Tag Archive - burnout

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Soren Kierkegaard on Actuality, Freedom and Possibility

February 12, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 1 Comment

kierkegaardOne of my favorite writers, thinkers, philosophers, theologians, psychologists is Soren Kierkegaard. Ever since reading Fear and Trembling when I was 22 he has continued to profoundly shape my life and thinking.

So it is not surprising that in the book Depression and Hope by Howard W. Stone, that it is Kierkegaard that has something to say to us on this issue. Let me quote at length the following passage from the book:

Soren Kierkegaard’s understanding of persons–for our purposes depressed persons–also helps us understand hope. In The Sickness Unto Death, he describes persons as possessors of actuality, freedom, and possibility. All three are a part of the authentic self, and a good relationship of all three is necessary for authentic existence. Actuality refers primarily to the past; it includes our context, our psychological predispositions, and choices we have previously made.

Freedom is what we have in the present. It is a finite freedom, exercised within the limits of our situation and abilities, our givens and past choices. Because of our actualities we cannot simply become whatever we want to be ‘if we try hard enough for it.’ We make choices, and act, from the range of options available to us.

Possibility addresses the future. It is what we can become as we use our freedom. In that respect our possibilities are not predetermined. We are not automatons. We can imagine, and within the givens of life we can become something new. Living as an authentic self, according to Kierkegaard, means looking beyond our immediate necessities or past liabilities. We anticipate the future with the awareness that we are free–however limited–to actualize whom we ought to become as faithful Christians and to take responsibility for shaping that future.

In short, faithful Christian living requires recognition of givens from the past and exercise of finite freedom in the present, so that positive future possibilities can be imagined and brought into existence. Those who are depressed, viewed from Kierkegaards’ understanding of persons, allow their actuality (past) to limit and dominate their possibility (future) by not exercising their finite freedom in the present. So the anguish of depression comes not only from dwelling on negative past but also from the loss of a positive future. Unfortunately, much counseling offered to the depressed focuses on actuality, on the past. It is a grave error. The purpose of the minister giving care to the depressed is to engender a hope that recognizes actuality but also steps directly into the future by exercising freedom in the present, by taking action.

The good news is that there are care and counseling methods that can engender future hope in melancholic individuals. Methods especially useful for enlivening hope include searching for exceptions, reframing, focusing on people’s strengths, and creating future goals as a way to move away from preoccupation with the past (47-48).

Questions:

  1. How does Kierkegaard’s understanding of people fit into your understanding of people?
  2. Does your theology compliment Kierkegaard’s understanding of people, or contrast with it?
  3. How do you understand both our limits and freedom as people, and our ability those parameters offer to treat depression?

Previous Posts in the Depression, Burnout & Ministry Series
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Deciding to Get Honest About Our Journeys
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Anne Jackson Interview, Part 1
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Anne Jackson Interview, Part2
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Assessment
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Christians and Medications
Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Discernment in Pastoral Caregiving

Disclaimer: This blog post is not to be a substitute for professional help or advice. Please consider seeking out professional help if you consider yourself to be at risk for depression.

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Christians and Medications

February 4, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 15 Comments

Credit: depressionofspirits.com

“you may have questions about whether Christians should take this or that. You get in that state, I assure you, you will take rat dung.” Pastor Tommy Nelson

Why the Stigma?
Let me start this post by saying this. When it comes to the issue of taking medication for depression…there are some Christians who believe in it, and those that do not.

I believe in them. And I’m not trying to convince you otherwise. That will require circumstances, experiences convincing beyond my control.

I have worked long enough in the ministry and therapeutic setting to see the amazing and beneficial results that they have had in the lives of the co-workers, students and clients that I have journeyed through life with.

I believe God has given scientists/doctors/researchers amazing minds to create some medications that can help.

As one friend says, “If someone is diabetic, they are going to take insulin…aren’t they?”

Or I tell my friends, “If you have a heart condition, you are going to the cardiologist, right?”

So what’s the stigma around mental health and medications in the Christian life? I’m not completely sure. There is some disconnect it seems. Or rather than disconnect, there is some inconsistency in how we pick and choose what areas of our lives we seek help on, and what areas we think we should be able to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

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Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Assessment

February 2, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 7 Comments

Assessing Depression
This is the 4th post in my series on Depression, Burnout & Ministry, and it is the one where I hope to provide some critieria of symptoms that might help us out if we are wondering about this issue.

There are a variety of factors and tools that one may use in assessing if someone has depression.  In ministry, there were usually a few questions I may have asked a student to better assess what was going on.  I still ask those questions of people in ministry, as well as in my clinical work.  In my work as a Marriage and Family Therapist one of the main tools that we use is the DSM-IV (i.e. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders).  Whether or not one believes in diagnosing individuals, some of the criteria they provide is very helpful in getting a sense of the symptoms that one is exhibiting.

