Navigating Mental Health: You're Not Crazy, You're Human

Hey, Beale family, this is Sheridan Korea, and welcome to Stepping Forward, where we talk about real struggles and real hope. I share experiences from my life and with biblical truths to support it, and we talk about the things that we're all struggling and dealing with as a human. So one of those topics is our mental health. Now May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and so here what we want to do on this series is really talk about and explore the space of mental health. What does science say? What does biblical truth say? And what is our experiences teaching us and showing us? So here we're going to break the silence. We all have mental health days and mental health or unhealth issues and ways of struggling and dealing with our mind and what's going on in our minds. We're breaking the silence. We're going to reduce the stigma that you are crazy, that I am crazy, and that everyone else is crazy because they're having mental health days. I just want to remind every listener and viewer that God sees, and God cares, and God understands. He understands and wants to walk with us, beside us, in our mental health journey and our experience now here on Earth. He knows us better than anybody because He created us. And friends, we live in a fallen world. We live in a sinful, fallen world, and so we are going to experience some types of disorder and distress and despair or even depression, all the Ds, at different times of our life. And that doesn't mean that you're crazy. It means that you're human. So welcome to humanity. Welcome to the human race. Welcome to Stepping Forward, and we're going to dive right in. So first I want to define what mental health means. Mental health is a state of well-being for your mind, okay, for your brain.

And that encompasses so much. That encompasses a lot of things. It's not just your thoughts. It's not just the way, you know, our brains are wiring and firing during the day. It refers to and also encompasses our emotional, our psychological, and our social well-being. So how we process or deal with our emotions, how we even cope with them, what we do with them, we're reacting or responding to them, how we are making decisions, what we are believing. Let's see. And then how we relate to others in the social aspect. So our mental health is very, very integrated into our three-part being. First Thessalonians talks about we are just, we are a three-part being. We're not only spirit. We're not only physical. And we are not only psychological or our mind and our will. We are all encompassing and they're all interacting with each other during our whole life down here and during the day. And so each one needs to have, needs to hold weight and have some space and understanding on how this works. Because I know for me and my story, nobody taught me this. I did not know this. And I experienced 37 years of mental torment, emotional torment, where I was carrying around all of these wounds that I didn't know what to do with or understand how it worked. And it affected me. It affected me the way that I thought. It affected me how I process life. It affected the lens in which I viewed life and my experiences. So it is all integrated and they all work together. But the beauty about, the beauty about not only the Bible and the character of God and the whole plan of salvation, Christ heading to the cross on our behalf so that we can experience an abundant life so that we may have a life that is to the full and one that

is covered by grace and peace, one that is led, spirit led by grace and peace. So our God is a good, good God. And he cares so, so much about us, about you and what's your, what is happening in your mind. Okay. This, the scriptures are full of stories. stories but instructions and commands to us to help us down here to give us the help and the hope that we need to not only I don't want to say deal with or cope but to process and to actually heal from things that have really created a mess in our heads sometimes. So there's hope here okay I want you to hear that there is hope here and I'm going to lead you through some of that throughout this series. So again our mental well-being our mental health it affects the way that we think how we feel and how we even act how we make decisions and how we even behave okay so it it needs some it needs some care and some attention it needs some tending to and we want to make sure that that we are pouring in that biblical truth that our mantle in which that we are walking under that banner is not only hey I'm and I I'm a child of God and my identity is found in Christ right that's so important because the way that we view ourselves and the way that we view God affects what happens up here it affects how we even make decisions what are we going to believe how are we going to behave so we have to know all of that all right and we'll get into that more of that in the next episode and I have a very special speaker very special guest that will be on that one with me but our mental health affects how we handle stress you know how we react or respond to it are we emotionally charged and reacting to it in a certain way are responding to it in a very sound mind with sound doctrine and one that is not emotionally led or flesh led but that is spirit led as it says in Romans 8 it affects how we relate to others so how we are engaging with people and that's just that's our whole life we have to figure out navigate relationships and with people it's so challenging that's so so hard sometimes especially when we become triggered by them or or reminded

