Modern Christianity’s Mental Health Stigma Must End

From Relevant-

“Are you OK, Rachel? You don’t seem yourself. You’re making quite a lot of mistakes.”

I could hear the disapproval in his voice. I watched my feet as I shuffled them side to side. I couldn’t look him in the eyes.

I wish I never told you about my anxiety.

It was in that moment when I drew the conclusion that I had made a terrible mistake—the mistake of disclosing my mental health struggle to my previous boss.

The only thing more threatening than mental health stigma is someone’s ability to hold your mental health against you. That’s what happened to me with a previous employer. Amidst a myriad other factors, I felt discriminated against for having anxiety in the workplace. And get this—it was a Christian organization!

“Have you prayed about this? You might want to consider getting prayer.”

More here-

https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/modern-christianitys-mental-health-stigma-must-end/

A FIRST-RATE INSANITY: LEADERSHIP AND MENTAL ILLNESS

From The Living Church-

While sorting book donations to our theological library at the Community of St. Mary, I came across a recently published book with a strange title: A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness. I read a lot of strategic leadership books in my MBA days, so I wanted to see what the pop psychologists are saying.[1] Dr. Nassir Ghaemi would have us reevaluate what he considers our provincial thinking about mental illness and health. His motivation for suggesting this is to avoid the stigmatization of the mentally ill, just as we should with terms of racism, sexism, tribalism, etc. He contends that “we stigmatize those who differ from us.”[2]

The question arises, though: Is that a valid comparison? Is defining “mental illness” simply a matter of mental perspective and imagination?

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2017/03/08/a-first-rate-insanity-leadership-and-mental-illness/

Clergy and Narcissistic Personality Disorder

From A Living Text-

I have long suspected that the pastorate attracts those with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It offers a position of trust and esteem, where your opinions are sought after and you are adulated for speaking publicly. You are invited into the trust of parishioners, and you are seen as closer to God (even if our theology tells us that this is not the case). It was therefore quite interesting to find a paper on this subject by R. Glenn Ball and Darrell Puls. Puls has a blog here.

In their paper, the authors focus on the Presbyterian Church in Canada, but their conclusions have broader application:

Now extrapolate our findings to the United States. Conservative estimates are that there are roughly 300,000–350,000 churches in the United States. If the percentages hold true, 96,300–112,350 congregations in the United States are pastored by clergy with diagnosable Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

More here-

https://alivingtext.com/clergy-and-narcissistic-personality-disorder-ad72f54edee9#.kl5zw2mgt

Solace for the soul

From Anglican Journal-

Religion, say some mental health experts, has at times been a mixed blessing for people of faith struggling with mental illness—but the picture is changing, bringing new hope for the afflicted.

Sr. Dorothy Heiderscheit, chief executive officer of The Southdown Institute, a psychological treatment facility for clergy outside Toronto, says that priests struggling with mental health problems have often faced a barrier to getting help, based on the notion that their faith should be sufficient and that they, therefore, needn’t turn to psychology.

However, Heiderscheit says, a growing awareness in recent decades of what mental illness is, and of the complex relationship between faith and psychology, has considerably dismantled this block to seeking help. One result of this has been a change in the mindset of clerics coming to Southdown. “Their attitude is different from the days of just being ordered to come,” she says. “They come knowing that they’ve got something to look at, and grateful that they’ve got a safe environment to do it.”

- See more at:

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/solace-for-the-soul#sthash.akRycROz.dpuf

Religious involvement good for 'sustained happiness,' study says

From The Washington Post (via Pittsburgh)

A study suggests that joining a religious group could do more for someone's “sustained happiness” than other forms of social participation, such as volunteering, playing sports or taking a class.

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology by researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that the secret to sustained happiness lies in participation in religion.

“The church appears to play a very important social role in keeping depression at bay and also as a coping mechanism during periods of illness in later life,” Mauricio Avendano, an epidemiologist at LSE and an author of the study, said in a statement. “It is not clear to us how much this is about religion per se, or whether it may be about the sense of belonging and not being socially isolated.”

More here-

http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/8923012-74/religious-researchers-happiness#axzz3j4Mt1G6N

Catholic and Crazy: The Asylum of Faith

From Patheos-

When you’re locked in a rubber room, wearing paper pajamas that leave far too little to the imagination, trying to find patterns in the ceiling tiles as cracked as your brain, you wouldn’t expect to find yourself conversing with the spirit of an Irish teenager 1400 years dead—murdered by her own father, the story goes, when she resisted his incestuous advances. But that’s how it works when you’re Catholic and crazy. 

The communion of saints means we’re never alone, even in a psych ward.

In 2009, when I found myself in said rubber room and said paper jammies, pouring out my heart to St Dymphna, I wasn’t even technically Catholic. I was an Episcopalian, at a particularly low point in what I now know is a lifetime of (until last year) largely untreated mental illness. That morning in April, I’d casually mentioned in a Facebook message to my best Episcopal friend that I didn’t want to be alive. Friend that she is, she saw right through the casual and recognized that this was more than just my usual blue mood. She called our Episcopal rector, who, after asking me where God was in all of this and hearing me respond “Nowhere,” bundled me off to the emergency room of the local hospital where he was a board member. He and my friend were upbeat and supportive, until they heard me tell the intake nurse that I did indeed have a plan for hurting myself. That shocked them, almost as much as it shocked me to hear it coming out of my mouth; I was so deep in the abyss of depressive apathy that I couldn’t manage to reassure them with a reminder of how terrible I am at following through on plans, even on the best day.

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/egregioustwaddle/2013/05/catholic-and-crazy-the-asylum-of-faith.html

Bill Clarkson’s Moment, battling a patient in a mental ward, propelled his career leading Atlanta’s Westminster

From Atlanta-

Bill Clarkson, who recently announced plans to retire after 23 years as President of The Westminster Schools, remembers the Moment that prompted and propelled his career as a chaplain, educator and administrator. It wasn’t in the hallway of a school or a church – it was in the hallway of a psychiatric ward.

Bill was an 18-year-old freshman at Duke University and, as a financial aid student, needed a part-time job to help pay for his undergraduate degree. He found the job at the University psychiatric hospital – a line of work that seemed to align nicely with his interest in pursuing a psychology major. He worked four-hour shifts as a psychiatric attendant three days a week.

“You got to wear a white coat and look pretty official, but basically you were there to aid the doctors and assistants,” Bill recalled in our accompanying Moments HD video.

A mere three days into his job, Bill was assigned a shift that would change the course of his career. He was assigned to sit within a “locked ward inside the locked ward of Meyer Ward” to observe a new patient. That patient’s name, Stanley (alias), still rings as clearly in Bill’s mind today as it did on that day in the Fall of 1970

Bill was asked to observe Stanley’s behavior while they sat together in the locked ward – a long hallway with chairs and sofas along one wall for interaction with patients. Along the opposite wall was a row of empty, individual padded cells.

Bill, in his crisp white lab coat, watched as the nurses locked the door behind him, leaving the young freshman to sit alone with the 48-year-old tobacco farmer who had exhibited extreme manic-depressive disorder. The patient had had an initial dose of medication. Stanley pulled out a pack of Camel non-filter cigarettes, tore the pack open, stuffed all the cigarettes in his mouth, and then spat them out on the floor. Stanley looked up at Bill, waiting for a response.

More here-

http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/04/bill-clarksons-moment-battling-a-patient-in-a-mental-ward-propelled-his-career-leading-atlantas-top-private-school/