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University SDA Church- East Lansing

Mental Health

Eric Walsh

01 The Mental Health Crisis

Let me get used to this high-tech stuff Pastor has here at his church.

I have to bring home with me and use good equipment.

We are glad to be with you, and this is, like I said, a very serious topic.

Maybe I'll reference this more later on, but we'll go first into our scripture reading.

And the Bible says in Jeremiah 8 and verse 15, we looked for peace, but no good came.

And for a time of health and behold, there was trouble.

So our message tonight is the mental health crisis.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

I thank you Lord for your mercy and for your grace.

Lord, as we delve into this, I am asking for Holy Ghost power.

Someone is going to hear these messages and, Lord, it will reach them at a point where they are deciding between life and death.

Help us now, Lord, to do your will, to follow the laws you have for health and mental health.

And help us, Lord, to be blessed by this series.

And Lord, for me, Lord, let me decrease, and you increase now.

So I'll start by giving you a little background.

I don't want to walk too much because I don't know how far the cameras follow.

But this is a really important topic to me, not just because as a physician and preacher.

I've worked as a pastor on the West Coast for Southern California Conference, Southeastern California Conference.

Even where I'm at now at my church as the head elder, I do a lot of work there.

Medicine, of course, like I said earlier, I see this in practice all the time.

But it's really resonated with me when it struck close to home.

I have a little cousin, 13 years old, and she committed suicide.

Always happy, and it just, to this day, still makes no sense to me, except I understand a Bit at least about spiritual warfare So when we talk tonight and as we talk this week by God's grace we are talking into this and I'll give more about that Later on but I do want you to understand why this is a topic that I'm passionate about, because this is something that can strike any family.

And as we talk about this this week, you're gonna see, as we talk about different aspects of it, it strikes almost every home, And many of us will see that we've wrestled with some of the things that we're going to discuss.

The Bible actually tells us that this would happen.

In Luke chapter 21 and verse 25, the Bible says, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.

Verse 26 says, this is what the Bible, Christ speaking, predicts.

For fear and for looking for those things which are coming on the earth.

For the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Now, this verse tells us that 1 of the signs of the end of time, 1 of the signs of the soon coming of Christ, is actually that there will be a global mental health crisis.

That men's hearts, and a heart in the scripture is your mind, men's minds will fail them for fear.

Because they will be looking, and the King James Version says it, looking after those things which are coming on the earth.

This version says, and failing them at the expectation of those things which are coming on the Earth.

This version says, failing them at the expectation of those things which are coming on the Earth.

When the war broke out in the Ukraine, My realtor, really good guy, he's an atheist, he's a former Orthodox Jew, studied Judaism, but now he's an atheist, and he called me, and he said, what does this mean?

Don't worry, I'm no expert in Ukrainian or Russian history, but he knows I'm a Christian and a believer in the scripture.

And he was calling to try and figure out, how does this war, what does it mean?

It was 1 of my Bible studies students that were lost that called me about the Ukrainian war, but both of them it was the same thing.

These wars broke out and people called and said, what does this mean?

You saw this last election, and depending on, you know, I'm an independent, I don't have a side, my citizenship is in heaven.

But I saw people really suffering at the results of people.

We live in a time when people can, it's volatile in the minds and souls of folk.

And Christ said that that is what would happen.

Jeremiah, if you go all the way back to 8.15 again, he says, we looked for peace, but no good came.

And for a time of health, and there was trouble.

So there's 2 things as we enter into this week.

First of all, we have to become good at recognizing when someone is having these issues.

First and foremost, we have to be good at recognizing when we ourselves are having these issues.

We also have to see this as an opportunity to serve others.

I was gonna see what the protective factors are.

We speak often that the health message is the right arm of the gospel.

Helping people with mental health, then, is the thumb of that right hand.

In fact, we'll talk about this later in the week, the whole point of the health message is to make minds clear so that they're discerning, so they can make right decisions.

Let's go into what this looks like as we look at America's Mental health crisis.

This is a great article from the Pew Research Foundation.

I like a lot of what they do in terms of looking at data and pulling things together.

It was entitled America's Mental Health Crisis.

In the article, he actually says there are 3 mental health crises that are overlapping.

First, there's a youth mental health crisis.

I'm going to talk mostly about that tonight, and 1 aspect of it.

Then there's serious mental health issues.

And we're going to talk about this later in the week.

A serious mental health issue, I don't know how many of you have ever seen someone who actually has like paranoid schizophrenia or active psychosis.

I remember when I did my psychiatry rotation, where I went to medical school at the University of Miami in Florida, and saw a concentration of those patients for the first time, I was really kind of overwhelmed.

I honestly, I didn't even know how to react to it.

But this is, these serious mental health issues, and I'll give you a spoiler alert.

In many states, and I've seen it here in Michigan, we've legalized recreational marijuana.

