Denver, Colo., Oct 10, 2017 / 02:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Maria had been struggling with some depressive and anxious thoughts for a while, although at the time, she didn’t recognize them as such. Probably because she was 14 years old.
When she shared her struggles with someone in her Catholic community, the woman told Maria that she was worried that “the devil was working his ways” in her, and used that to pressure her into going on a week-long retreat out of state.
“Sure, retreats are great,” Maria told CNA. “But pretty sure I just needed a therapist at that point in my life. And pretty sure I had already given valid reasons for why I wasn’t interested in buying a plane ticket for a retreat.”
When Catholics experience spiritual problems, the solutions seem obvious – talk to a priest, go to confession, pray, seek guidance from a spiritual director. But the line between the spiritual and the psychological can be very blurry, so much so that some Catholics and psychologists wonder if people are too often told to “pray away” their problems that may also require psychological treatment.
When body and soul are seen as unrelated
Dr. Gregory Bottaro is a Catholic clinical psychologist with the CatholicPsych Institute. He said that he has found the over-spiritualization of psychological issues to be a persistent problem, particularly among devout Catholics.
“Over-spiritualization in our time is usually a direct consequence of Cartesian Dualism,” Bottaro told CNA in an e-mail interview.
“Decartes is the philosopher who said: ‘I think therefore I am.’ He separated his thinking self from his bodily self, and planted the seed that eventually grew into our current thinking that the body and spirit are separate things. Acting as if the body doesn’t matter when considering our human experience is just as distorted as acting like the spirit doesn’t matter,” he said.
Because of this prevalent misconception about the separation of our body and soul, people both in and out of the Catholic Church often feel a stigma in seeking mental help that isn’t there when they need to seek physical help, he said.
“We shouldn’t think any less of getting help for mental health than we do for physical health. There are fields of expertise for a reason, and just as we can’t fix every one of our own physical wounds, we can’t always fix every one of our own mental wounds. It is virtuous to recognize our need for help,” Dr. Bottaro said.
Virtuous, but not always easy.
Just pray
Michele is a young Catholic 20-something who was used to being social and involved in various ministries within the Church. But a move to a new city left her usually-bubbly self feeling lonely and isolated.
“I felt like a failure spiritually because shouldn’t my relationship with God be enough? But, I would come home from work and cry and just lay in my bed. It was hard for me to motivate myself to do anything,” she told CNA.
When a friend, also involved in ministry, called to catch up, Michele saw it as a chance to reach out and share some of the feelings that had been concerning her.
“I don’t remember exactly what I said, but she told me what I was feeling was sinful. I shut down and said I was exaggerating and made up some story about how everything was fine,” she said.
Michele waited several more months before seeking help through Catholic Charities, where she was connected to a therapist. She found out that she had attachment disorder, which, left untreated for longer, could have turned into major, long term depression.
Derek is also a young 20-something Catholic who was also told to pray away his problems. He was suffering from depressive episodes, where he wouldn’t eat and would sleep for 15 hours a day. His friends’ advice was to pray. It wasn’t until he attempted suicide that he got serious about seeking psychotherapy.
Sarah, also a young Catholic and a former FOCUS missionary, had a similar experience. For months, she confessed suicidal thoughts to her pastor and spiritual director, who gave her advice based on the discernment of spirits from St. Ignatius of Loyola. But eventually the thoughts became so intense and prevalent that Sarah called every mandatory reporter she knew, and was admitted to the hospital on suicide watch.
“I think part of it is – if someone is trained in something, that’s how they want to fix it,” Sarah told CNA.
“If you’re trained in spirituality then you want to use spirituality to fix it. And you absolutely should include spirituality. However, you can’t just pray it away. These are real problems and real medical things. There are events in people’s lives that have happened, and they need to work through that both spiritually and psychologically, and a priest or youth minister can’t do both. They need to get you to someone who’s able to help,” she said.
The negative stigma attached to seeking mental help is magnified in the Church because of the “pray it away” mentality, Sarah added. Once prayer doesn’t work, people can feel like spiritual failures, and many people in the Church will distance themselves from someone who is mentally ill.
“I can’t be a fully functional young woman who’s working through something and needs help with it,” she said. “It’s either – I’m ok or I’m not.”
A Catholic psychologist’s perspective
Dr. Jim Langley, a Catholic licensed clinical psychologist with St. Raphael’s counseling in Denver, said he tends to see opposite ends of the spectrum in his patients in about equal numbers – those who over-spiritualize their problems, and those who under-spiritualize them.
