GOD AND MENTAL ILLNESS
‘On Getting out of Bed’ - Alan Noble’s Book on Mental Illness
Alan Noble’s book, entitled ‘On Getting Out of Bed,’ is a serious, engaging and deep exploration into the human struggle with mental illness. It engages mental suffering like few books I have ever read. And I’m not just saying that.
It’s obvious this book is personal for Noble. As you turn every page, you’re sorting through issues of mental struggle presented in a way that is not possible with a medical journal article or a theological book. It takes the subject of mental illness out of the third person, all the while touching on the key issues we all must face, who either struggle with mental illness, or walk alongside someone who does.
THE UNSPOKEN CONSPIRACY
Noble describes the “unspoken conspiracy to ignore how difficult life is, or to reframe it as something romantic – a heroic challenge we overcome on our way to the good life” (p.7). And so Noble illumines how there’s this cultural frame in the United States that shapes us to think of life as a quest for self-fulfillment that all good people should naturally achieve, if they just try hard enough, work hard enough and make good decisions. And the church often (especially white affluent church) goes along with this. And so we hide our struggles. No one wants to talk about the pain or the suffering as they live in the cage of this narrative. And mental illness just festers among us with little or no space to be processed. I think churches should use this phrase- “the unspoken conspiracy”- to uncover this cultural frame harming us all who live with mental struggles, keeping us from progress, even healing and wholeness.
I wonder how much of the Disney cultural doctrines of idealist self fulilment contribute to “the unspoken conspiracy.” These doctrines preach you can achieve anything if you just be you, express yourself, and work hard enough to fulfill your dreams. I say “Bleh.”
How many of our churches engage the problematics of this narrative? And so we just go on, scripting the Christian narratives as one where our marriages will be romantic forever lovefests, our jobs will eventually become dream-jobs if we keep dreaming and praying, and our churches (and Jesus) will be support networks to a life of affluence, accomplishment, achievement and self-fulfilment. We can get all of this if we just follow Jesus, lead moral lives, and work hard? That is the narrative that is the unspoken conspiracy. Again I say “bleh” to all of this.
Noble asks us to “think about someone you know who is living the good life: someone well dressed, confident, smiling, high achieving, maybe even attractive and intelligent and funny. Nine times out of ten,” Noble says, “they are carrying around something unspeakably painful.”(p.9). “Life is hard,” Noble tells us, “sometimes … all-but-unbearably hard.” (p.26) And so there’s nothing remotely Christian about this Disneyfied prosperity Americanized dream culture. And I would argue it is empty fulfilment even when this dream culture does work for the few of us. I say “bleh” to all of this. I say “many thanks to Alan Noble for the reality check.” Maybe now we can settle ourselves into living daily into the life of brokenness, adversity, suffering, seeking faithfulness instead of fulfilment, joy instead of happiness.
PRACTICAL ADVICE
There is much simple, practical advice in this book, unencumbered by the technical language of the medical, psychiatric, or theological profession. Stuff I have often thought, but didn’t know how to say or even whether I could or should say it. Alan Noble says it.
Practical stuff like this … “In my experience, the only way to move forward is to dedicate yourself to doing the next thing. To do the next thing is not to deny our responsibilies but to recognize that faithfulness is always an obligation for the present. Right now we have the duty to serve God by doing whatever good work He has put before us.”(p. 43).
Noble continually recommends getting professional help throughout the book. But he clears some space for some practical expectations. He lauds what professional thearpy and psychiatry can do to help us through mental illness, manage mental illness, and yet somehow he still manages to help us recognize the limits of professional therapy, what it can and cannot do, what we should not expect it to do. “Psychology and psychiatry don’t have an answer for why life is worth living despite suffering. They can’t shield you from the question by curing you. They can do a great deal to help us manage our mental suffering whether it counts as a formal, insurance approved medical diagnosis or not. But we’re still left with the same choice. We still have to get out of bed”… in the morning (p.25).
NOBLE’S THEOLOGY KINDA HAPPENS IN THE BOOK
Noble doesn’t force theological positions on therapy down your throat. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t profound theology woven by Noble within this short masterpiece.
In chapter four, for instance, he riffs on choosing to do the next thing. He discusses the mundaneness of life, that can seem purposeless. And he says “This is precisely why we must see that each choice to do the next thing is an act of worship… Choose to do the next thing before and unto God, take a step toward the block. That is all you must ever do and all you can do. It is your spiritual act of worship” (p.45). That is a word. That is theology for all of us, whether we are grappling with mental struggle or not. It is profoundly theological
He riffs on the way guilt can work on you, the lack of peace, and even whether or not it’s the Spirit speaking to you. He talks about living in the flesh, defying God, and learning to live under God’s sovereignty and goodness and preservation, all within the frame of mental illness. He does it in a way which acknowledges and deciphers the way the church has used these ideas to deny the legitimate existence of mental illness. He leads all of us who have ever suffered with mental illness into a pathway to walk with our mental struggle into the wonder and perseverance of God’s grace.
For years I’ve been unhappy with the extremes within post-evangelicalism as we react against the ways excessive streams of evangelical fundamentalism have argued “you cannot be saved and have depression.” We have rightfully reacted to this with anger. In the process some of us have tried to sequester mental illness and its treatment away from anything spiritual, from anything having to do with God. And so I’ve heard people say that mental illness should be treated as no different than breaking your arm, and you wouldn’t go to your pastor or your church to heal your broken arm, would you? So why would go to the church (or Jesus?) to heal your mental illness? We must keep mental illness separate from spiritual life and God!!
I get where this is coming from. But, truthfully, I’ve had a broken arm. And I’ve had some serious physical ailments. And I’ve never refrained from going to my medical doctors for interventions. But I’ve never seen the healing (or preserving work) in my body, aided by the doctors, to be separate from the healing, preserving power of God. Likewise, I cannot see anyone’s struggle, including my own, with mental illness as being separate from God and his continuing work in my life through the Spirit and the community around me. This does not necessarily infer instantaneous healing (although it has happened in my life). Nonetheless, I believe we should never separate our mental illness from the work of God in and through Jesus by His Spirit. But we do need to discern a better theology of therapy and therapy culture than traditionally offered within some fundamentalist streams of Christianity.
SORRY FOR THIS REVIEW
In the preface of the book, Alan Noble says “if you take away one truth, the one thing in this book I know with certainty, let it be this: your life is a good gift from a loving God, even when subjectively it doesn’t feel good or like a gift, and even when you doubt that God is loving. Please get out of bed anyway (p. 3).” What a statement said by a man who can say it. May it resound through the minds and hearts of the thousands, the millions, struggling with mental illness in our times. For all of us I give thanks to God for this book.
Oh, and lastly, I’m sorry for having no criticism of this book. But it’s that good.
Good stuff, I'll check out the book. Another title that I feel addresses the gray area between psychology / theology extremely well is Kathleen Norris's book Acedia and Me. She helped me name some deep features in my experience that I couldn't quite get at through a psychological / therapeutic lens, while still validating mental illness / therapy as legitimate. The key for acedia is getting active with something tangible / tactile, not too dissimilar from "doing the next thing."
Are you familiar with Dan McAdams' work on narrative identify formation? I thought of that a time or two throughout this review. He argues that America's metanarrative for identify formation is "redemption" (or what Vonnegut called the "man in a hole" plot)—an up-and-to-the-right shape that Americans assume their life will ultimately take. If he's right, that might mean that Americans are almost constitutionally unable to admit that our lives are not, in fact, moving up and to the right at all times. We have very little imagination for another narrative shape.