And we're gonna talk later on about how that's gonna impact this circle.

People think this is harmless, they think it calms you down, these things.

We're going to go in detail as to what the real impact of the mass legalization of marijuana is going to be on society.

And we'll talk more about that later on and why it's not a good way to deal with anxiety and stress.

Which leads to the third circle, which is the addiction crisis, which we'll talk about specifically as well.

From the article that I just showed you, here's what the author says, young people are contending with anxiety, Jails have become de facto mental health centers.

And deaths are rising from drug overdoses.

But we know the way forward if we have the will.

I won't use his outline for how to go forward.

If we have the will, there is a way forward.

02 The Stress Equation

All right, we're going to get right into it tonight.

And I definitely want to get through everything, enjoying my time here in East Lansing.

And we'll be at the Academy tomorrow here in East Lansing.

And then Thursday morning, I'm going to the Academy.

I have to make sure I get the name of it so it goes over the airs, but looking forward to that tomorrow morning as well.

Our scripture reading tonight is connected to actually 1 of the verses we read last night, and it is from 2 Timothy 1, and verse 7.

It says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." God has not given us a spirit of fear, that's anxiety, that's worry.

Instead, it's power, love, and a sound mind.

So our talk tonight, again, is entitled The Stress Equation.

Father God, now we just ask for an extra outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

There's no reason for me to be the 1 who is creating this content.

Lord, I ask that you speak through me because many of us are stressed out, overwhelmed, worried, and we need to hear a word from you, a word of hope and of peace.

So when I used to do this talk at 1 of my jobs, I actually used to do it for the HR department.

And they would bring me in, and I would do a series at ease, and employees could sign up.

1 of the things I would do is case studies.

And the case study that we're going to start our talk off with tonight is a 36-year-old female.

She's a marketing director, vice president in her company.

She goes in to see her doctor, and this is what she says.

The wheels on my tricycle are about to fall off.

But on the surface, everything seems well.

From the outside, she's very well-dressed, incredibly well-spoken, very well put together.

But she says the wheels of her tricycle seem like they're about to fall off.

You all know what she's trying to say there.

So over the past several months, she had attacks of shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pains, dizziness, and tingling sensations in her fingers and toes, filled with a sense of impending doom.

That's always worrisome for doctors to hear.

She would become anxious to the point of panic.

Well, if it gets bad enough, it's a panic attack.

Every day she awoke with a dreadful feeling that an attack might strike without reason or warning.

And I've had patients like this who are, when they go to drive, even to work or from work sometimes, they literally have to stop and pull over on the road because the panic attack is so overwhelming.

I've had patients that couldn't even finish driving home.

They literally had to stay there and someone had to come and get them off the side of the highway because of these panic attacks.

So eventually she goes to the emergency department with chest pressure after she had a fight with her boyfriend.

She was short of breath, and she demanded she be admitted after a separate time she went to the ED, was with chest pressure and shortness of breath.

It was after she had, and she wanted to be admitted, she had a disagreement with her boss.

And she was really upset about dealing with her boss.

So she insisted to her primary doctor, of course, every time she goes in, they run all the tests in the emergency room.

They find nothing organically, physically wrong with her.

So she insists to her primary doctor that she be given an anxiolytic medication, meaning something that gets rid of anxiety.

She was not happy and found a cardiologist on her own because her doctor wouldn't do what she wanted.

The cardiologist ran a number of tests and sent her to the psychologist, ran a number of tests and explained to her how stress could be causing her symptoms.

So, Notice that she went to the emergency department multiple times.

And it wasn't until she actually sat with a psychologist who can't prescribe medications, but sat and ran the tests, talked her through these things, finally got her to a place where she could explain what might be causing her symptoms.

Now, this is how many in America really feel.

And 1 of the verses of the scriptures that comes to mind is 1 John 4 and verse 18.

It says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love does what?

You think the opposite of fear is courage, and it is, But from a spiritual standpoint, the opposite of fear is love.

And this is where the Bible says God is love.

There's something about that that actually helps.

And so to make this really look good, this is living in a stress pool is the way I call it.

We're living in a situation where we're super stressed out.

They give these stress statistics for 2024.

They ask the question, how common is stress, and who is most affected?

Stress isn't technically a disease, although it can have lasting effects on an individual's mental health.

I'm going to give you another 1 in a little while.

The American Institute of Stress defines stress as the body's nonspecific response to any demand.

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, frequently The source of stress is rooted in change, like a big move, a new job, or a wedding, but it can also stem from a person's surroundings, like an aggressive boss or a tense conversation.

But 1 of the worst things that can happen to you is that you be placed in a stressful environment.

When I was in the 10th grade, my mother moved us from Connecticut to Miami.

And I visited my family in Miami all the summers growing up, so I'd only experienced Miami in the worst time to go, summer.

And I would go down every summer and melt.

