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Overwhelming statistics
12 Plays2 years ago
Vernon takes us through some mental health statistics and asks for YOUR feedback. Please send your feedback to web@gmint.org. He suggests you journal your thoughts this week around 4 major categories (God, Life, Yourself, and Others).
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Walking Free' by Grace Ministries
00:00:02
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free! And welcome back to
Purpose and Methods of Grace Ministries
00:00:23
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Every month, in fact, probably every week, I do take a step back and look at what we're doing at Grace Ministries International and look at the need across the country and in other countries and basically ask, what are we doing? Why are we doing it? How are we doing it? How can we do it better?
Core Mission: Counseling and Discipleship
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Where does the Lord want us to
00:00:55
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move. What impact does the Lord want us to make and how can we just rest in Him and trust Him to do the impacting? And obviously at Grace Ministries we focus on counseling and discipleship. That's our bread and butter if you will in terms of ministry. It's what we do and I
Mental Health Statistics and Listener Engagement
00:01:20
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am drawn to the various statistics out there around mental health and I've talked about this occasionally on the podcast and a lot more in other channels. But the mental health statistics are incredible and I really want this podcast, I would love to hear
00:01:41
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from you, sending an email back to web at gmet.org, that's web, W-E-B, at gmet, G-M-I-N-T, dot O-R-G. And I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic of mental health. And here's some of the stats, and I'd like to know
00:02:08
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You have experienced some of this. If you know someone who has experienced these mental health concerns, and it's a crisis.
Mental Health Crisis in Society
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It's a crisis in our schools. It's a crisis at the workplace. It's a crisis in our families. And it's one of those things we often don't talk about, although now it seems to be more out in the open.
00:02:39
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But statistics like this, 21% of US adults, and I know this is US focused, and in some countries it may be higher or lower, 21% of US adults experienced a mental health condition in 2020. 21%! And 5.6% of US adults experienced a serious
00:03:08
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mental health condition in 2020. And that's often defined as a psychotic disorder or a bipolar or severe anxiety or severe eating disorder, something that significantly impairs functioning. Also in 2020, 32.1% of U.S. adults experienced both a mental health condition and substance abuse.
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in 2020 suicide was the second leading cause of death for US children ages 10 to 14 and that was preceded only by unintentional injury. Our students are being just bombarded and this
00:04:09
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by the enemy, by the world, just pressure. And it is driving them to this mental health crisis that results in suicide. Second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14. That just breaks your heart.
Economic Impact of Depression and Anxiety
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And the impact
00:04:39
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that depression and anxiety has on the global economy can be measured in one trillion dollars in lost productivity. That's just depression and anxiety. And if you break it down in gender in terms of who is seeking help, and by the way, all of this is found in an article in Forbes Health, Forbes Magazine.
00:05:11
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In 2020, 51.2% of US females received mental health services while only 37.4% of males received mental health services. So this is just, it is a crisis.
Effectiveness of Discipleship Counseling
00:05:33
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And I always step back and I look at Grace Ministries and yes, we have counseling.
00:05:39
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And counseling, and I think our counseling is incredible. It's pastoral counseling. We call it discipleship counseling. It's a structured process, but a lot of listening that's engaged and involved in that. But it is a process that it's tried and true for over 40 years. And I think it's,
00:06:09
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can be even more dynamic than secular counseling. And there's some good Christian secular counselors out there, licensed mental health professionals that we will even refer to when folks have either payment issues or there's something we believe that a particular mental health professional can really address.
00:06:37
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But for a vast majority of folks, we believe that the discipleship counseling process is an incredible pathway for healing, for help, and to fulfill our mission, which is helping people walk free. Isn't
Living Freely in Christ Through Hardships
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that what you want?
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Isn't that what most people want to walk free from that addictive behavior, to walk free from depression, to walk free from anxiousness? To just walk free. Or as a good church friend of ours, and we love Woodstock Community Church in Woodstock, Georgia.
00:07:27
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And part of their mission statement is walking free in light in Christ. And that ability to be just unburdened, that's what I believe Jesus meant when he said, come to me, all of you who labor and are heavy burdened, I'll give you rest. And if you're a Christian, life isn't one of rest and peace and joy.
00:07:54
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And yes, there's suffering. Yes, there's hardship. And yes, there's problems, but it's trusting Christ in the midst of that. Can you be free and light in that? Yes, you can. You absolutely can.
New Resources for Counseling Access
00:08:10
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But I want to hear from you if you have time to send a quick email to web at gment.org that says, yes, I heard the podcast and here's some
00:08:24
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I have had some struggles with mental health and what has helped you along your journey. We are creating some brand new things and if you're a supporter, financial partner of ours, then you're going to hear about it in our special sharecast.
00:08:45
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that we think, again, is one more step that we can get out in front of this and have something for folks, a resource that can really help. Counseling is great, but so few people will commit to the counseling. I mean, it's time. It is time.
00:09:05
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and it does cost money, and we do our best to help with a sliding scale based on income. We don't want finances to get in the way of somebody who needs counseling, but there are folks who will just never grace the doors of a counseling center, the virtual doors.