of a certain experience that we had or we get rejected or somebody judged us and we that affects us mentally and so we have to know how to what we're gonna believe about that what God says about that and how we're going to behave and respond in those in those ways and Jeremiah 29 11 tells us that God is not here to harm us God is you is in our life to bring us into a state of shalom completeness wholeness regulation well-being wellness those are all the same characteristics and words and with an implication for a future purpose yes it's here it happening here right now right it says in the scriptures that we can literally bring down heaven on earth right now right now we don't even have to wait for the eternities to get there we can literally experience that state of well-being right here on earth and God cares so much and so so deeply about it that he says that he is not here to cause us harm but to bring us into a hope and a hope for our future and into prosperity and wellness and that shalom so that's the direction that we're going that's the mantle in the biblical truth that we're always walking under because restoration is real okay restoration is real so just like physical health if you want to work out if you're you know incarcerated you're behind bars you're in prison and you're trying to take care of your body and you're eating well and you are feeding your body well nourishing it with the right things that you know will support the growth the muscular growth the development and even support your mind while you are there because food plays a part in our brain chemistry also our mental health should not get passed up it shouldn't especially when we have walked through a lot of the the suffering and the trials and the traumas and the tragedies that we have that we have seen and that we have been a part of even we need that extra nourishment we need our our minds and our souls to be regulated with truth and to be cared for okay so I say that as an encouragement if you're out there and your your external physique and your outward man is looking fly right on okay I'm all for that and that I go to the gym and I run a lot and I am very physical and very concerned about my nutritional and physical health because it supports my mental health it always has my whole life I've been an athlete

so right on about that if you have not paid any attention to your mental health and well-being. Well, that's what we're gonna do here on this Stepping Forward series. So at times in our life, at different times in our life, our mental health and well-being can be really strong. I know I've experienced this. And then sometimes like really fragile. And that's normal. Okay, let me say that. That's normal. There's, I don't, I don't believe y'all that there is anyone who has walked this earth that has never had a moment, a day, a season, a year, several years of discouragement, despair, depression, anxiety, worry, OCD tendencies where we get stuck. We may even get stuck in a loop of just creating scenarios and catastrophizing everything. Okay, that's again, that's part of being a human and part of living in a fallen world. Our mind is fallen just like everything else out here, right? Injustices happen. Really hard things happen. And there is a lot of pain and suffering. But God meets us in that every time. And he doesn't ever, ever shame us. Not once does he shame us. And if that's the voices that you are hearing, let me tell you right now, that is not our God. That is not our Father talking to you, okay? That is not our Father calling you names and labeling you and stigmatizing you as crazy or whatever mental health diagnosis that you have received. And like that's your identity. That is not our God. That is not our Savior. That is not our Father. And he surely, as a friend, would never, ever speak to us like that, okay? God cares deeply and he understands our fallen nature and our need for him and our need for his words and his truth and his love and his grace to cover us and meet us in those places, okay? So a healthy mind does not ever mean that you won't ever struggle. It means that you will have the support, the skills, and the resilience to bounce forward, okay? That's what resilience means. It means to bounce forward in the face of adversity and difficulty and trial and sorrow. That's biblical. Jesus even said, in this life, you're gonna have trials. You're gonna have sorrows. Even when we're walking with Christ, okay? Even when our identity is hidden in Christ, that does not discredit or dismiss or discount us from experiencing hard things and challenging things. That's

part of life. But we can learn how to respond to it in a way that it doesn't destroy us, like it says in John 10. I think a lot of us, if you're like me, a lot of us have experienced things in our life that has flatlined us. It has taken us back. We have not bounced forward for sure. We have bounced back and probably set us back. And it took things from us, all right? It destroyed us. It stole parts of us. And God is here to say that that can be healed. You can be made whole. That's not gonna disqualify you. The brain can actually heal itself. Your thoughts can be renewed. And you can change the way you think about things that brings you into that state of health and well-being. And that you are not alone on this journey to figure it out. He doesn't toss us out there and go, okay, yeah, cool. Thanks for believing in me. And so, see ya. Bye. Figure it out. And this is gonna be really fun watching you. That's not our God. And so, I just, I love that. I want you to get this picture. I drive it home all the time. A restored life is, and a transformed life is available. It's available. I'm not special. The people in our magazine are not special. I mean, yeah, we are because we're all God's favorite. But what God has done in my life can be the same and true for you in your life, too. Okay? So, hold on to that truth. That is truth. There is hope for you. It does not, you don't have to say the same with what you're dealing with right now. There is hope and there is help. So, from a faith perspective, though, mental health includes how we experience God's peace and his grace and his truth. All right? What do we do with that? How do we practically apply the biblical truths? How do we renew our minds with it so that we are thinking of those things that are helping to regulate us and heal? us and make us whole and not the thoughts and the ways and how we dealt with and processed our pain of our past and the traumas that we've all walked through. So it also includes how we process suffering. We have to get a clear definition of what suffering is and a clear understanding what suffering is because it's part of our life. And if you are a Christian, it says in the word of God that we are marked almost by suffering in a way that we see all the disciples go through periods of suffering.

