Not too long ago, I had someone share with me their story of their mental health journey. Like many who are on this journey, you wouldn’t know the things they are struggling with unless they opened up to you. Like many on this journey, it took them a long time to open up to anyone. Though we have come a far way in publicly talking about and acknowledging the mental health struggles we have, there is still a far way to go. As a church, our job is to help alleviate the suffering in people’s lives. One of the ways we can do that is to be a part of destigmatizing mental health within any space in which we occupy. So, let’s talk mental health.
A quick search on the National Institute of Mental Health revealed some staggering statistics.
Over 60 million, or 1 in 4, U.S. adults (23.4%) experienced mental illness in 2024.
Over 1 billion people worldwide live with a mental health condition.
Anxiety and depression are the most common conditions.
15.4 million (6%) live with Serious Mental Illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, or severe depression, with young adults ages 18-25 having the highest prevalence of SMI at 11.6%.
49.5% of adolescents ages 13–18 experience a mental health disorder at some point.
I had to look up this last number in a couple of different places, because it was so staggering to me. All of these statistics can be staggering when we realize the impact mental health has on the individual and the community in which they live. I bet each of us knows someone close to us who lives with a mental health condition(s). The silver lining here is that there is hope. There is help.
May 2026 is Mental Health Awareness Month. There are many great resources out there that can be found at the tip of our fingers. One of those resources is Mental Health America. They announced this year’s theme is “More Good Days, Together.” The theme emphasizes individual recognition as we each can define what a “good day” is to us. It also emphasizes collective action as we help each other create a “good day.”
The question I ask you, the church, is how can we help destigmatize mental health and alleviate the suffering associated with mental health conditions? A few things we can do are:
Look up Mental Health America (MHA), and share the resources available with others.
Wear as much green as you can this month, as that is the ribbon color for mental health.
Post about it on social media in a positive and helpful light.
Pick up a book in our library to further educate yourself on mental health, or gain some tips on coping with your own mental health challenges.
A couple of recommendations are:
Check in on a friend who you know struggles with a mental health condition(s).
Get help if you need it. I am not a counselor, but my door is always open, and we have great resources that I can help point you to.
Last but not least, lean into Jesus. I will never be one to say, “If you pray hard enough, your mental health condition will go away.” I wish Jesus’s most popular way of engaging our suffering was to take it away, but it is not. This is not to say he can’t or won’t, but most often, he can be found walking with those who suffer, providing the care that is needed so that we can experience “One More Good Day, Together.”
From one light to another,
Pastor Hannah
Photo by Piersey