Breaking the silence: Faith leaders address stigma encountered with mental illness, addiction

Feb. 26--Faith leaders should discuss mental health and addiction openly in their places of worship, addressing the stigma that long has been present in religious communities, leaders said at an event this week.

"Historically, the evangelical community has approached mental health with a good bit of stigma, regrettably," said Ron Mahn, director of Lifecare Ministry at Crossings Community Church. "It was often tied to one's personal relationship with God -- they didn't have faith enough. They've demonized it and given it a sense of evil about it...that stigma certainly hasn't helped folks step forward when they were suffering emotional issues (and) addiction issues. I think that being the legacy, we've been given quite the opportunity to speak back at that."

Mahn was one of five panelists who spoke Tuesday night at the church during The Oklahoman-sponsored event "Mental Health and Faith: A Community Dialogue."

Other panelists were Mike Brose, executive director of Mental Health Association Oklahoma; Rabbi Abby Jacobson, spiritual leader of Emanuel Synagogue; Imad Enchassi, imam and founder of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City; and the Rev. Don Wolf, pastor of St. Eugene Catholic Church.

About 50 residents attended the event and asked a range of questions about how mental illness and addiction are viewed in sacred texts and among different religions.

Jacobson said many American Jews are supportive of therapy and seeking counseling, but because it's a minority community, there is fear of how Jews will be viewed if they talk openly about mental illness or addiction.

Additionally, if a Jewish person wants to marry within the small community of Jews in Oklahoma, he or she may fear that being open about having a mental illness could affect those chances, Jacobson said.

"That is even something our community has been dealing with internally, in terms of we were all really pro-therapy and really pro-counseling and really pro-doctors, and all those great things," she said, "and let's turn that into a more public conversation, rather than one of those things we whisper about in restaurants."

Faith communities vary in how they view suicide, one topic the panelists addressed.

Wolf said brokenness can diminish people's capacity, lessen their will, and often they might not consciously or purposely be a part of their brokenness.

Wolf knew a man who left work, went to an isolated place and then died by suicide.

"(If) somebody on the way out of the parking lot had somehow intercepted him and said something like, 'Let's go to a park,' he would have never done that," Wolf said.

"To take your own life is certainly a sin against the gift of your life, whose author is God," he said. "At the same time, the sense of desperation, the state that we get ourselves into and the kind of forces that act on us to diminish our will are all certainly factors about what happens when a person commits suicide."

Enchassi said he recently dealt with the suicide of a young Muslim man and has seen other Muslims suffer, in part, because of hateful speech being voiced about the Muslim community.

One Muslim woman with bipolar disorder has been harassed and her children had been threatened because of their religion, Enchassi said. This exacerbates her illness.

"What I'm seeing in our small community is a lot of stigma pointing towards Muslims, and since a lot of those people are first-generation immigrants, causing a lot of fear and concern with some mental illness," Enchassi said.

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