LIVING SPIRITUAL LIFE DEVELOPMENT
Emotional Wellness and Faith by RICHARD VERNON
As both a certified Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) instructor and a person living with mental health issues, I can vouch for the importance of more of us understanding the realities and prevalence of mental health struggles. As a human with an active faith, I can attest to the truth that approaching emotional wellness kindly and bravely is, spiritually speaking, good and Godly care of self and neighbor. Research says that about half of all adults in the United States will experience diagnosable anxiety in their lifetimes. I’m one of them. Depression is also common. I am putting my hand up for that one too. When I train MHFA, I drill the five–fold action plan, ALGEE (see sidebar), because it’s integral to the course. But I also take a liturgical approach with these assertions: mental health is real, recovery is possible, and suicide is preventable. Mental health is as real as physical or spiritual health. Jesus certainly treated it as such during his incarnate ministry. Recovery is possible, that’s the gospel, really, and you have to believe it to offer hope of it. Suicide is one of the leading
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causes of death in this country. We need to talk about it. We need to learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of suicidality. We need to be brave enough to address it with whomever we’re concerned for because that’s how it’s prevented.
Courage to ask the questions Take the day–long MHFA training, begin your afternoon with the uncomfortable and potentially life–saving exercise of asking someone else in your class if they’re planning to kill themselves. I’ve never used the CPR I also teach, but I have done suicide interventions. I train MHFA because I know it works. If perfect love casts out fear, learning to be unafraid (enough) to ask awkward
questions and broach thorny topics is more perfectly loving. Centering the importance of holistic wellness is essential in any case, but more so during this COVID era. We are all going through this prolonged, collective trauma of a global pandemic, from which there is no physical escape. Unlike finding respite by driving away from the coast after a big hurricane and reaching somewhere untouched by wind, rain, and storm surge (if you have the means and privilege for the luxury of escape), there is no inhabited part of the planet that is not in COVID–19’s disaster zone. It’s true that we are all in the same pandemic ocean, but we are categorically not all in the same boat. COVID–19 is a spiritual and emotional health crisis as much as a crisis of public health. Building and maintaining community, learning more and better ways to love our neighbors well, combating systemic injustices (including those around race, language, and sexuality), learning to listen with a trauma–informed ear; are life– enhancing and perhaps life–saving qualities. We may not all be in the same boat, but
Volume 8 Number 3, 2022
