Help us! Young woman says the Church needs to address mental health issues

Fuelled by personal experience, Anne-Cheries Taylor is insisting that the Church is in dire need of a multifaceted approach to address the growing issue of mental health in the body of Christ.

Sharing with Family and Religion, Taylor revealed that a few months ago, she was riddled with depression and anxiety. She sought assistance from the Church but was ridiculed in a subtle manner.

"How dare I be depressed and or suicidal if I am a born-again, Holy-Ghost-filled Christian? How dare I be unhappy when the peace and joy of God should reside in me?"

The conversation opened the doors of consciousness in the then troubled mind of the struggling young woman.

Among Taylor's realisation, according to her, were that the Church has bred an environment of secret and silent suffering, the Church does not actively and intentionally create a culture where people feel safe to ask for help or support and the Church has been incessantly creating and perpetuating an environment that propels mental illnesses and not healing.

The 23-year-old, who got baptised at age 11 and recommitted her life to Christ some four years ago, said that while some suffering Christians are delivered and strengthened knowing 'because He lives they can face tomorrow', there are those struggling to live due to the trauma and wounds they have suffered.

Popular Utterance

Addressing a popular utterance in Church that: "You have been feeling this way for too long". Taylor warned that trauma hidden is not trauma healed and that it will eventually show up in decisions and relationships.

"I remember being told that I needed deliverance from this demonic stronghold. I am a strong believer in the deliverance ministry. I grew up in a church environment with an active deliverance ministry. We pray against the spirit of oppression, depression and other mental illnesses and we believe in the power of agreement against grief," Taylor told Family and Religion.

She added: "Deliverance, I think, should be an active ministry within every church because it takes away habits and mindsets that destroy us, changes our appetite and ultimately shifts us into new seasons. The thing is the nakedness that happens or the truths of the depths of pain we are snatched from may leave us with questions. What do I now do when the 'demon' has been casted out and I am off the floor? How do I develop new godly habits? How do I maintain this deliverance and move on?" she asked, adding that these are the naked realities that those struggling are often bombarded with.

Taylor asserted that there is nothing wrong with a Christian seeking counselling as a means of 'staying delivered'.

"While being a believer in the ministry, it is not sin and carnality to see a therapist, neither is it an indictment of your faith. You can be saved, Holy-Ghost filled, a God chaser, prophetic, on your way to Heaven, and still have a therapist. I believe that godly biblical counselling may be the tool or support one needs to continue on the path. It is all God and it is okay. When used in conjunction, one with the other, a very life changing God encounter can take place. God desires for us to be whole, let Him; even if it is within the room of a biblically trained therapist."

The now healthy woman of God, who benefited from both deliverance and counselling told Family and Religion that she will be starting a movement called #ChristAndACouch (the couch being a crisis management and follow-up plan after deliverance) which is intended to ignite curiosities and ultimately dismantle the idea that there is only one approach to combat mental illness within the four walls of the Church.

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com