If you're following Christ, suffering is part of the equation and not because God is mean, not because of that, but because now we're awakened to it and we understand what's going on and God meets us in our suffering, in our pain, in our grief, in our loss. We see that all through scripture. He meets us in these places and he turns our pain and our suffering into purpose, right? That's what he's done in my life, 37 years without God, without the Holy Spirit, without truth that was leading me and regulating me along the way. Where did I end up? I ended up feeling rejected. I ended up feeling judged. I ended up feeling like I wasn't enough all the time. I ended up feeling or believing that nobody wanted me and that I was unlovable and unloved by zero people. I ended up feeling and believing that I was trash and tried to take my own life off of the earth several times, pray to the Lord, unsuccessfully. I ended up feeling and believing and thinking that there was no use for me in my life. Once I had a second divorce and once I had experienced my kids being taken from me, okay, I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I have no purpose. And so that's when the drugs came in. That's when my mental health also, you know, I don't want to say escalated because that's not maybe not be true, but it was still, it was a part of my story since the fourth grade when I experienced my first disorder and really heavy dysregulation in my life. And I'll touch on that in a minute because I know, I'm sure I've told parts of my story at points throughout this, this, this series, this Stepping Forward series. But I say that to say that we have to get an accurate definition, an accurate view and perspective on what these words mean. Okay. God in his grace and in his awesomeness, he redefines, I don't know if y'all have experienced this, but he redefines words.

When I thought that mental health meant, you know, being on medication so that I didn't try to commit suicide or not being on medication because now I'm a normal person and don't have mental illness and I don't have like this disease that I'm dealing with anymore or that I'll never be mentally well. And God has really intersected that when I came to Christ and said yes to God and I'm all in and you can have my mind and my thoughts and my attitudes and everything that encompasses what mental health means and everything else along the way, God has redefined and reoriented my understanding and the truth about what not only mental health is, but everything else in my life, what love is, what grace is, what peace is, all these things, right? And if that's true for you, I'm welcome to the party. And if it's not true for you yet, maybe you're new to this, thank you for just showing up. And I just, I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that if you stick with the Lord and every day committed and consistent and you're leaning in and you're learning and you're diving into the word of God, that he will transform the way that you think also, and he will change your perspective and change even how you, what you believe and how you behave. And so that is the beauty of the gospel. That is the end result of the gospel for us here down on earth. Also from a faith perspective, mental health includes how we renew our minds through scripture and through relationship with him and what that even means. And so, again, we're going to deep, uh, do a deeper dive. in this throughout this series, but just wanted to find what all this encompasses, all this mental health stuff is encompassing all. So before we get started, I want to first blow up some myths, okay? These are mental health myths that, and our title here is gonna be, You're Not Crazy, You're Human, all right? So we're gonna address some myths,

and it is really always good to examine what we are believing and examining what even the world is saying out there, y'all, because it ain't always true, okay? It ain't always true. It ain't always believable. Google is not right every time. Facebook and social media absolutely are not right all the time. And so we really want to, when we hear something, take it to the word of God and hold it up against the word of God. I think I've said this before, but the way that we, the way that we process or learn how to tell what lies, what lies are versus truth is, we'll use the, I'm sorry, I'm like totally stuttering here. There's something going on out there, and I'm totally like, I'm distracted. I'm so sorry. I'm having a mental health moment, okay? So the way that lies and truth are kind of measured up against each other, in the word of God, it says in 1 Corinthians to take every thought captive and hold it up against the truth, hold it up to the obedience of Christ. And this is actually, I'll give you a worldview of this. The government does this,

and maybe some of y'all know about this. I surely do. But when the government and banks are, learning how to identify counterfeit money, what do they do? They don't go study all the different distortions and the manipulations of the counterfeit money. There would just be way too many. So they get the real true bill and they study that thing to death. They study that thing to death. So that anytime a counterfeit piece of money comes up against it, then they know like, yeah, that's easy, that's counterfeit, that's trash, that's fake news, that's a lie. And so the word of God encourages us to do the same thing, all right? We have to know the truth. The truth is what sets us free. And so we have to know what is going on and are we being led by truth or are we being led by lies? How do we take every thought captive and hold it up to the obedience of Christ? I wrote an article about that, and I can't even tell you which issue it is, but it's called Take Every Thought Captive. I think it was like two years ago, a year and a half ago. And it kind of practically goes through this process of how to do that.

