from 7/17/21:
A friend posted a very good, sensitive, and encouraging post about being understanding and kind to people who take mental health medications. This has been one of my soapbox issues for many years. Telling people that if they “took care of themselves”, or “had enough faith”, or listened to wise counsel, or didn’t do drugs or whatever presumed cause is used by others to dismiss sound mental health practice is like saying “don’t take any medications” for any illness.
I’ve taken Prozac since 1997, when I experienced an acute mental health emergency after several years of undiagnosed and untreated depression. For a time immediately after that emergency I also took two additional psychotropic meds to deal with some of the acute symptoms at the time, neither of which were necessary long term. Counseling, spiritual emergence, supportive family and friends, education to understand the cause of my emotional emergency, improved lifestyle decisions, and prayer stabilized the acute emergency. But the trauma to my system of long term depression and the acute decompensation that I ultimately experienced left me with a permanent change in the functioning of my neurotransmitter system. Low dose Prozac proved to be an effective means of managing the residual symptoms of the depression and it is not something I deal with anymore. I have occasional down days, but I can generally always attribute it to something situational going on that I have to pray about and work through. The presence of effective neurotransmitter system support allows me to do that.
I work with women all the time who need mental health medications and I encourage pharmacotherapeutic support, as well as counseling, group accountability, spiritual formation, physical self-care, psycho-education and every wellness-focused modality one can employ. The way I describe medication therapy is this:
A car needs three vital things regularly to operate well- fuel, air, and engine oil to assure smooth operation.
People are the same way. We need fuel (nutritious food), air (clean and unimpaired breath), and engine oil. One of the types of internal engine oils is the neurotransmitters that keep our neurons throughout our body working well so that all our organs work like they should. Things don’t work well when neurotransmitters are short on supply or not working properly. It shows up in many ways from problems with skin health (like damage from diabetic neuropathy) to brain health….. especially brain health….. causing impaired thinking, emotional imbalance, distractability, irritability or even psychosis.
So, do you run your automobile engine without oil? What that would do to a car engine, it will do to your body, too.
It will work for a while at less than peak performance, then eventually it will simply have a come-apart…..
The worst advice anyone can receive from another person (unless it is a trusted and competent medical professional) when they are struggling with depression or other mental health issues is, “you don’t need medication , you just need to …..”
I was stigmatized and embarrassed by individuals within a group of religious leaders 17 years after I was hospitalized for depression. They knew little of my ministry or me and I was asked point blank what meds I had been/ was on. That was not a question they were legally supposed to be able to ask, yet, they did. I could have gotten up and walked out at that moment, but I didn’t. I felt I had too much at risk by being that bold in asserting my rights. That experience did show me the prejudicial and stigmatizing attitude that is especially prevalent in some settings among “religious” people. It is none of their business and you don’t ever have to answer such a question except in the privacy of a medical appointment with appropriate healthcare providers. In addition to the medication question, I was required to submit to a third mental health evaluation with a specified Licensed Mental Health Counselor. She was given a list of DSM disorders for which she was to screen. I met with her five times and on the third visit she paused, looked at me and said “They really don’t know you at all, do they?” Her report on our sessions was positive and affirming of my continued ministry. If God leads you to the role of advocacy on behalf of those with mental health challenges, understand they are not defined by their symptoms. They are people and there are ways to help.
Two years later in a contentious meeting with church conference leadership I had won the right to look at my file. There plain as day on the dated form of my original 2014 interview where I was asked about medications was written “Bible literal” We never discussed the topic directly that way but a couple of them were very critical of my Bible study because I wrote “Paul said…” one asked “ Are you aware there is some dispute whether Paul wrote Ephesians?” I said I was aware that authorship of virtually all of the Bible is questioned by some. 🤣 But since I teach at a level that is well below high school diploma status most of the time, I believe it’s more important to teach the principles and basics of who, what, when, and where and not introduce any more theological dispute than necessary. She then asked if I was “aware of historical-critical interpretation of Scripture.” I said, “One does not attend seminary and not encounter and understand historical-critical interpretation.” Progressives did not intend for a traditional evangelical conservative like me to succeed. I was not the only conservative female that experienced that and much of the resistance came from liberal females.
All of that is now long ago and far away…… and had no bearing on my continued ministry or devotion to Christ. I learned from that experience that I valued our area’s UM Conference and the national UMC too much and that they were not my faith community.