Is Mental Illness Universal?

More understanding of medical science as it relates to the brain has filtered into our churches. But there remains a prevalent attitude among many leaders to “cordon off” mental illness. It is separated from other physical illnesses. Many of those who treat those with mental illness in the Christian community use their counseling experience and superficial biblical proof texting to justify their position. Usually they attribute mental illness to some spiritual or emotional defect in the ill person. Some Christian counselors, psychiatrists, and psychologists confuse the issue because they apply a faulty hermeneutic to Scripture .Some use anecdotal evidence to deny the universality of mental illness. They believe the whole idea of mental illness is American or Western or limited in some other way by culture. According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), which gathers health trends of all sorts around the globe.

Mental disorders are not the exclusive preserve of any special group; they are universal. They are present in women and men at all stages of the life course. Mental and behavioral disorders are found in people of all regions, all countries, and all societies. They are present among the rich and among people living in urban and rural areas. The notion that mental disorders are problems of industrialized and relatively richer parts of the world is simply wrong. ( World Health Organization, The World Health Report 2001: Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2001), ch. 2, section 3.

From the preface of Broken Minds Hope for Healing
When You Feel Like You're Losing It. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications,( page 277)..
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