“Part of the problem is that in our culture, we have such a medically-oriented, science-oriented culture that we’ve sort of gotten away from spirituality, which causes a lot of problems,” he said.
As human beings, our minds and our souls are what set us apart from other created things, Langley added, making those aspects of our being most vulnerable to evil attacks.
“I know a priest who would explain it like this: Evil is like a germ, and it wants to get in just like bacteria does in our body. And where does bacteria get in? It gets in through our wounds. So if we have a cut on our hand, that’s where bacteria wants to get in and infect us. On the spiritual side, it’s the same thing. Where we have the most sensitive wounds tend to be in our sense of self and our psychology, and so that’s where evil wants to get in at us.”
People who tend to ignore the spiritual aspect of their psychological problems cut themselves off from the most holistic approach of healing, Langley added.
“The main reason is because it really is God who heals, and almost any psychological issue you’re dealing with is going to have some sort of a spiritual component connected to it, because it has to do with our dignity as a human person.”
And while it can be challenging to make people see the spiritual component of their problems, it can also be a challenge to help other people recognize that their spiritual issues might also have a psychological component, he said.
Some devout Catholics see it as preferable to say they are suffering from something like the dark night of the soul, rather than to admit that they have depression and may need medication and counseling, he said.
“In some ways in our Catholic community, it’s cooler to have a spiritual problem than it is to have a psychological problem,” he said. “The problem with over-spiritualizing is that you cut yourself from so many tools that psychology and even your faith could have to help you to be happy.”
Many of the things psychologists do to help their patients includes teaching them “recipes” for happiness, Langley said – re-training their thought patterns, providing practical tools to use when anxiety or depression kick in.
But a person who doesn’t recognize an issue as also having a psychological component may be resistant to these methods entirely, including spiritual methods, he said.
Catholics who are concerned about seeking psychological help should seek a Catholic psychologist or psychiatrist who can talk about both the spiritual and psychological aspects of healing, Langley said.
“People who don’t practice from a Catholic or spiritual perspective can do a pretty good job, but it’s like they’re doing therapy with their hand tied behind their back, because they’re missing out on a whole array of things you can do to help a person.”
Therapists who aren’t practicing from a Catholic perspective could also do some unintended harm in their practice, Langley noted. For example, men who are addicted to pornography may be told by a secular therapist that pornography is a healthy release, or couples struggling in their marriage may sometimes be encouraged by secular practitioners to divorce.
It’s really a false dichotomy, Langley added, to categorize problems as strictly spiritual or psychological, because oftentimes they are both, and require both psychological and spiritual treatment.
“So much of good therapy is helping a person get back in touch with their sense of dignity that God created them with…and as they get more in touch with it, they are actually just more open to God’s love and they’re more open to making changes in their life that might be helpful.”
What needs to change?
The Catholic experience of mental illness varies. Some found their experience of a mental illness diagnosis in the Church very isolating, while others said it was a great source of healing and support.
Langley said that for the most part, he has a great relationship with the clergy in his area.
“Most of our referrals come from priests,” he said. “I hardly ever see a priest that is overly convinced that something is spiritual. I think priests really do a pretty good job of saying when something is more psychological.”
Some of Langley’s favorite clients are those who are seeking spiritual direction at the same time as therapy, he said, because between therapy and spiritual direction, the person seeking help is usually able to find the right balance of psychological and spiritual strategies that work.
Others said they felt the relationship between psychologists and Catholic clergy or other leaders could be stronger.
A licensed marriage and family therapist in California, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that priests and mental health professionals should be working together to support those struggling with mental illness, to make them feel more welcome, and to let them know what resources are available.
“The faith community hasn’t done a great job reaching out for support for those within the community with mental illness, and the mental health community hasn’t done a good enough job making itself available to the faith community,” he said.
Several Catholics who have had mental illness also said they wished that it were something that was discussed more openly in the Church.
“I have thirsted for greater support in the Church,” said Erin, who has depression and anxiety.
“That is my biggest struggle as a Catholic with mental illness: not necessarily focusing too much on the spiritual aspects, but people not knowing how to address any other aspect.”
She had some suggestions for Catholics who find out their friend has a mental illness.
“As Christ would do, and as Job’s friends failed to do, please, please just walk with me. And if I bring up something spiritual, feel free to talk about it. If you think I’m shutting you out, ask. If I randomly start crying, hold my hand,” she said.
