Emotional Wellness and Faith

LIVING | SPIRITUAL LIFE DEVELOPMENT

As both a certified Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) instructor and aperson living with mental health issues, I can vouch for the importanceof more of us understanding the realities and prevalence of mental healthstruggles. As a human with an active faith, I can attest to the truth thatapproaching 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 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 something as simple as an eight–hour MHFA training can better equip you to upgrade the craft in your flotilla. That includes your own lifeboat (or luxury yacht, depending on your history and circumstances).

When there is nowhere to go geographically to escape a disaster zone, our journey is relational; ideally, deepening knowledge of self, neighbor, and God. Self–care is not egocentric self–indulgence. It is honoring that we are made in God’s image and hoping that his Spirit makes us more like Jesus every day.

Caring for the temple

Self–care honors the fact that we are part of the body of Christ and that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Self–care often requires some radical examination and work. But you know what? Sometimes you have to do the work, babe. And occasionally, it can, indeed, be cold ice cream in a hot bath—just saying.

If we believe God sees our neighbors as having unsurpassable worth—the cross is testament to that —we can accept our own value. We are not special exceptions to the “so loved the world” rule. Don’t we each, then, deserve our own love and respect, concern, and care?

We learn our value in two other vital ways, loving others, and accepting their love for us. Loving and serving other humans is one of the most immediate ways to serve the Lord. Love for others is hard– wired into whom we are called and created, so acting on it feels vocational and right. Faithful pursuit of calling is inherently rewarding and makes us feel loved. Letting ourselves be loved by others is the most tangible way we can be loved and served by God. Don’t say no to Jesus with his basin of water and a clean towel, just because today he looks like a trusted co–worker asking if you’re sure you’re okay because you were so quiet at lunch.

Take the class. Be brave and kind.

by RICHARD VERNON

Richard Vernon was born in London, raised in Scotland, and has spent 18 years living and writing in Brooklyn. He is also deputy director for partnerships for The Salvation Army’s Emergency Services team in New York City.

ALGEE the Mental Health First Aid action plan

It’s not a sequence of steps. It’s a helpful set of principles and guides to hold in mind and heart when you’re with someone in a crisis or in one yourself.

ASSESS for risk of suicide or harm: listed first because it’s the thing you may not even notice you did. Did something tingle your Spidey–sense? That was your assessment–meter tipping into the red. It’s time now to be brave enough include another “A” (Approach).

LISTEN nonjudgmentally: it can be bitterly hard for those raised in the Church to do it, even though we also crave it from others. Nonjudgmental listening is always essential while engaging with someone in a crisis. Hardest to learn, but the most broadly applicable life–upgrade.

GIVE reassurance and information: Here’s where you offer hope of recovery. Please, get to know mental health resources available online and by phone. Learn about what’s near where you live and where you work since those are where you encounter most other people, including folks in crisis.

ENCOURAGE appropriate professional help: Appropriate is doing much work in this sentence. You wouldn’t send someone with a broken leg to the dentist, would you?

ENCOURAGE self–help and other support strategies: It’s always worth asking what’s worked in the past. It may be worth trying again. Anything life–enhancing when times are good is life–sustaining when times are bad. This action plan component is where faith communities should really come into their own. If a weekly chess club can help keep someone alive, imagine what a small faith group could do.