Mental Health Monday's - Intro & Discussion About Extremes

Hello everyone, this is Andy Cain, and welcome to a Mental Health Monday. I'm not going to be doing these all the time, but sometimes it's good to do these because I think it's very important for us to have awareness around mental health and things like that.

You've got two extremes we deal with in this, okay? On the one side, you've got the mental health

Pharisees. You just need to tighten it. You just need to get a swift kick in the butt.

You just, you know, need this. You need to go outside, but, you know, it's just complete denial of any possibility that there could be an actual thing like real mental disease, mental health disease, like major depression.

You even see in this extreme people, I don't even want to say the guy's name because I won't give him any publicity at all, but there's a gentleman who claims to be a pastor who said, you know, all people and children with, you know, autism just have a demon in them, and they need to get the demon out of them.

I'm like, yeah, that's not it. My child has autism, and I can assure you she doesn't have a demon.

She has the indwelling presence of the Spirit, but she doesn't have a demon. It, you know, what it comes from, why is it so prevalent?

Why is it, is it just that we're, my thinking is we're probably just more aware of it now, but it could be that there's more cases now.

I don't know. That's brighter minds than mine to figure out. All I can tell you is it's very real, and it can be challenging depending on where you're at, but whether it's major depressive disorder, which yours truly has.

I have major depressive disorder, so for all the mental health Pharisees out there that says, oh, you just need more

Jesus. You just need more faith. Yeah, trust me. I have a lot of faith, and I have a lot of trust in Jesus.

I'm a pastor, Christian father, Christian husband. I've put a lot of work into growing and sanctification and maturity.

I can assure you it's not a matter of my lack of faith, okay? It is very real.

It's a very real thing that I have to deal with, and I've learned to deal with it. So, but you know, there's that, and of course the other extreme is, you know, everything's a mental health thing.

Everything's a mental health disease. Everything's mental health, mental health, mental health, you know. Where it completely removes accountability for any decisions.

Oh, well, you know, that's just a mental health deficiency. That's just mental health disease.

It's okay that you sinned in that way. We'll just call it this. That is the other extreme to avoid.

Now, it doesn't necessarily mean the balance has to be in the middle or whatever, but the balance is to recognize that there are some that, just like we have physical diseases like the flu, viruses, bacteria, cancer, you know, you wouldn't go to a cancer patient and just tell them, you just gotta have more faith and God will take that care.

Now, actually there are charlatans and people that do that, that make people think they can give them a word from the

Lord, or I could put my hand on you and heal you. No, you can't.

So, you know, we need to be careful with these things. And so, you know, the balance is recognizing that there are some times where, just like people have physical diseases, there are mental ones.

There's major depressive disorder, there's real things like schizophrenia and, you know, autism and all these things like that.

And so it's important to recognize that in some cases, that's what it'll be. There are real legitimate mental health issues like that.

And there are cases where some people say, oh, that's my OCD acting up, or that's my

ADHD acting up. Like, no, you just need to pay attention a little better.

You need to put a little bit more effort into what you're doing and not just blame it on something because, trust me, those of us that have real

OCD and people that really do have a real actual diagnosis of ADHD that legitimately struggle with focus, it's not a walk in the park for them.

It's not a picnic. It's not something they want. It's not something they sign up for. I didn't sign up for major depressive disorder, but God has decided in his wisdom and sovereignty for me to suffer through that.

And I've had to learn how to suffer well with it. And I would say for the most part,

I suffer better now with it. I've learned things like people that say, well, it is true.

Anybody can suffer through bouts of depression, seasonal depression, things like that. And I've learned the difference between what is just a regular sadness, depression, things that anybody can go through.

And what's the disease? And I usually call it the fog. You ever been in a place where you can kind of see a fog off in the distance and you see it coming and you're like, oh yeah, or you wake up to it too.

But you see the fog coming in, it kind of just seeps in, it comes in slowly and it's like, man, that's moving pretty slow.

I can see that off in the distance. I can kind of feel a depressive episode coming on.

And then when the fog kind of gets there, it just kind of kind of sits and hovers. And it's like, that thing stopped moving.

It's like, just sitting on top of me. And it's like, this is never going to go away. That's how it makes you feel.

You feel like it's never going to go away. You feel like that's just all I'm ever going to know.

This is all the way, the only way I'm ever going to feel. And then you wake up one morning and just as slowly as it comes in, it slowly starts to lift and then it just dissipates.

And then, oh, there's sunshine and rainbows and color and everything feels better now.

And it's, this is great. It's like, so it's weird. And, you know,

I've had to learn with the combination of medication and therapy, what sort of things are triggering for me.

And when something is, there's a triggering episode, how to recognize it quickly and sort of compartmentalize it.

Maybe see it as just a floating cloud going by or something, or something that I have to kind of tell myself, you know, this isn't how

I actually feel. I'm not really depressed. I'm not really sad. This was a inconvenient situation, or this was a bad instance of something happening that triggered a memory, which makes my body go into this fight or flight defensive response.

And so learning how to get through those and work through those quickly to where it's doesn't turn into a full blown depressive episode have been very helpful.

As of what, it's February 2nd, Groundhog Day. And yes, the groundhog saw a shadow.