“Finding support in my one friend (who also has a mental illness) has done worlds of good for me. Imagine what could happen if Christians became more vulnerable about their mental illness. What a support system that would be!”
Michele said in sharing her story about seeking therapy, she has been surprised at how many Catholics have gone through similar experiences.
“I try to be very open about it now because a stigma should not exist.”
Catholic psychologists in your area can be found by searching at http://www.catholictherapists.com/ or at https://wellcatholic.com/. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255.
Some names in this article have been changed for the protection of privacy.
This article was originally published on CNA July 1, 2016.
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Apparently, the advertisements will include some refugee/open borders propaganda. Who needs George Soros when we have Christian conservatives?
We need more people in the U.S. If you and the rest of the country knew how short-staffed hospitals and clinics are, you and the rest of the country would panic. In my hospital lab, we went from 8 microbiology technologists to 3–and we were doing not only the workload previously done by 8 people, but also all of the new COVID testing. When we tried to send out the work to a reference lab, ALL 3 huge reference labs told us that they were too short-staffed to take on any more work. The same is true for most hospital departments (except for the administrative staff–not only over-staffed but overpaid). Our decreasing U.S. population due to legal abortion and baby boomers like me and my late husband choosing to only have 2 children has caused a critical decline in our population. Our two options are (1) actively encourage couples to have bigger families (won’t happen unless the government stops asking citizens for more money for junk projects like “climate change” and instead, gives citizens BACK the money they have earned, as well as helping the poor to rise out of poverty and (2) opening the borders to non-criminal immigrants who want to work for a living in the U.S. Yes, we need to turn away the criminals, especially the drug dealers, and those who want to overthrow the U.S. or establish a “country within our country”–but all the rest who want to work should be welcomed and assimilated as quickly as possible into our country so they can work! We desperately need them!!!!
I mostly agree Mrs. Sharon. But we need to look at the way Canada & other nations can attract immigrants without relying on drug & trafficking cartels to supply them. The cartels basically run our southern border & determines who & what enters the US.
I disagree that we need more people here. Saying we need more people is like supporting a ponzi scheme. People are not working because govt benefits are too generous and its possible to make more money sitting at home than working. See this article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/unemployment-benefits-versus-average-wages-across-the-us-2021-5
The significant influx of immigrants presents many problems. The fentanyl, sex trafficking, numerous terrorists who have been caught. . Adding millions of folks in s a short time means they are using scarce water, pushing up rents and shortening the housing supply. They are filling our hospitals with no means to pay and overburdening our schools. Depressing wages for Americans too . I mean, why would you pay someone $12 an hour if there are people lined up to do it for $7 an hour?? Many of these illegals arrive poorly educated in their own language and may not know english. They become permanent members of the welfare rolls, for life. In NYC, there was a recent near riot of illegals. They had been placed in a luxury hotel where the state paid $500 PER ROOM PER NIGHT for them to be housed there and filled the hotel. The result: fights, garbage in the halls, donated food thrown away, and sexual activity in the staircase. When they were evicted to go to less luxury options, needless to say they were not happy and “activists” arrived to conduct demonstrations. I say there is no reason to expend money in this way to people who do not appreciate it. It is time to close the borders, and evict those who came here illegally. Trump, no matter your personal feelings about the man, knew a national security problem when he saw it. These are not our citizens and we owe them nothing. Further, this soft democrat focus on MILLIONS of illegals has taken scarce resources which should be helping AMERICAN homeless, many of whom are mentally ill veterans.Two more years of DEM ineptitude will destroy the country and it’s economic base. We cannot afford to support the many billions of folks who live in the rest of the world on our dime. The sooner this is shut down, the better.
What to make of the NEW border crisis of spy balloons flying over the nation??? Just more partisan ineptness by liberals who will not face facts and protect our own people. Suppose a virus was in that first balloon? . Suppose it was a nuclear radioactive payload? Why, of course, just let the Chinese fly the balloon where they wish: maybe over a big city? Maybe over a city where someone you love might live?? If China was wondering about US weakness, they have their answer. Those of you who voted in these clowns, the blood is on your hands.
LJ,
It’s about demographics. Without immigration we will resemble Japan in the not too distant future.
There are better ways of bringing immigrants to the US than what’s going on now at the border but neither side of the political aisle really wants to find a lasting solution because the situation is too good of a way to score points and drive narratives. Not to mention a never ending source of cheap, exploitable labor.
The children of immigrants who attend US schools all learn English. They will grow up to enter the workforce and keep Social Security and Medicare afloat.
