Mental Illness in the CHURCH 👀
A lot of us are dealing with depression, anxiety, and all kinds of other stuff that comes with mental wellness. But let me insert this. I am not a mental health coach. I am just a reverend in the laws church. I'm a preacher, so I don't know everything about mental health, so I'm not going to be on here acting like I do
Welcome to swell. I just wanted to say thank you. This is such an important topic. I am an atheist and agnostic, but I think it's so important. I grew up with Pentecostal charismatic upbringing and then later escaped occult. And there were different ideas around mental health. And it was along the lines of either you didn't have enough faith or you weren't praying enough, or in the right way, or you were possessed or these sorts of ideas
Even though I geared it towards the church because it's hidden in the church a lot. And I am a church boy and a preacher as well. But this is a topic we're going to move into. Just anybody can comment, anybody can respond, and anybody can learn from this, because whether you're in church or whether you're not in church, mental health is very much important
Had to chuckle when you described feeling offended when someone asked you that, because you're like describing how I felt when I was a teen and someone else told me they thought I was depressed. I was like, I am not. And then I even into my twenty s and they were like, you really need to go to therapy. Therapy is for weak people. Had certain ideas around it. And I even remember I used to journal, but I had a tag that I used hashtag shh
And I was born and raised in church, so I had a lot going on within me and my mind that caused my mental illness and then why I dealt with depression and low self esteem and all that stuff and how it's still a fight to this day of dealing with those mental issues
And I don't know, there's a bittersweetness, like, I'm going to be 48 next month and only learned that I'm autistic in 2021. And like, if I had known sooner, there are a lot of things that would have been different. On the other hand, I wouldn't be who I am today without those experiences. However, now I can better care for myself and knowing. Yeah. And agreed very much a pleasure and again, welcome to Swell
Tonny Cervantes
@Tonloc2254 · 5:00
So, yeah, I know what you're saying, I know what you're talking about. And I can just tell you a little bit about my experience about anxiety, depressions, and about church, about God, about heaven. And hopefully what I'm going to say will help you understand what is going on, because I wanted to know to the answer of it, like, what's going on, God?
I'm not a mental health coach, I'm not a therapist or I can't really too much help you with your mental problems. And I respect a pastor that says that because I've heard one say it before. He said, Look, I can't help you with that problem, but I can help you pay somebody to help you
Tonny Cervantes
@Tonloc2254 · 5:00
You think he really liked church, read the Bible. And when have you seen him really going every Sunday to church? He did everything at home. He taught outside. He taught going personally with those people, with his people. He wasn't like, oh, let's all get together in church and come every Sunday or whatever day, and let's praise me. No, to me, when I read the Bible, he didn't like church. Really?
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Tawanda Hunter
@T-Renae · 1:59
Because sometimes you can pray and things need more than prayer. You need something to supplement that prayer. And I want people to understand that there's nothing wrong with seeking out treatment and help when you need it. I'm a really big advocate for mental health, especially black mental health, because as black people don't always reach out for help because we are ashamed. And there's such a really big stigma associated with getting mental health treatment
Tonny Cervantes
@Tonloc2254 · 5:00
I'm there for you, but you need to do something. So that's when I realized, okay, God, that's true. I need to do something where it can work. I can't be just praying. I can't just be starving myself and fasting and going to church every day and seminars and people praying for me, and it still doesn't work. And that's like not just for mental health. That's for anything. So I started doing something for me
So while I'm helping myself, while I'm helping other people as much as I can, I also got to be able to help myself as well. So I love it. I would love to know more. Like I said, I ain't no mental health coach. I'm still learning myself. But I am much more intrigued now than I've ever been, and I actually want to tackle this subject
Basically, he was like, mental health and mental illness is not my area of expertise, so I really can't help you in that area. As far as, like, mental health, he said, however, I can help you pay for it if you need to go sit on a red couch. He said, I am willing and I am very much capable or able to help you pay for it if that's the case. He kept it real
I'm sure that you'll touch on this as the series continues, and I look forward to hearing it. But I pray that anybody who is hearing this will understand that depression isn't the placement of something on you from an angry and vengeful God. And while I encourage prayer and fasting and studying and understanding the Word, for us to have a relationship with God, we have to know Him. And how can we know Him except we read? How can we be in his presence except we pray?