Somebody needs to get out the crock pot. It's time for that groundhog to go. But as of today,

I don't think I've had one. It's been months.

I've been very fortunate. And well, a lot of it has to deal with a job change, which is a whole story for another day.

I was in a bad one and now I'm not. And so that helps. But these things are real.

And look, even outside of a legitimate diagnosed mental health disease or disorder or something along those lines, it's important for all

Christians to be growing and having a stronger mental health. There are so many principles and different things that we can do to have strong minds, strong mental health, completely outside of the category of those that are actually suffering with some level of a mental health disorder or disease or something along those lines.

And so we'll talk about some of those things as we have time and look at some things like learning to just shrug stuff off and not take things so seriously.

A lot of these things come with maturity and experience and things like that. And at least that's what

I'm seeing. And, you know, having a mental health disorder or disease does put an extra layer of struggle and challenge.

But it's no different than, you know, if somebody didn't have any legs, that would have an extra layer of physical challenge.

They could still live physically, maybe have everything from waist up is functioning fine. But without legs, there's going to be a level of physical challenge.

If you were missing an arm or maybe you're in a wheelchair or maybe you can't see anything that is significantly and consistently or even permanently adverse to our physical health is going to create a layer of challenge for you.

And we are called to overcome these things and not, as some would say, and, you know, be healed, claim your healing.

Yes, the Lord does heal in some cases, but in some cases, he lets you have what he has sovereignly gave you to learn to live through it.

And from what I have come to see and from what I have come to understand, this particular thing that I struggle with was largely for my humility to humble me, to challenge me, to get me in a place where I can better accept circumstances and to also learn to find joy in simple things and find joy in things that I can't control because I have a lot of issues with control.

And that's a whole story for another day as well as to why I became that way.

Growing up in fundamentalism probably had something to do with it, but yeah. So yeah. And so we learn from these things, but all

Christians, both those with disorders, diseases, and those without, we need to be working on being stronger in our minds, not just intellectually or academically, but there's what we call emotional intelligence, situational intelligence, knowing when to say something, knowing when not to say something, when to bite your tongue, and when you do need to speak up, when you say, hey, this is wrong.

This thing shouldn't be happening. You shouldn't have said that, or you shouldn't be doing that. You know, when to say certain things and how to act, when to act.

There's a whole lot that goes on with that. So just want to kind of introduce this subject matter and this idea to you all.

It's not something that I have planned. I'll try to maybe to have one a Monday, mental health Mondays, maybe, but I don't know.

We'll see how it goes. So it depends on time and some of the other things I'm doing, but I think, and I'm convinced that I'm sure this is a very important subject, not just for me, but for many of you.

And I would venture to say that many of you out there probably are dealing with some of these things as well, and you probably think, well, nobody sees me, nobody hears me, or if you are trapped in that either the boomer mentality or have been convinced by older generations that some intentionally, some ignorantly think, well,

I don't know about that. We didn't have that in my day. I just think, you know, they just can't compute it because they just have never dealt with it.

And I feel bad for them because there's probably a lot of them that could have benefited from some help, but you are seen, you are heard, you matter, and you have something to gain and something to learn and something to use for the kingdom.

And those of us that have certain types of struggles and disorders and illnesses will be able to affect a certain category of Christians that others wouldn't, because we know how you feel.

We know what it's like. And, you know, I've even heard some say, you know, the one type of extreme, you know, there shouldn't be a pastor if he doesn't, if he has mental health struggles.

I'm like, okay, thanks for your opinion. Now, a block or bye, because I don't want to hear it.

And you say, Eddie, this is a little different than your normal preaching and all. So I'm like, yeah,

I mean, it's just me. I try to be as authentic as I can. I'm not anything special.

I'm just a sinner saved by grace. And I have certain struggles. I have certain things I deal with like you do. And I think we do a lot better if we kind of, as much as you can, share with others and possibly even the public at large, you know, what it is you struggle with and what it is you have challenges with and how you've worked in them and overcame them.

And, you know, one of the things I've learned, we've got to learn, you know, there are circles in life and that most inner circle is your closest people that know all that, everything about you.

And then as you get away, you go friends, colleagues, acquaintances, as you move outside, those people on the outer rims deserve to know less and less about your personal information.

So I always say as much as you can, as much as you feel free to share things, say things that might can be helpful.

And then obviously some things will need to be private. Some things may only need to be shared with a smaller group of people, but as much as I can,

I'll try to share as much as I can about some of the things I go through and what I've learned and how it might be helpful to you.

And I hope you'll do the same as much as you are able to. And so I look forward to it. I don't know what any of this is going to really look like.

It may be very disjointed. It may vary and be like, Oh, over here, over here. Oh, squirrel, squirrel. I may have something very pointed and constructive at times.

And sometimes I might just be like, uh, I don't know what to do.

So come along for the ride. Amen. Well, God bless y 'all.

I don't know if this will be helpful to you. You might watch this and be like, yeah, this guy's lost it.

Well, yeah. Hey, you know, they always say like if you're, you know, crazy people, if you are crazy, do you know it?

Yes. Yes. I got problems. It's okay. So, uh, bless you all.