How do we take every thought captive and bring it to the obedience to Christ? How do we line it up with truth and say, okay, yeah, that's not real, that's fake news, that's lying to me, and so this is what I believe. This is what I'm gonna walk in and respond with. Okay, so let me get back. I'm so sorry, I squirrel out all the time. I got too much, too money, it's going out of my head, too much content. Too much content. Okay, so myth number one. If I have strong faith, then I will not struggle mentally. Now, I'm gonna out myself here because I actually thought that for, I thought that, I have thought that for, at a moment or two, okay? I've been walking with the Lord for eight years, and I have thought this to be true at one point, a couple of points, a season, maybe, whenever. Like, if I get so strong mentally that I can outrun any trial or struggle or any mental dysregulation, that just ain't true, fam, okay? That ain't true. The truth is, even people of great faith, in the word of God, in Bible, biblical examples, like David, who was lamenting all the time, he was always, or not always, he was often under periods of distress,

and going to the Lord. The whole Psalms is a book of him crying out to God, lamenting, oh, my soul, why are you so downcast within me? Those type of scriptures. But we also see David landing the plane every time with, God, you are good. God, you are faithful. You are sovereign. Rescue you're my deliverer like all those two and really coming back to the characteristics of God There's so so important and we should take note of that and as a great example of something to follow Okay Elijah Elijah had tremendous victory, but also was extremely overwhelmed. He actually told God. Hey take my life I'm done. I'm tapped out so he experienced mental distress and these are really godly guys, right and And we even see Paul facing depression fear and despair in all the trials that he went through and Guys, I think they all the Paul's writings are It's like peering into his journals. It's like peering into okay How did he process the things that he went through he was imprisoned? He was shipwrecked he was betrayed by People Even in the faith who were Christians and walking with him. He was judged. He felt rejected He was you know mistreated and experienced injustice, but the way Paul has Given us in Scripture and not only his letters But all the other epistles It should be again take we should take note of it Okay He understood he understand not only the the biblical truth of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and how truth

Regulates us and that's what we hold on to and anchor ourselves in at every cost Even if it means we're gonna be in prison for another 20 years. Okay. Well, then this is my anchor This is what I'm declaring and deciding to believe and stand firm in because when we are standing firm and rooted in truth We might be shaken or rattled a little bit, but we will be unmoved Okay, that's what we want to get to but Paul's a great great example of that Not only the you know, the the trials and the sorrows and the troubles that he went through but how he even responded to it So faith doesn't erase our struggle. It doesn't mean that we'll never struggle again It anchors us in the middle of it myth. Number two mental illness is just a spiritual problem Well, you must be sinning somewhere really bad in your life Or you just need to pray more and read more. Have y'all ever heard that? That is such a disservice to us. That is such a disservice to us Well, if you were, you know, if you're experiencing anxiety Clearly, there's some sin in you somewhere or you just need to trust guard heart trust guard God harder You're just not doing enough so you need to try harder do better that's not That is not Christianity. That is a Christian Okay, because that is not what the Lord tells us. That is not truth. Here's the truth Mental health involves our physical which is our biological Our mind our will our emotions, which is our psychological and a spiritual Aspects again, we are a three-part being first. Thessalonians says that It's not just a sin issue. It's not just lack of prayer Sometimes it's trauma or brain chemistry. Sometimes it's prolonged stress. That's a whole nother Uh, that's a whole nother segment About stress the nature of stress and how it has impacts So that's that's just simply not true myth number three therapy or counseling is for weak and unstable people What No, man counseling helps save my life counseling And programs and meeting with godly people and having godly mentors surrounding you And it's not just a sin issue. It's not just a lack of prayer And programs and meeting with godly people and having godly mentors surrounding you Is needed it is a part of living as a new creation because I know in my old life

I was not trying to listen to anybody. I wanted to complain. I wanted to blame I wanted to You know do all those things be angry be bitter. I was not trying to be moved and counseled through And poured into By the truth and godly people and so counseling and therapy are good good provisions that god gives us so don't oh if if you if you are thinking that Uh You know Maybe counseling or therapy is your last resort or maybe you're in counseling or therapy and you feel like you're crazy and you're dumb Those are lies from the pit of hell don't believe those okay God has placed people in our lives for a reason and a season and to help us through the really difficult things that we have gone through. Help us to process the really difficult things that we have experienced in our life and we need some outside help to do that. There is nothing wrong with that. So therapy is for people who want to grow. Straight up. I love therapy. I love it so much. I love counseling so much that that's what I went and got my degree in after I came to the Lord because I was so helped by counseling and by therapy and different modalities like really really helped me and a godly counselor really really helped me walk through and heal, walk through that processing of healing. So it is not for weak or unstable people. It's actually for strong people who say hey I need some help and I don't know what I'm doing and there is strength in that. There is power in that. It actually gives us our power back because that kind of method tells us that we are powerless and that you can probably do it by yourself and you don't need people and that's not the kingdom of God. That's not that's not our new creation life. So seeking help is wise and it is courageous. Raising that white flag is one of the most courageous things you can ever do and God calls us to live with courage not spirit of fear.