I mean, we went to the beach for Christmas.

But we moved next to a neighborhood that was actually pretty rough.

And this is the first time I understood what it means to be in a stressful environment.

Our little neighborhood in Connecticut, in the city of Hartford, had its issues.

But we moved next to 1 of the crack capitals of the United States of America in the section of South Dade County called Perrine, Dade County, Perrine, Miami, Dade County.

Police helicopters going overhead, gunshots sometimes heard in the distance, the threat and fear of violence and crime.

And I can tell you, although it didn't affect me probably as much as some of the other folk, to live in an environment like that is quite stressful.

And that can actually cause disease, as we're going to talk about.

And so stress can come from a lot of different ways.

This says, more than 3 quarters of adults report symptoms of stress, headaches, tiredness, depression.

03 Depression and Anxiety

All right, so tonight we're gonna deal with anxiety and depression, depression and anxiety, and this is again something very close and dear.

It's 1 of the main reasons that a lot of people actually go to see a physician in the first place.

And it is also 1 of the, it can be something very difficult to treat at times.

And I will tell you that my approach tonight is more of a spiritual approach to the topic.

So let's just get into it and we'll see where we go.

Our scripture reading taken from 3 John chapter 2 says, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.

So our talk tonight again, depression, anxiety.

Father God, We thank you for this opportunity to look at these 2 conditions and to try and Lord, find a way to heal and improve for those who are caught in this.

But Lord, we need to see how you want us to see this.

And we're asking for Holy Spirit guidance, Lord.

I pray right now, Lord, that you bind the devil, cast him far from here, and send your Holy Spirit into this place.

The Lord, we would understand in a way that we never have.

All right, so I'm gonna go to the book of Job, 1 of my favorite books of the Bible.

1 of the things, again, if you study the Bible, not only did I talk about therapy, this is 1 of the stories in the Bible where there's some great therapy and bad therapy all in 1 place.

I'm gonna jump to the second chapter, but let me catch you up in the story from the first chapter Job starts off he's sacrificing for his children Just in case they have they have sinned basically there's a there's a There's a dialogue between God and between Satan, and God says, hey, have you seen my servant Job?

And the devil says, listen, if you bless him like that, of course he's gonna do well.

So God gives him permission to damage the things around him.

And as you remember, he loses all of his property, he loses his children, and Job goes into depression.

But it gets worse from there, and that's where we're gonna pick up, because I didn't wanna read the whole first chapter.

Let's read this second chapter and look at 1 of the stories of depression in the Bible.

And then I'm going to bring you to 1 of the stories that really show how God deals with this at the end of the message.

So Job chapter 2 and verse 1 says, Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.

And Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?

And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Now this, for those who don't study the Bible especially, this is a very peculiar passage.

So I'll give you a bit of the Adventist view on this just because I have to throw in a little theology, I think, in order for this story to make sense.

When Adam and Eve fell in the garden and when they sinned, Satan took leadership of this earth.

The Bible says he's the prince of the air.

He has, you know, it gives him other titles.

And 1 of the places we see that he got this is when the sons of God gathered before God, we believe these are the leaders of the unfallen worlds, here is Satan in the midst of it.

And when you get to this point, he is talking to God, and God is even asking him questions.

So in verse 3, it says, And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, similar to what he said in the first chapter of the book, that there is none like him on earth, a perfect and upright man, 1 that fears God and eschews evil, means he turns away from doing evil.

And still he holds fast his integrity, watch this, even though you moved me against him to destroy him without cause." And God said, listen, we put Job to the test, we caused him to lose all his property, he's lost his children, and we did this, he did nothing wrong and we did this.

Verse 4, and Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

And so Satan says, yeah, that might be good.

But in fact, you know, we didn't really touch him and his life is not in jeopardy, so of course he's gonna remain faithful.

Satan then says to God, but put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse you to your face.

If you make him sick physically, he will break down, and this man will curse you to your face.

Verse 6, and the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in your hand, but do what?

There's a powerful spiritual lesson from this.

That is, the devil can only go so far in how much he messes with you.

Now I wish I had full time to break this whole thing down.

Maybe over the rest of the messages I'll add a few pieces to this but let me say this God does allow trial to come to us Revelation chapter 3 in verse 19 Jesus says all those whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent A few verses earlier speaking to the church of Laodicea, Jesus says, I challenge you to buy of me gold, I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire.

Biblically, it means that it is through difficulty and trial that we are purified in character.

If you remember that, you'll look at and experience your trials very different.

We talked a little bit about that last night.

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Series

Mental Health

05 The United States of Addiction

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 The Mental Health Crisis

44m

02 The Stress Equation

49m

03 Depression and Anxiety

47m

04 The Power of Relationships

44m

05 The United States of Addiction

1h 3m

06 How God Treats Mental Health

55m

07 Questions and Answers

1h 6m

Sound Doctrine