What role does medication play to restore and maintain healthy emotions?

I invite you to explore some of the more confusing and debated issues surrounding emotional health. These will include those with a Christian worldview: the role of medication; dealing with fears of medication side effects and finding a psychiatric prescriber. Plus mindfulness and meditation, prayer and emotional healing will be covered.

I begin with a personal story. Beginning at age five, I experienced episodes of anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, and all sorts of rituals used to cope with overwhelming anxiety.  Due to a supportive family, church, and competitive running in middle and high school, I handled life and weathered the cycles of anxiety and its corresponding depression. At this time, there was little understanding of mood disorders and medication to treat it.

Fast forward through college, marriage, and parenting four young children. At age 35, happy in my role as a pastor at a large church. I was 60 seconds away from walking on stage to welcome 3,000 people to worship, a responsibility I loved. Suddenly, the room started spinning, my heart began racing, and I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. Frantic, I walked over to our senior pastor and told him he needed to take over.   

That morning was the beginning of a three-month descent into one of the worst episodes of anxiety and depression I had ever experienced. I could not eat, sleep, or organize my thoughts. Praying, reading Scripture, being with people, nothing eased the anxiety. I truly thought I was going insane and wondered how I could care for my kids or hold down my job.

With great humiliation and desperation, I called a friend who said: Jenny, I think it is time for you to consider medication. I felt like going on medication was admitting defeat. However, my state of mind compelled me to reach out to a good friend who pulled some strings so I could see his staff psychiatrist that day. This woman helped me put the pieces of my life with anxiety together for the first time in 30 years. She prescribed a daily medication for my daily symptoms and an as-needed medication for panic attacks. 

I remember three weeks later, waking up like I had a new brain. It was the first morning in years that I didn’t wake up with a racing heart, thoughts, or sweaty palms. Now, 14 years later, on a lower but still much-needed dosage, I continue to thank God for the gift of medication.  

So, how do you decide if medication is necessary?

1.  A person has exhausted the baseline standards to deal with depression, anxiety, and/or mood instability with little or no change. This includes good stress management, regular exercise, decent nutrition, counseling and other support.

2.  A person experiences physical symptoms which can be manifested in a host of ways: stomach aches, body aches, fatigue, shortness of breath, tingling in arms, hands, feet, changes in eating or sleeping routines, and more. Psychological symptoms include: racing, ruminating thoughts that are difficult to stop, generalized feelings of dread or apathy, generalized sense of “not being oneself.”

3.  A person has a family history of mood disorders or other mental illness. If a person is 50 years or over, history may not be available, but often looking at patterns and behaviors provide helpful clues.

For many, medication is the missing piece in emotional health due to lack of education, misinformation, and fear. I trust this will invite you deeper into God’s healing for yourself or someone you love.

Editor’s note: If you are in need of help that might include medication now, please contact a health professional right away for an evaluation.