I don't usually get personal in this way, but for today's topic I feel like maybe I should. So...just some background information: I have always been a religious person, and I will probably always be a religious person. I spent a lot of my early adult years searching for the place that felt like it "fit" me. I was raised in a pretty conservative Baptist family. (Seriously, I come from a family with what feels like (to me), a LARGE number of Gospel singers and preachers.) I converted to Catholicism in college. Then, in my mid-twenties I found my true "fit" in the Episcopal Church. Although I haven't felt up for going in a while, it's still the first place I want to go when I'm stressed for too long or things feel like too much because I feel at peace there.
There still seems to be this idea in many Christian faith communities that people have to choose between their faith and getting treatment for their mental illness. I haven't heard this idea spoken out loud by any modern pastor or priest, but it still pervades the American culture of Christianity, especially in rural places and fundamentalist-leaning churches. It's an idea that whispers, "Oh, you're going to therapy INSTEAD of just talking to the pastor? Oh, you're taking MEDICATION? Oh, you're choosing to believe in SCIENCE instead of having faith in GOD?" WHAT KIND OF CHRISTIAN ARE YOU?" (The implied answer here is: "not a good one.") It feels a little bit like the Evolutionist vs. Creationist debate all over again, except this time, the stakes are people's mental health and their actual lives instead of what somebody can teach in the classroom.
It doesn't have to be like this, though. In fact, it shouldn't be like this. Your priest or pastor isn't a therapist. He/She/They are a religious leader. They aren't qualified to be a therapist (unless they have a dual degree and a dual career as a mental health professional and a pastor), and expecting them to have more than a passing knowledge of how to manage mental health topics isn't fair to them. That's too much weight to expect someone without the right training to carry. Your religious leader CAN definitely be part of your support system, though. That's what they're there for. Not to treat, but to support. (I do wish I saw something mental health-related in church bulletins or bulletin boards like a crisis center number or the number for local community mental health organizations listed for anyone that needs them.)
It also shouldn't feel like faith and science are mutually exclusive ideas because they aren't. I mean, you go to the doctor for heart problems, and you still have faith and are still a Christian. So, you can go to a mental health professional for brain chemical problems and still have faith and be a Christian. Also, God can lead you to a mental health professional just like God can lead you to any other right choice that you pray about. You can also still pray about your mental health while undergoing treatment with a mental health professional. (I pray all the time that God helps me figure out how to help myself and that God helps me find the strength to hang in there when it gets tough.) Just because I pray doesn't mean that I don't believe in or trust the therapeutic process. You can trust in both, at the same time, without lessening the "effectiveness" of either of them.
I'll end with this: Even today, many Christian faith communities have a hard time recognizing mental health conditions as actual health conditions that need specialized treatment instead of some moral or faith crisis that can be solved by a heart-to-heart with the pastor or priest. In some areas, seeking mental health treatment can be seen as a rejection of one's Christian faith, but that isn't the case. You can still keep your faith and get treatment because science and faith actually aren't mutually exclusive ideas. God can lead you to a therapist just like God can lead you to the right job, spouse, or any other decision you pray about.
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