I don’t think they are Christian “conservatives”. To me, nondenominational means non-committal to any specific doctrine.
If it’s all about Jesus, I am all for it.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
As usual the modern marketing of Christianity glosses over Jesus’s radical call to repent and sin no more as well as to love Jesus one is called to pick up their cross and follow Him obediently in accordance with God’s definition of sin.
We went to a non-denominational church yesterday (we went to Liturgy out of town Saturday for the vigil service). The sermon was on mercy (the church is doing a series on the Beatitudes). It actually was not a bad sermon, but no mention of repentance or justice.
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Funny thing about the Beatitudes. Jesus goes from all this really nice Warm Fuzzy Happy Feelings in Matthew 5:3 to 11 to something similar to “The Rules Matter–and by the way, I am more strict than Moses: by Matthew 5:17 to 37.
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By Matthew 11:20, He is bringing the Hellfire on Chorazin and Bethsaida.
Hello Kathryn
I agree with you. I have heard many Catholic Priests homilies on how Christ’s whole New Testament message is summed up in this warm fuzzy feeling you get when reading Jesus’ Beatitudes. Well Christ’s Beatitudes are the Beatitudes of Armageddon. Yes! The whole world filled with only the meek, humble and pure of heart will be wonderful, once the unrepentant wicked are removed from the earth by Jesus.
Matthew 5:5 The Beatitudes
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land
Psalms 37:9
Those who do evil will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth. Wait a little, and the wicked will be no more; look for them and they will not be there. But the poor will inherit the earth,…
…The wicked perish, enemies of the LORD; They shall be consumed like fattened lambs; like smoke they disappear. The wicked one borrows but does not repay; the righteous one is generous and gives. For those blessed by the Lord will inherit the earth, but those accursed will be cut off….
…When the unjust are destroyed, and the offspring of the wicked cut off, The righteous will inherit the earth and dwell in it forever….
…Wait eagerly for the LORD, and keep his way; He will raise you up to inherit the earth; you will see when the wicked are cut off….
…Sinners will be destroyed together; the future of the wicked will be cut off. The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD, their refuge in a time of distress. The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in him.
Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1146, “Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.”
Please everyone, receive Jesus recent, year 2000, gifts of Divine Mercy Sunday this coming April 16th!
Jesus does get us.
We all need to get Him.
This frail life we are given, is more than flesh, more than personal fun and pride.
Love and kindness are the health of ones heart.
We can choose the future of a loving heart, and maybe we can hangout with Jesus, which will bring eternal happiness to your soul.✝️
Exactly, Jesus would get their attention(drawing a line in the sand) then teach the compassionate lesson, then say “Sin No More.”
Our culture is so conflicted and distanced from God anything that may have some benefit seems justifiable. If the Catholic Church makes murmurs insofar as impact what else is there?
Addressed numerous times by this writer and others is the deleterious influence of an all power usurping papacy leaving bishops with the proverbial lack of clothes. It’s up to them [their personal responsibility is enormous] to take the manly, faithful initiative and assert their authority to preach the Gospel and admonish, to proclaim the truth, in season and out of season and to challenge any authority that presumes it can silence their Apostolic witness to Christ’s revelation.
Praise you Holy Spirit!
People today who are far from Jesus or who have been told he’s irrelevant, or worse, may be attracted by such hooks as these commercials. I praise the effort to draw people in. Who knows how many in Jesus’ time came to him incrementally rather than in a single encounter. The arts, broadly speaking, can do this too, even when not strictly Christian or Catholic.
Dear Brothers in Christ,
If the following comment is deemed worthy to be published, kindly carry it under the pseudonym of (Paterimon).
I am a retired (95) Catholic Melkite Priest of the Diocese of Newton.
I can end you my address if you like to.
Thank you:
It seems to me that the campaign is based on “Jesus Seminar”: they first set up a convenient paradigm that renders Jesus an appealing prophet who exclusively teaches love and mercy, unconditionally pardons the adulteress, and sends her home in peace to continue her dissolute life. As for “sin no more”, it’s clearly a posterior interpolation added by the Church to control people!
Nobody is excluded. “Woe to you…hypocrites: You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter” and the awesome rest is conveniently ignored because it’s simply not in the logic of the Gospel!
In the long run, Jesus is emptied of all divine attributes so he can fit into the Great Reset.
It is unfortunate, and unfortunately telling, that comments regarding the “He Gets Us” campaign in both America Magazine and here, are majority negative. The article itself was straightforwrd, and for that I give thanks!