to her doctor to adapt her fasting routines so that she would not be deprived of the spiritual bounties of the fast.
Mitra remembers those times, 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 Writings together with other friends I found new insights. I had hope. I didn't really feel alone although I spent many hours on my own.”
She moved to this city and the first thing was to search and find the Baha’is because she knew of the gifts of a Baha’i community. Because of her anxiety she can be a bit abrupt and short in temper, and also her physical appearance makes people uncomfortable because she is so extremely thin. She came to a Holy Day celebration and ended up sitting all by herself the entire time. This added to her feelings of anxiety and stress so the one interaction that she did have ended up being harsh and abrupt. She felt judged and rejected, as if all people could see was that she was a woman with mental issues. Had they stopped for a moment they would have noticed her true identity, her gifts and her struggles.
Mitra now shares: “I have been living here for around five 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 Baha’i activities because instead of helping me with my anxiety they make me more anxious.”
How can this be different? Most of us do not know how to act or talk around a person who has mental challenges. How can we develop the awareness and ability to include all, in every aspect of Baha’i life, regardless of their challenges? The answer lies in our dedication to the institute process. This process, although nascent, provides us with the spiritual growth, capacity, space, and possibilities to allow everyone to contribute in meaningful ways to their own personal development as well as the development of their community.
“The institute process raises capacity for a broad range of undertakings; from the earliest courses, participants are encouraged to visit their friends at their homes and study a prayer together or share with them a theme from the Bahá’í teachings.
…Central to the pattern of action evolving in a cluster is the individual and collective transformation effected through the agency of the Word of God. From the beginning of the sequence of courses, a participant encounters Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation in considering such weighty themes as worship, service to humanity, the life of the soul, and the education of children and youth. As a person cultivates the habit of study and deep reflection upon the Creative Word, this process of transformation reveals itself in an ability to express one’s understanding of profound concepts and to explore spiritual reality in conversations of significance.
…Through exchanges of this kind, consciousness of spiritual forces is raised, apparent dichotomies yield to unexpected insights, a sense of unity and common calling is fortified, confidence that a better world can be created is strengthened, and a commitment to action becomes manifest. Such distinctive conversations gradually attract ever-larger numbers to take part in a range of community activities. Themes of faith and certitude surface naturally, prompted by the receptivity and experiences of those involved.”
From the letter of the Universal House of Justice to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, dated 29 December 2016
Links:
Learn more about the Baha’i Faith: www.bahai.org
Learn more about the Vancouver Baha’i Community: www.vancouverbahai.org
Learn more about the Institute process: www.bahai.org/frontiers/