God often works through skilled counselors as he works through doctors. Same way. Okay. Myth number four. Christians shouldn't need medication. If you are Christian and again if your faith is really strong then you absolutely should not be on medication. Well that is not true. Taking medication for your mind is no different than taking it for insulin production you know if you're like a diabetic. Okay. There are there are times and seasons especially with the things that we have gone through where medication might be a part of your story and and that is okay. That does not mean anything. So I just want to reduce that stigma. Okay. It does not if you're a Christian and if you have heard or believe that Christians should be so faithfully and mentally and spiritually strong that you don't need medication that's just not true family. God can use both prayer and medicine in healing. All right. Myth number five. Talking about mental health means that you're focused on yourself too much. That is total crap. Honoring your mental health is not selfish it is sacred. It is sacred. Okay. The scriptures tell us to examine our ways. Socrates a great Greek philosopher and I believe this with all my heart he says to know thyself there is good in knowing what in knowing how we operate in knowing how God has designed us in knowing and understanding our brain and the science of our brain and our thoughts. So it is not selfish it is sacred. The healthier you are the more you can love and serve others effectively. Myth number six. Once you're saved you should always feel joy and if you're not feeling joy it probably also then means that you have not been truly saved. That's not true. That's just not true. The truth is joy is deeper than just an emotion. It is it coexists with sorrow. We actually need that sorrow and the trouble and the suffering of life to experience that joy to meet for for the Lord to meet us for God to meet us in our pain in our in our pain and in our suffering in our sorrow so that we can experience his peace his presence and his power and that's what brings us joy. Leaning into and leaning on God to satisfy us to fill us to meet us in our time of need that brings us joy because that means we're not alone we're just not down here trying to again figure it out on our own and we're left

here wandering and floundering. That's not truth. It says in the Word of God in Psalm 34 18 that God is close to the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit. He loves to enter into our pain. He loves to sit with us in our sorrow and there there will be seasons like Ecclesiastes says. Even Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That's in Isaiah 53 3. So it's just part of our story and and family whether you are walking through something sorrowful and difficult and challenging right now which you probably are usually we're either fixing to go into a season of something that's difficult or you're maybe you're in it right now and incarceration is part of it being separated from your family's part of it. Missing birthdays, missing anniversaries, missing even Mother's Day the other day is probably part of it. Receiving hard and troubling news, having a difficult day, dancing the dance of transformation two steps forward, one step back. Like maybe if that's you anywhere, okay, you're human and that's what you're experiencing. But I want to encourage you that in our places of struggling and challenges and difficulty and sorrows and grief and loss, Jesus knows better than any of us and has walked through it. And why wouldn't we want to go to somebody who has already been through it, walked through it, overcome it and come out on the other side, even has all the scars to prove it. Hello. And so that's what he's doing for us, fam. He is showing us that, yeah, the enemy, the world's trying to take me out too. And check it out. I rose again. I overcame, I walked through it and I came out the other side and I'm here to show you the way out. And so I hope that is encouraging to you to look to Christ, to look to the originator and the perfecter of our faith because he has all the answers and he has his presence and his power and the Holy Spirit and his words that meet us in our time of need, that do not shame us, that do not condemn us for struggling or for being challenged for a moment. That is the enemy. If that is happening to you, that is the enemy. Our God, our Savior and the Holy Spirit do not speak shame and condemnation and judgmental, stigmatic sentences and words and labels over us. That is not our God. And so I just want to encourage you, you know, even the strongest believers, the prophet Elijah, King David, even our Savior, gosh, the prophet Jeremiah, battled with deep distress and they were men after God's own heart. They were found righteous, Job even, right? Even Christ, God did not shame

them. He met them there. So if you're experiencing a challenging day and a challenging time with your mentality, stay tuned. Please stay tuned because we're going to have several different videos on this topic. Again, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We want to bring awareness to it. We want to break the silence, reduce the stigma, and also remind you that God sees, God cares, God understands, and wants to help us in our mental health and well-being journey. He cares so, so, so much about you. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondence, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, NC 27836 or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.