Howell, Patrick J., S.J.

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Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 54 Article 3September 2018A Healthy Community Builds on AcceptancePatrick J. Howell S.J.Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationHowell, Patrick J. S.J. (2018) "A Healthy Community Builds on Acceptance," Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 54 , Article3.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/31Howell: A Healthy Community Builds on AcceptancePublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2018                                                                                                                                                                                                                 3The increased prevalence of mental illness on our col-lege campuses offers us an opportunity to be advo-cates, even prophets, for a profound shift in society’sattitudes towards mental illness. The Jesuit charism to“educate the whole person” offers a rich opportunityto examine how well we promote a healthy mental life,a vigorous and realistic spirituality, and an updatingon the old adage of Jesuit educators: mens sana in corporesano – a healthy mind in a healthy body.       As faculty and fellow students we journey with,know, and love those afflicted by mental challenges.And the situation allows us all to become better ed-ucated, more compassionate, and more supportiveof students, as well as those in the wider arena of so-ciety who suffer from mental illness.       I myself had a severe, acute psychosis in 1975while I was making an eight-day, guided retreat. Bythen I had been a high school administrator for threeyears. The times were volatile, the Viet Nam warprotests and upheaval in college campuses had cas-caded on down to the high schools. I felt the social,cultural pressures enormously stronger than when Ihad left the U.S.A. six years earlier to study theologyin Rome, prior to my ordination. More important, Iwas 35, an age when biological, sexual, psychologi-cal, and spiritual concerns, left unintegrated at anearlier stage, can boil upward for reconsideration.       I was fortunate that Jesuit friends intervenedearly as I unraveled with an acute psychosis. Theysecured my admission to the Province Hospital psy-chiatric ward where I received first-rate care in a recently reconfigured treatment program, incorpo-rating the best in contemporary psychiatric treat-ment, including not only psychotropic drugs butconsideration of social, psychosexual, and spiritualissues as well. It was a healthy secular version ofmens sana in corpore sano.       A turning point for me, obvious only years later,was when the attending psychiatrist asked me, afterI had been in the hospital for two weeks, whether Iwould be willing to share my experience of the psy-chotic breakdown with a group of police officers thathe was working with in order to train them abouthow to recognize and intervene with people withmental illness. The police, we know, are often the firstresponders – most often when patients wander awayand are disoriented, but also, in rare circumstances,when someone threatens violence. I agreed reluc-tantly. I don’t recall what I said to the officers, but Itried to describe as best I could all the turmoil andbizarre thoughts that had coursed through my wholebeing. Later to help people understand the experi-ence of a psychosis I said, “Recall one of your dreams.It doesn’t matter whether it was a nightmare or pleas-ant. Then imagine that you moved into that dream,that you were living it out some way in your day-to-day life and becoming more and more confused eachhour as the dreams both coincide and clash withwhat is going on around you.” I had also had a fewgrandiose ideas. I knew if I passed this test I wouldbe “called to the Vatican to straighten it out!” Anotherwas that somehow I had died, and I was moving be-twixt and between the living and the dead.        After that encounter with the police officers, I re-solved that in the future, despite the stigma, I wouldnot try to hide my breakdown, but, whenever itseemed helpful and informative, I would share myexperience with others.A Healthy Community Builds on AcceptanceBy Patrick J. Howell, S.J.Left: Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” 1890.2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 54, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 3https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/34 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                                 So I have done that. It has been a rich journey –most of all in solidarity with people with mental ill-ness and their families, who may be living with ordreading chaos every day – for years.       My healing came slowly. I had intensive psy-chotherapy for 20 months from a wonderful, caring,intelligent psychiatrist. Fortunately, in those days be-fore H.M.O.s, health insurance covered 50 percent ofthe costs. By today’s standards, psychotropic drugs40 years ago were still somewhat primitive. I was onThorazine, the granddaddy of psychotropic drugs,discovered by the French in 1952 and widely usedafter 1953 in the United States. It shut down myrapid-fire thinking and emotions by inhibitingdopamine and serotonin. The side effects from ex-tended use could be devastating – Parkinson-likeshaking and tardive dyskinesia or distorted, uncon-trollable motions of the mouth and tongue. Whenthe psychiatrist explained what could happen, myanxiety levels doubled. Not long after, I read that onethird of those who had a breakdown, such as mine,fully recover; one third recover but need ongoingtreatment; and one third get worse. Not all that en-couraging. The statistics are much more positivetoday for a well-managed recovery.       After six months, I was able to return to somelight teaching, later some parish work, and eventu-ally full time teaching, but that was after I had had asecond and final hospitalization. Three years later Ibecame a high school principal again, highly successful this time. Two years later, I made the sec-ond 30-day Ignatian retreat expected of all Jesuits.By then, I was fully aware of all the elements that Ineeded to sustain a healthy spiritual, mental, andphysical lifestyle. The retreat was a time of profoundinner healing, a quiet felt sense of God’s graciouspresence, akin to a sanctuary light quietly glowingin the dark.       Not long after that retreat, I began writing up myexperience, which resulted in my first book, Reducingthe Storm to a Whisper: the Story of a Breakdown – withthe title taken from Psalm 107:28-29:       Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,      and he brought them out of their distress.           