Medication and Faith

If you had cancer, you would not worry about telling people you were on chemotherapy – but why is it that we are afraid to tell people we are taking antidepressants? Is it because we are worried we will be seen as weak, fragile, even stupid? And in a church, will we be told we do not have enough faith, that we need to pray or study the Bible more?

All of these responses have been received by people – as if it had not occurred to them to pray about the distress they were in! Yet the reality is that for these people medication was what saved their life. It held their families together, it allowed them to keep their job, it kept them sane (sometimes literally).
 

The pros and cons

Medication does have its problems. There are side effects, some of which are significant. It does not help in some areas nor indeed is it the full answer to any mental health problem. It can ‘blunt’ the emotions, meaning we perhaps at times could do more wrestling and searching. It can be overused to treat unhappiness, low self-esteem and the ‘issues of life’.
 
However, the lessons of history are clear testimony to the benefit of medication for severe mental illness. Until the middle part of the 19th century, huge numbers of people needed psychiatric inpatient care. In 1951, a medication called Chlorpromazine was first used – bringing health and sanity to thousands. Some people say that psychiatric medication is not all that effective – and perhaps it is not for mild/moderate illness – but you should have seen what things were like before it was invented.
 
** IMPORTANT: stopping medication is a common reason for being admitted to hospital and should never be done without medical supervision. **
 
We know that over 50% of people with severe depression will get significantly better with an anti-depressant. The remaining 50% can usually get some benefit with other medications. Over 70% of people with psychosis or schizophrenia will benefit significantly from antipsychotic medication. The remaining 30% will benefit in part, and would be extremely unwell with no medication.
 
The fact that there are medicines for mental illness also allows people to adopt the ‘sick role’ – meaning they can take time of work, receive help and benefits, and be seen as ‘ill’ instead of lazy. A very small minority of people abuse this sick role and its permissions. The vast majority of people with mental illness need this support – either for a time or for the long term.
 

Types of Medication

There are four main types of psychiatric medications listed in the British National Formulary. You can read more about individual medications on the Choice and Medication website.
- Anti-psychotics: These medicines mainly reduce a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the frontal lobes of the brain. This is overactive in psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia.
- Antidepressants: These mainly raise the levels of a chemical called serotonin, which is lowered in severe depression.
- Mood Stabilisers: These are treatments for bipolar affective disorder (though anti-psychotics are effective here too). They include Lithium, and some other medications also licenced for epilepsy. Their method of action is not well understood.
- Hypnotics and Anxiolytics: These include benzodiazepines, ‘Z-drugs’ and a range of other sedating medicines. They do not treat active illness, but can help with symptoms in the short term as the medications above can take some weeks to act. Sleeping tablets should not be taken long term.There are other smaller groups – medications for dementia, attention deficit disorder and substance misuse/dependence.

Sometimes Christians can be nervous about taking medication that acts on the brain because they think that is the organ where their ‘faith’ lives. The brain may be where we construct thoughts about God, where we process the Bible words. But our faith is bigger than our skulls, and our understanding of the Bible is bigger than reading words.
 
Anyway, we typically have no problem taking other ‘psycho-active’ medications:

- Would you take paracetamol for pain? Well, that acts on the central nervous system to change how the painful part of the body is seen by the brain.
- Would you take anti-epileptic medication for seizures? Well that definitely acts in the brain! And ‘seizures’ gets far more spiritual attention in the Bible than mental illness.
--Would you take chemotherapy? That can have awful side effects (worse than psychiatric medication) but is taken because it can save lives. Well, so do antidepressants and anti-psychotics. 
 

How to take medication

Medication is not perfect – not everyone responds, not all the symptoms go. One analogy is to think if it like scaffolding on a building. It can ‘hold things up’ while some other building (such as talking treatments or lifestyle changes) take place. Of course, the analogy is not perfect, as some people may need to continue to take medications long term. There is no shame in this – it just means that they have a particular form of illness.
 
Medication is part of the treatment of mental illness – and sits well along side faith and healing as part of a holistic model of health and wellness. One day we will all be perfectly healthy, but on this earth there are a number of ways of healing that can act together and in different ways. God has given us doctors and scientists, and He has given us medication to use wisely and well.
 

Links:

 
When is it right to talk, to pray or take a tablet? This article compares some situations.
Listen to this audio recording of a seminar about Christians and medication
One man’s struggle with realising he needed to take medication for the long term
Medication, Electro-Convulsive Therapy and even Neurosurgery? “A Thorn in the Mind” is one lady’s biography of how she reconciled the medical and spiritual treatments
NHS Patient Information Leaflets about a range of psychiatric medications