By McKenzie Gooding • November 15, 2024
Team LUI with members of the UWI Cave Hill Chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU), November 15, 2024.
All too often, there is a tendency to draw a firm line in the sand between our faith and what we know about mental health. Discussions of mental health, let alone mental illness, have long been considered taboo in the Caribbean, with poor mental health often being chalked up to some sort of spiritual disturbance that can (and should) be resolved with sufficient prayer (and that's on the less extreme side of things). This form of stigma continues to perpetuate harmful beliefs about people who deal with poor mental health or have been diagnosed with mental illnesses, leaving them reluctant to pursue professional help for fear of judgment or ostracization from their religious community. Where faith communities should serve as supportive safe spaces, they can instead become a significant barrier between individuals and the mental health and psychosocial support they may need.
Fortunately, thanks to the concerted outreach efforts of those working to combat mental health stigma in its various forms, things are changing. Everyday people are beginning to understand that a) mental health is a universal experience and that poor mental health can affect anyone, regardless of belief and b) acknowledging mental health concerns and seeking professional help is not incompatible with having faith. As an organization committed to empowering young people to overcome mental health-related stigma, LUI is deeply invested in continuing this trend.
Ahead of the busy exam season, the LUI team joined forces with the UWI Cave Hill chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) on Friday, November 15th for a session titled Mental Wellbeing and the Christian: Stress, Exams and Me. The interactive session took a faith-based look at navigating exam-related stress, coping strategies and what God has to say about our mental health, making important linkages between faith, self-care, mental health awareness and responding to a mental health crisis.
Unpacking Mental Health, Stress and Burnout
After a quick check-in and icebreaker, LUI facilitators Kehly Olton and Chelsea Jordan dived right into sharing, using the example of Old Testament prophet Elijah (see 1 Kings 18-19), who encountered a mental crisis of his own while doing the Lord's work, to set the tone of the session. Members of the audience identified with several of the symptoms which defined Elijah's mental crisis, including fear, isolation, despair, fatigue and hopelessness.
Against this backdrop, Team LUI went on to break down the concepts of mental health, mental crisis and the mental health continuum, as well as contributing factors. Special emphasis was placed on understanding stress and burnout, as well as their physical and psychological effects.
Participants got a chance to stretch their legs and get creative, drawing out their biggest stressors on paper and taking turns explaining their drawings to the rest of the group.
Where Faith and Mental Health Meet: Elijah's Story
In keeping with the theme of finding practical, scripture-based ways to navigate stress and burnout throughout the exam season and beyond, the session then returned to Elijah's story to explore how the prophet, with God's help, was able to overcome his mental crisis. Rest, self-care and spending time in God's presence were highlighted as key parts of this process. Elijah's story confirmed for everyone listening that even people with great faith face their own mental health struggles, and that prayer, while important, is only one stretch on the road to navigating times of mental crisis. A quick analysis of God's response to Elijah, which emphasized self-care and rest, showed how even God Himself understood that tangible actions and coping strategies were necessary for Elijah to recover. The bigger lesson? Not only does our mental health matter to God, it can also be strengthened by and through Him, whether that takes a spiritual or tangible form.
The LUI team highlighted several biblically informed tips useful for navigating times of mental crisis from a spiritual perspective (see below).
Coping and Adapting: Navigating Exam Stress and Mental Crisis
In the spirit of "prevention is better than cure", the session shifted gears once more in the direction of how we can best avoid and navigate mental crisis despite our circumstances by shifting our lifestyle and environment, building resilience, and setting up strong support systems. LUI facilitators Chelsea and Kehly introduced the five major types of coping strategies (problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, religious coping, meaning-making, and social support). They focused on problem-focused coping (taking action to reduce or eliminate the cause of your stress/problem) and emotion-focused coping (minimizing or preventing your emotional reactions), giving some useful examples.
LUI's Kehly then led the participants in a "five-finger breathing brain break" exercise, designed to calm oneself down and promote logical thinking through a conscious, patterned intake of oxygen. VP Chelsea would lead the session to a close, briefly discussing the seven pillars of self-care (see below) before guiding participants in a mapping exercise aimed at identifying the support systems around them. The session wrapped up with a short Q & A session and a chance for participants to learn more about the mental health resources available through LUI's partner organizations.
Bridging Gaps and Beating Stigma
The afternoon's session left the participants (and the facilitators) with three important takeaways about mental health, faith and bridging the gap between the two:
We all need a little help sometimes.
Reaching out is a sign of strength!
You are never alone.
Help comes in many forms (yes, including prayer), and even people with the strongest faith need help sometimes. Perspective matters. It's helpful - and healthy even - to look at professional mental health and psychosocial support as just another of the many avenues God has given us to help us navigate poor mental health, to view mental health care providers as people He has placed on earth to help us physically while He takes care of the spiritual side of things. Looking at it from that lens, reaching out becomes a sign of strength, rather than one of weakness. Isn't that encouraging? Most importantly, it's key we remember that along this mental health journey, we are never alone. Your faith community, when equipped with knowledge, empathy and people-centred support, can play a crucial role in helping prevent and supporting you through a mental crisis, and even giving you people to relate to and share with.
Bridging gaps within our society is a key part of beating much of the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness. It's on all of us, whether we have a faith or not, to make sure our communities are safe places to be. That starts with having conservations like these, digging into why we think the way we do, and sharing with each other, without judgment, about what we can do differently.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
McKenzie Gooding is a 24-year-old Barbadian-born freelance writer now based in South Korea, where she recently completed her Master of Arts in International Development and Cooperation. A passionate mental health advocate and LUI Ambassador, McKenzie uses her voice and shares her lived experiences to boost awareness and generate mental health literacy. She is a talented writer and enjoys talking about all things Culture, Film, and Mental Health.
In a moment of despair, we could all use a little help and support. If you're going through a rough patch, and/or dealing with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please reach out to one of these Caribbean Mental Health Hotlines. You can also find some other resources compiled by Let's Unpack It here. Help is just one click or one phone call away.
We all have a mental health story. And, when we are open enough to share it, we can build hope, dismantle stigma, and help others to know that they're not alone. So, if you're comfortable, take a moment to share your lived experience here. #CareToShare
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