He stilled the storm to a whisper;      the waves of the sea were hushed.Part TwoBecause of my experience with mental illness, themembers of the National Seminar board quickly sin-gled me out to write this keynote, which I was happyto do. I will not go into a lot of specific recommen-dations. Other authors are covering these. Instead, Ipropose exploring our Jesuit charism of “educatingthe whole person.” What are we best at? I suggestthat it’s a unified, well-integrated exploration of themultiple resources needed for a healthy mental, spir-itual, and physical life. Most of all, it’s a respect forthe dignity and gifts of every human being – realizedin community.       A method of theological reflection helps us ex-plore three dimensions:Incarnate SpiritJesus, the Son of God, became incarnate. He becamehuman, embodied flesh and blood. So it’s vital for usas brothers and sisters in Christ to attend to the body.St. Paul says, “You are temples of the Holy Spirit.”That’s a sacred space. So we have a near-sacred obli-gation to care for our bodies – not in some idolatrous,glamorous sort of way, but with common-sense atten-tion to the ordinary means of mens sana in corpore sano.One of the first questions I’ll ask someone who comesto me in distress is, “How are you sleeping?” A goodnight’s sleep is one of the best cures for what ails you.Another question is, “What kind of physical exercisedo you regularly practice?” And so forth. Check thebasics. Listen to your grandmother. “Eat up, sleeptight, say your prayers, help someone out each day.”Keep things in perspective. The trap of universities isthat we view our bodies instrumentally. The “life ofthe mind” without a holistic lifestyle leads to craziness.Breaking StigmaThe biggest obstacle to caring or self-caring for peo-ple with mental illness is stigma, the subtle societalwhispers, “You’re not OK. You’re not one of us.You’re strange. You don’t belong here.”        The one clear and consistent act of Jesus in hisministry was breaking stigma. He welcomes tax col-lectors, prostitutes, sinners – everyone – to the table.3Howell: A Healthy Community Builds on AcceptancePublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2018                                                                                                                                                                                                                 5His healing ministry was one of table fellowship. Hewelcomes lepers, the most stigmatized group in hissociety. Less apparent is how he welcomes and healspeople with mental illness. The category didn’t existthen. Those with paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar ill-ness, or obsessive-compulsive behaviors wereviewed as possessed by demons. Mary Magdalene,from whom Jesus cast out seven demons, could verywell have been bipolar. Certainly the so-called de-moniac portrayed in the Gospel of Mark 5: 1-20likely had paranoid schizophrenia. His local villagechained him to the tombstones in the cemetery. Theyconsidered him already dead. Jesus upsets the “nor-mal” by casting “Legion” into the herd of swine thatthen spooks and plummets over a cliff to theirdeaths. The villagers ask him, “Please leave, you’retotally upsetting our ‘normal’ lives and livelihood.”Meanwhile, the man who is cured is peaceful, fullyclothed, even radiant, not unlike the angel at thegrave of Jesus announcing his Resurrection.        Of course, such stigmatized people could notworship in the Temple because they were unclean.So when Jesus heals the ten lepers, he tells them, “Goshow yourselves to the priest.” He restores them tocommunity. In fact, biblical healing is always restora-tion to community. Jesus breaks the stigma that di-minishes the humanity of people.        One third of the Gospel of Mark relates miracle sto-ries and half of these deal with “demon possession,”often enough the ancient code for people with men-tal illness. Yet how often do we hear sermonspreached which highlight the social sins of stigma,of oppression, of diminishment of other people byshaming them? What a great opportunity for Jesuitsand others to preach the Gospel!        Multiple ways exist to reduce stigma on ourcampuses. Fortunately, Jesuit campuses are alreadywelcoming spaces for the LGBTQ students, forDACA students, and so forth. We have the patternof hospitality and acceptance; let’s extend it now tostudents with mental illness issues. Soul, Psyche, and SocietyFor ten years a United Church of Christ ministerand I hosted an annual symposium at Seattle Uni-versity, entitled “Soul, Psyche, and Society.” It ad-dressed the crucial factors: excellent medical care,addressing cultural, social dysfunctions, and explor-ing mental illness as a faith journey supported by afaith community.        It had these features: (a) someone witnessing bytelling their own story of mental illness, its chal-lenges, his or her spiritual life or religious commu-nity that enabled their journey through this darknight; (b) a scientific, medical lecture by a health pro-fessional explaining the dramatic chemical imbal-ances that occur in the brain; (c) a model ofaccompaniment that could be adopted by churchesor schools to welcome those beset by mental illness;(d) and finally, a presentation of a few key commu-nity resources by NAMI, the National Alliance forMental Illness, such as its family-to-family supportgroups, which could be adapted to a campus setting.The core belief of this symposium was the Jesuit vi-sion of the whole person: mens sana in corpore sano.       Besides a symposium, it’s time that the multipleresources on our Jesuit campuses come together in aconcerted, unified effort to address mental illness inan academic, scholarly way – not just within one’s owndiscipline but in a creative, interdisciplinary way.        For someone having a breakdown, early inter-vention and good medical treatment are vital. Sowouldn’t it make sense on our campuses to have atraining module for staff and faculty members sothat they would recognize early warning signs andmake appropriate referrals, either to the campuscounseling center or to more acute psychiatric care?        Someone has said that the best gauge of thehealth of a society is how well it cares for its childrenand for people with mental illness. It’s a good meas-ure. And we can propel ourselves forward on thisjourney together by believing “Whatever you did forthe least of my brothers and sisters you did for me”(Matthew 25:20).Patrick J. Howell, S.J. has taught pastoral theology atSeattle University for three decades. He is the author ofReducing the Storm to a Whisper: the Story of aBreakdown and A Spiritguide through Times ofDarkness. He has been on a leave of absence from theuniversity to be Executive Director ad interim at theLoyola Institute for Spirituality, Orange, CA.4Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 54, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 3https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/3

A Healthy Community Builds on Acceptance

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A Healthy Community Builds on Acceptance

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