Mental Health Awareness Week takes place between 18 and 24 May. The event seeks to provoke discussion on depression anxiety and stress, which negatively affect people of all ages, from all walks of life. This year, the theme is “kindness”. Outlining the focus of this year’s event, the Mental Health Foundation states:

“One thing that we have seen all over the world is that kindness is prevailing in uncertain times. We have learnt that amid the fear, there is also community, support and hope. The added benefit of helping others is that it is good for our own mental health and wellbeing. It can help reduce stress and improve your emotional wellbeing.”

As Christians, we can gladly endorse this message. In Colossians 3:12 we find an injunction as God’s chosen people to ‘clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’. This was the character of the Lord Jesus. As those who have received immeasurable mercy from God, we are to be kind to our neighbours, and to one another. Doing so benefits the church and wider society.

“Kindness benefits the church and wider society”

In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness of mental health issues. In days gone by, the inner battles that people faced were largely, well, inward. It was considered taboo to talk about feelings and emotions, to admit that you were struggling – perhaps greatly. ‘Cheer up’, ‘buck up’ or ‘get a grip’ was the response to many a heartfelt plea for help. Society now has a better understanding and increased empathy for suffering people. 

Today, we speaks in terms of ‘mental health’, rather than dismissive or abstract terms like ‘being a bit down’. This is a recognition of the complex psychological, spiritual and physical factors that govern our wellbeing. We know that our health as human beings is psychosomatic, that is to say it involves both the mind and the body, and that in many ways, these are two sides of the same coin. This understanding accords with the Bible’s teaching that human beings are coherent wholes, mind, body, and spirit, the three being inseparable and interconnected.

In God’s mercy, an increased medical and scientific understanding of mental illness has aided the church. There was a time when men and women who clearly had severe depression were counselled that the problem was with their faith, or lack of spiritual discipline. Doctors weren’t to be trusted, and medication less still. This merely exacerbated their condition, labouring them with additional and unfounded guilt. In general, the Western church now recognises that medical advice and therapeutic drugs can and do have a useful role – that spiritual support and guidance can come alongside these things.

“In God’s mercy, an increased medical and scientific understanding of mental illness has aided the church”

There is a wealth of Christian writing on mental illness available today. ‘I’m Not Supposed To Feel Like This’, by Glasgow University Psychiatrist Chris Williams, pastoral care expert Paul Richards, and consultant psychiatrist Ingrid Whitton is an excellent resource. So too is ‘Tackling Mental Illness Together’, by Alan Thomas, a psychiatrist at Newcastle University. In considering how good mental health can be maintained in our fast-paced culture, ‘Reset’ by David Murray is also highly commendable.

Having a fuller understanding of mental health issues is essential and especially in this specific chapter of Scotland’s history. Following lockdown, there is likely to be a crisis of mental health in the nation amidst economic upheaval and countless families recovering from bereavements through COVID-19. The lockdown itself is said to be compounding mental illness as we speak. Those who are already suffering are cut off from the support of loved ones and mental health services, and barred from the work, leisure and physical exercise they depend on to alleviate symptoms. We should remember these people in prayer and support them however we can.

Let’s resolve to understand mental health better, extend the hand of friendship and support to those who suffer. And as we do so, let’s point society to the great physician, Jesus Christ, who forgives all our iniquity and heals all our diseases (Psalm 103:3).