51yeqm7b52l_bo2204203200_pisitb-sticker-arrow-clicktopright35-76_aa240_sh20_ou01_As a pastor, leader, or volunteer in the Church you most likely will not look at the criteria in the DSM-IV, but it’s important to have a baseline of criteria that one’s symptoms can be measured against.  A book that I have found really helpful is Depression and Hope: New Insights for Pastoral Counseling by Howard W. Stone.  In this great book Stone says the following:

Criteria for Depression

Depression, or melancholia, is known in psychiatric terminology as major depression to distniguish it from the normal low periods that many people go through.  The psychiatric diagnostic criteria for major depression lists nine symptoms, as follows:

  1. Depressed mood, sadeness, irritability part of each day, nearly every day
  2. Diminished pleasure or interest in daily activities
  3. Considerable weight loss or gain, change in appetite
  4. Significant change in sleeping patterns (The most common result is early waking.)
  5. Marked increase or decrease in movement (Most commonly the person physically slows down.)
  6. Fatigue and loss of energy
  7. Feelings of worthlessness or guilt (The feelings are beyond the scope of how people would usually feel.)
  8. Difficulty in concentration
  9. Ideas of suicide or death

To be diagnosed with major depression according to the American Psychiatric Assocation criteria, persons must exhibit at least five symptoms for a minimum of two weeks, and have either depressed mood or diminished pleasure or interest on most days for at least part of the day (APA 1994).  These criteria are a good basis for determining if someone really is depressed.  The certainly are not exhaustive but signal that a person’s story may be one of melancholia. (pp. 65-66)

How Does Depression Manifest in Ministry
I think there are many ways that depression manifests itself in ministry, but what I would like to do is mention how in a few different areas I think it has manifested for me on occasion, and I’m curious to hear from you.  The tricky thing with depression and burnout is that we can experience symptoms along the spectrum without being considered clinically depressed.  Here is how I experienced it at some levels, even though I have never been clinically diagnosed myself.

Emotionally:  Not being able to enter into, or handle anymore conversations, meetings, encounters with people in ministry.  My fuse was short and I was unable to pay attention at a certain level.  It’s an emotional exhaustion.  Often this mosts manifests itself at home with the people we love.  We give all we have at work, but have little energy for home.

Spiritually: Not being able to pray or read Scripture.  In fact, most of that was masked by ministry prayer (in meetings, services, etc.), but little of my own prayer life.  Also, most of my Scripture reading was for sermon preparation, but very little of my own prayer devotion and meditation.  I think this is very common in ministry, where pastors spend hours upon hours in sermon preparation and consider that to be part of their devotion and meditation.

Physically: Being so exhausted that you don’t have the energy for one more event or meeting.  In fact, when you are doing your yearly calendar, your relief comes from looking at the date about 9 months out when you can rest.  That is depressing.

I would love to hear from you.  How have you experienced depression in ministry?  Can you share some examples?

The next post in this series I will be taking a look at the history of depression in the Church and spiritual writings.  But for now, don’t forget to check out the three previous posts:

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Deciding to Get Honest About Our Journeys

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Anne Jackson Interview, Part 1

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Anne Jackson Interview, Part 2

Disclaimer: This blog post is not to be a substitute for professional help or advice.  Please consider seeking out professional help if you consider yourself to be at risk for depression.

Depression, Burnout & Ministry: Anne Jackson Interview, Part 1

January 23, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 13 Comments

Today I begin the first part of a two part interview I did with Anne Jackson.  I first heard about Anne around two years ago when one of my church jacksona22co-workers Matt Singley kept referring to some blogger named Flowerdust.  I was told that she was one of the most popular and influential bloggers on the internet.  Immediately intrigued I hopped onto her site and almost immediately felt a breath of fresh air as wrote with an authenticity, vulnerability and purpose that is sometimes hard to find–not only in blogging circles, but the “Christian” world.  Since that day Anne is one of my favorite daily reads and I  really appreciate her insight and passion that is obviously very contagious among her readership.

As you will see from the two-part interview, my main desire behind interviewing her was because of her often “lone voice” in the Christian blogging circles to openly talk about issues of depression, anxiety, mental health and medication.  I think her willingness to talk so openly about these things has resonated with many, many people as is witness by the tons of comments she receives on a daily basis.

51exizsjwkl_sl500_aa240_Oh, and lest I forget, she’s the author of the new book Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic.

Anne, in a sentence or two, what was the impetus behind writing Mad Church Disease?

It was twenty seven years in the making…from watching my own parents burn out in ministry, to my own stress-induced hospital stay, I realized that left and right church leaders are being taken out – yet nobody is talking about it.  I hope this book will catalyze conversations about not only our brokenness, but our health.

As you address the issues of burnout and self-care I was wondering if you have seen a correlation between burnout or lack of self-care and depression?  Do you have any personal examples you could share?

Stress, when accumulated over time, can cause chemical changes in our bodies.  It increases bad hormones and decreases good ones.  As time goes on, these changes can lead to semi-permanent or permanent damage.

Over the two years I allowed the stress to run my life, I noticed how I went from feeling “stressed” to feeling hopeless and unmotivated.  At its worst, there were days when I didn’t even leave my bed.  Ashamed (and again, unmotivated), I withdrew from my relationships and my responsibilities.

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