While mental health statistics for our nation and state can be helpful in some ways, they are unhelpful in others. Stating that a fire exists is not enough to get rid of the fire, and we don’t need statistics from the CDC to know that our society is really messed up right now. We should move past the stage of ‘convincing each other with statistics’ and move onto understanding how we got here; then we can work on how we get out of the pit of mental health decline we all see. Given the now obvious fact that our just-adjourned Tennessee General Assembly legislation had nothing substantive to add to the solution, we have to look outside of government for answers. Sanctuary has already been doing that with our whole-person approach to health, but at the end of this article I will share with you our newest addition to helping overcome this mental health crisis.
Let’s first consider how the world and our political leaders view mental health and the present dilemma. The simplistic worldly view of mental health is that it involves someone feeling good about life with the absence of ‘dis’-ease which hinders feeling good. This plays out not as a complete absence of emotional fluctuations as with a science fiction robot, but an emotional spectrum which includes some degrees of sadness, anxiousness, joy, mourning, and other emotions whose intensities match the circumstances but do not continue past those circumstances of life and do not prevent normal life functions.
Now let’s consider a Biblical view of mental health. First, mental or emotional health is not abstracted out from physical and spiritual health. Regardless of whether one believes man as a being is divided into two parts — physical and spiritual — or three parts – body, mind, and spirit – we can all confess two things. First, humans are not solely the sum of their physical biochemical components. Second, the different aspects, physical, emotional, and spiritual, all interact to make up our entirety as humans. From there, we can easily see that the Bible speaks in terms of whole-person “well-being” rather than just an absence of ‘dis’-sease or symptoms. The Old Testament uses the Hebrew term “shalom” to express this wholistic well-being which also encompasses relational health at times with God and with other humans. Taking a larger view that considers this relationship of humans to God, sin, and its effects on one’s spiritual health must be considered also. Only when this wholistic view of shalom becomes our goal rather than just the removal of ‘dis’-ease will we move towards real solutions.
If we are then to move out of the mire in which our society stands with our mental health crisis and in which various groups and their representative politicians promote worldly solutions for a mistaken understanding of the problem, we must approach the mental health crisis Biblically. A review of the bills proposed during our recent Tennessee General Assembly Special Session betrays the fact that our leaders are approaching the issue from a worldy view rather than a Biblical view and thus will not attain any real success. Their bills look to the addition of more mental health worldly trained experts using more government money but makes no mention of looking to the already present resources like family, church, and community and does not address the contribution of sinful behaviors to mental health disorders. If we as a society do not see the real root causes of the mental health crisis and do not search for Biblical answers, the problem will only worsen.
We at Sanctuary have already been approaching our patients health from a wholistic standpoint for years. We proudly acknowledge that the person sitting in front of with some health challenge is a whole person with body, mind, and spirit made in the image of God. Whether their present complaint is stomach pain or depression, they are still physical and spiritual beings whose needs cross both realms. At times we may focus more on the physical functioning of their body, but at other times their emotional health becomes our primary focus as the trauma of life or the trauma of their illness has impacted their lives in such a way to create ‘dis’-ease. While we do pay attention to removing the symptoms, our greater goal is the promotion of shalom (even if we don’t use that specific word with our patients).
In providing such whole person care, we address behaviors and attitudes that may be adversely affecting our patient’s health. We address how our patients respond to their illness so that they can stand over their illness and master it rather than fall under the weight of the illness and be crushed by it. We consider family and community resources that may aid the person in restoring shalom.
And now, we can offer one more service for which I have longed for, counseling from a Biblical worldview with the addition of our new staff member Casey Kania, LMSW. Once she is licensed and starts this month, she will bring another strength to the Sanctuary team to fit into and fill out our already whole-person approach. Though new to her license, her experience in life surpasses her time in actual counseling care. With a Christian foundation, she will offer a stark alternative to the worldly approach of much of the mental health world that is promoted by our political leaders. By addressing her counselees as whole persons in God’s image as part of families and communities, she can use the helpful tools of mental health care along Biblical paths and help our patient achieve shalom rather than just helping them avoid ‘dis’-ease.
By bringing Mrs. Kania into our Sanctuary team, I clearly support counseling, even counseling outside of a church. Many in our present world need professionals who understand the complexity of the more severe mental health conditions faced to work alongside churches who take seriously their role as pastoral counselors to their flock for average mental and spiritual health needs. The need is even more urgent as I have found few churches willing or able to provide truly Biblical counseling for our patients who are struggling with disease of body and spirit. As I pray that more churches realize their shortcomings and strive to overcome their neglect of their responsibilities, we will do our best to provide Biblical mental health care in a whole-person setting at Sanctuary. Helping others live healthier more abundant lives requires this effort and this focus.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
