Mental health, medication, and psychotherapy …

Is there a time when medication should be taken for a mental health issue or a mental illness?

Can Christians take medication for a mental health issue or mental illness?

Can counseling with a competent therapist substitute for taking medication?

These and other queries are important questions many people ask every day. So let’s take a moment to consider mental health and the use of medication (psychotropic drugs) and psychotherapy for mental health issues and mental illness.

First, let’s start with a context:

Everyone has “mental health” health just like everyone has physical health, and both are spectrum-based. For example, physical health can range from being disease-free to something “simple” as experiencing a “common cold” or non-threatening allergy, to more serious disease that can impair physical functions or threaten life.

Mental health has a similar spectrum from thriving, to mental health struggles (e.g. nervous, irritable, frustrated, stress) to anxiety and depression, to complex and serious mental illness.

Just as any person would consult a physician for a physical issue or illness, it can be helpful to consult a mental health professional regarding mental health issues, and such consults are usually necessary to treat mental illness.

So, is taking medication for a mental health issue or illness safe and/or necessary? The answer comes from when medication is called for. Key to that answer is that it is important to identify the root cause of any mental health issue or mental illness, and then prescribe the correct treatment for that root cause.

For example, if a mental health issue or mental illness is the result of a biological (or “organic”) root cause, then medical care is necessary to treat the root issue, and that usually requires the prescribing of medication. Psychotherapy is usually also needed as a secondary treatment to deal with the mental and emotional affect of the biological root cause. Sometimes the cause of a mental health issue or mental illness is rooted in our thoughts and emotions that then also generate a physiological response. In that case, the primary treatment would be psychotherapy to address the root issue, but there may also be a need to prescribe medication either to treat secondary issues (the physiological response) or to help moderate physical symptoms so that psychotherapy can become effective in treating the root cause.

And just as it is appropriate for a Christian to seek medical care from a physician and take medication for physical illness, it is appropriate to seek counseling from a mental health professional for mental health issues and mental illness and to take medication for treatment. Both, the physical and the mental, are health issues.

What isn’t helpful is when a person is prescribed medication to only treat symptoms of a mental health issue or mental illness while the root cause remains untreated. A psychotropic drug should be prescribed either to directly treat the root cause of an issue or illness, or to directly treat secondary symptoms while the root cause is being treated as the primary issue.

Also note that if the root cause of a mental health issue or mental illness is biological, then psychotherapy is not an acceptable substitute for taking appropriate medication for the treatment of the biological issue. However, psychotherapy would likely be a recommended secondary treatment to help a person deal with the impact on the thought life and emotions from the illness caused from the biological root source.

With all that said, it reveals key to competent and effective treatment of mental health issues and mental illness is a thorough assessment that leads to an accurate diagnosis of root cause. With that knowledge, an effective treatment plan can be prescribed.

Scotty