Feedback on Counseling Resources
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What's for them? Is there something for them?
00:09:30
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Well, that's what we're building. And again, we'll share more of that. We wanna let our financial supporters know first, kind of get them, let them know what's happening. But I'd like to know from your perspective, what would help you in this? Is there something, a resource that you say, man, if I had this, this would really be helpful. If I had this and this and this, that would be amazing. I would really love to hear.
00:09:58
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your feedback and you can send it straight to our web team web at gmet.org.
Mental Health in Young Adults
00:10:08
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I was again looking at some of these statistics and can you let me know also? So again, this is a plea for your feedback.
00:10:23
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to validate some of these statistics. Young adults ages 18 to 25 in the United States have the highest rate of experiencing any mental health concerns, 30.6% compared to adults aged 26 to 49. And the highest rate for that 18 to 25 of serious mental illness, almost 10%.
00:10:52
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30.6%, ages 18 to 25. A third compared to those ages 26 to 49. This issue of mental health, when you look in the New Testament, and when Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament,
00:11:18
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is writing, you see just so many references to the mind. And this mind, I mean, what is mental health? It's health in the mind and in the heart. And Paul addresses a lot of this and you see him mentioning over and over which gives me pause as I read the scripture.
00:11:49
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where Paul talks about in Romans 1, those who didn't even acknowledge God, that God gave them up to a depraved mind. And there's this different law. Paul talks about that famous passage in Romans 7, waging war against the law of his
Biblical Insights into Mental Health
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mind that was making him a prisoner. We talk about folks that are in bondage.
00:12:17
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And a lot of it is their belief system. And there's, by the way, there's definitely issues in the body that can affect and hormonal issues and physical issues that should be addressed and should be cared for by qualified medical physician.
00:12:39
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But there's so much in the mind where Paul talks about in Romans eight, those who are in accord with the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but in accord with the spirit, the things of the spirit. And in his letter in the Colossians, he talks about we need to set our minds on things above. This idea of mind setting or mindset
00:13:10
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There's so much in here that the mind in our mindset and our beliefs are so vital to our health. They're so vital to walking free. You can't deny that. You've got to address it. And that's part of what we do in our counseling model. But I want to know
00:13:31
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What has helped you in your journey? And what could we create that might even help you more? I'm looking for that feedback at webgmet.org in an email. You see, so many harden their hearts and harden their minds. Even Christians harden
00:13:59
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their minds against the very grace of God that can set them free because they're so bound up in legalism and bound up with performance and keeping the law and trying to keep this God who in their mind doesn't like them very much and trying to keep them happy. Boy, what a miserable existence that must be. When God says, I've come to give you peace and I've given you everything in life for you to enjoy
00:14:32
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That's the God that we serve. And when I see these mental health statistics, I take a step back and say, how can we help that at Grace Ministries?
Active Counseling Efforts and Reducing Wait Times
00:14:50
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Yes, we have over, right now, over 100 active clients that we are actively seeing in counseling
00:15:01
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in one-on-one counseling. And we have a small wait list. We hired a couple more counselors and we're reducing the wait list. But is there something more that can help you, those who might not ever go see a counselor? I love how Paul says in Ephesians, how we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. You see,
00:15:31
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There are 12 million US adults living with PTSD, 12 million, 21 million living with depression in the US. And those teenagers, 12 to 17, almost 4 million of teenagers experience major depression.
00:15:58
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and we want to be there to address it and infuse God's grace. And I'm looking for your ideas and thoughts of how we can do that.
Examining Beliefs About God and Life
00:16:14
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I want you to know as an encouragement for you on this podcast, get a piece of paper, a notebook, or your iPad, or Android, or iPhone,
00:16:29
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and start examining your thoughts. Have you done that before? I want you to take time this week to write down what are you thinking and what are you believing about these four areas, about God, about life, about yourself, and about others.
00:16:53
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About God? Who is God? What are you believing about God? What thoughts are going through your mind about God? About life? What do you think about life? About yourself? How do you see yourself? And about other people? Especially those close to you. How do you see them? Write down just raw,
00:17:20
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sentences, words, phrases, write down what you are thinking and believing over this week. And then ask yourself, after you do that, maybe give it a couple days and then ask yourself, what's the truth about each one of those?
00:17:43
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And then you might wanna find a scripture in the New Testament that really describes the truth against that thought. You see, it's the truth that sets us free, and Jesus is the truth. But I think that'd be a good exercise to do in this, as we focus just a bit on mental health and the statistics around it. Don't be a statistic. If you need counseling,
00:18:14
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to counseling. We have a very simple request form that you can fill out and we can get you in queue and talk to you about that. Give us your ideas. If you didn't want to go to counseling, what would help you? And this is taking a step, one step, to identify what's in the mind and what are you thinking and believing.
00:18:42
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in those four areas, God, life, yourself and others. Journal it out. What is the truth? And that'll be a good step this week where you can stop talking and stop just thinking and write it down and understand and identify the truth and then begin to walk that truth.
Conclusion and Website Information
00:19:12
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You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.