In today's newsletter, I'm (finally) releasing the video that concludes the series on "Five Pillars of Mental Health." It is long, but I hope you're able to look at it ... I think it's the most important video I've made thus far.
In it, I make the point that we are living with the effects of the colossal failure of our mental health care system today. We have more programs, and are spending more money on mental health care treatment than any other society in history ... and yet it's hard to argue that the mental health of our society is anything other than one of the worst our world has ever seen.
I don't have the knowledge -- or interest -- in critiquing our mental health care system as a system. Rather, I'm concerned about the foundation, the roots of it. The problem I point out is the failure of modern psychology to take into account the critical role of the spiritual questions people have. Missing that which is most fundamental, it will always be inadequate at best, and misguided at worst.
The fact that a meta-study of decades of research in mental well-being, one that offers a "framework for mental health," does not include spirituality as one of its main pillars is not surprising ... but it is damning. It reveals the bias and assumption that lies at the root of much of the thinking in the modern world: that spirituality is a side issue, that addressing it is optional, and that healing and well-being can be had without addressing it.
Whether your problem is addiction, depression, anxiety, or some variant of those, I'll make my bold claim here: you won't find lasting recovery from those struggles unless and until you deal with the underlying spiritual issues.
And keep this in mind -- it's not just me saying this (which of course you would expect, given the fact that I'm a pastor). Carl Jung himself -- one of modern psychology's founders -- said as much, when he gave this testimony (which I highlight in the video):
"Among those I have treated in the second half of life -- that is to say, over 35 -- there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers."
I hope you'll watch -- and share -- this important message. Have a great week!
