The church’s silence on the issue of mental illness doesn’t help anyone, and in fact, it may only make matters worse.
Here’s a bit more from our research:
That silence can leave people feeling ashamed about mental illness, said Jared Pingleton, director of counseling services at Focus on the Family. Those with mental illness can feel left out, as if the church doesn’t care. Or worse, they can feel mental illness is a sign of spiritual failure.
“We can talk about diabetes and Aunt Mable’s lumbago in church—those are seen as medical conditions,” he said. “But mental illness—that’s somehow seen as a lack of faith.”
Most pastors say they know people who have been diagnosed with mental illness. Nearly six in 10 (59 percent) have counseled people who were later diagnosed.
And pastors themselves aren’t immune from mental illness. About a quarter of pastors (23 percent) say they’ve experienced some kind of mental illness, while 12 percent say they received a diagnosis for a mental health condition.
When we did our survey, we also took the time ask some more open-ended questions. The responses to our questions were certainly mixed. Some were devastatingly sad, and some were encouraging:
Those without support from the church said they struggled.
—“My faith has gone to pot and I have so little trust in others,” one respondent told researchers.
—“I have no help from anyone,” said another respondent.
But others found support when they told their church about their mental illness.
—“Several people at my church (including my pastor) have confided that they too suffer from mental illness,” said one respondent.
—“Reminding me that God will get me through and to take my meds,” said another.
Here are a couple of infographics to illustrate some key findings:
Below is a clip of a conversation I had with Kelly Rosati, VP of community outreach for Focus on the Family, and Dr. Jared Pingleton, director of counseling services at Focus on the Family. You can download the entire episode of the Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast here, or you can check out their YouTube list here.
Remember to download a copy of the full research report here if you haven’t already. 
