Pastor SJ

Has over spiritualization of your health prevented you finding the answers you need?

Early on in my health journey, I mistakenly assigned spiritual weakness to parts of my life that were actually caused by other factors.

And it wasn’t until I identified those non spiritual factors that I was able to address the root causes of what was going on.

Have you ever struggled with something for a long time? Perhaps you over spiritualized it and you weren’t able to see the other contributing factors.

It’s a common problem in Christianity, but thankfully it’s easy to remedy.

Let’s start by defining over spiritualization, then we’ll look at some common examples in the church today. Next, I’ll show you how to identify it in other places, and what you can do to prevent over spiritualization in the future.

What Is Over Spiritualization?

Over spiritualization is when we blame a shortcoming or weakness on a lack of discipline or a lack of prayer instead of recognizing what other factors may be at play. It is a kind of attribution error in which we have too narrow of a lens.

In other words, over spiritualization occurs when we only see our problems in light of our spirituality and we neglect to see the other valid causes. It’s an excessive spiritual explanation at the expense of recognizing other players in our lives.

Externally, we must be aware of over spiritualization lest it become spiritual abuse. In severe cases, leaders will over spiritualize issues in order to maintain control over others. There can be extreme situations where someone will wrongly attribute issues to spiritual weaknesses so that their own spiritual leadership can be the answer.

Internally, we must be careful to not over spiritualize our issues because it can keep us from taking responsibility for our actions or addressing root causes of our dysfunction.

Let’s look at an instance of over attributing it in another realm.

A Non Spiritual Example of Over Attributing

An example of over attributing something through a single lens outside of religion is in the medical world.

If there is a woman in labor who is not progressing, an OBGYN who is trained as a surgeon is going to see the best solution as a C section. On the other hand, a midwife who is trained in natural birth is going to see solutions like changing the mother’s position, trying a birthing ball, or progressive muscle relaxation.

The over attribution errors happen when we divide into two different camps instead of trying to glean the best from both areas of expertise.

One camp is where we idolize natural childbirth to the point where we don’t get medical help when it’s needed. Some even shame someone who ends up with a surgical childbirth.

But on the other hand, we can over medicate the childbirth process and can cause unnecessary interventions like surgery. (Did you know that the US has the highest C section rate of any developed country?)

We tend to over medicalize childbirth in our culture.

Can you see how someone’s training may cause them to overemphasize something to their own detriment and the detriment of others?

Why Do We Over Spiritualize Things?

For the average Christian in a typical church, we over spiritualize our own struggles. We are prone to over spiritualizing issues for many reasons.

When you have knowledge about a subject you are more likely to see answers to problems through that lens.

Unfortunately, if we:

• Are hyper focused on our spiritual health
• Lack knowledge
• Have little experience in other areas
• Don’t ask enough questions

We are much more likely to attribute problems to spiritual weakness. You might hear this in phrases like, “I lack self discipline” or “I need to pray more.”

We may do this because our spirituality is the only solution we are familiar with. The way we grow out of this is to become more balanced and more well rounded people.

Factors In Addition To Spirituality

When I taught middle school leadership classes, I taught my kids the wheel of wellness model and we spent a module on each of the following areas of health. I will define each and share an example of unhealthy below.

• Spiritual – Your beliefs and religious practices
  • An inconsistency in your beliefs and actions may make you feel guilty
• Physical – Optimizing your nutrition, movement, and rest
  • Neglecting exercise can adversely impact your sleep
• Mental – Your brain’s resilience and ability to handle stress
  • Prolonged taxing situations can drain your mental energy
• Emotional – Ability to notice and appropriately handle your feelings
  • Stuffing feelings down can lead to outbursts
• Social – Having satisfying, connected relationships
  • Not engaging in a community can lead to loneliness
• Sexual – Prioritizing intimacy with your (future) spouse
  • A porn addiction will leave you with unrealistic expectations and disappointment
• Financial – Providing for your needs and saving for the future
  • Spending more than you make will lead to debt
• Vocational – Fulfilling your calling in life (paid or unpaid)
  • A draining job will leave you unsatisfied
• Intellectual – Stimulating interests and creative hobbies
  • A lack of intrigue may cause boredom and unhealthy coping mechanisms
• Environmental – Relationship to your surroundings including clean air and water
  • Neglecting nature’s systems can lead to pollution

We are complex beings. There is a synergistic interplay of how these factors influence us.

I don’t have time to cover all the ways that these are interconnected. But for example if your physical health is struggling, it’s going to affect your finances.

Related Article: How To Save Money When You’re Chronically Ill

One of the temptations of any religion is to only see our world through the lens of our religious training.

However in Christianity, we learn about general revelation in which there is truth outside of religion that is true for all of humanity. We can discover this through natural means like the scientific method.

May we ask more questions before we jump to conclusions so that we can make up for our lack of knowledge and compensate for our blind spots.

The 4 major over spiritualizations I see in the church (and that I have navigated) are:

• Food cravings
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Suicidal ideation

Food Cravings

If you have followed me for a while, you know that I have struggled with food cravings and being overweight.

While some of my issue was turning to food for comfort instead of other healthy means, I beat myself up a lot for being gluttonous and not having self control.

In hindsight, I can see that I blamed myself for being weak when I actually had nutritional deficiencies.

I was reacting to a lot of foods so it was hard to eat enough to be fully nourished.

So of course I was struggling with intense food cravings because my body was trying to tell me that I needed more nutrient dense foods.

When I hit the end of my rope and no spiritual discipline seemed to be solving my food cravings, it finally occurred to me to talk to my doctor about them. We found multiple nutrient deficiencies.

And now since bolstering those, I rarely have strong food cravings. But when they do hit, I know how to adjust to my food intake to meet them.

Nevertheless, I admit that there are times when I want to turn to food for comfort. I still prayerfully invite God into the process of overcoming my food cravings. I let my food cravings become a reminder of my dependence on him, and I ask for strength to have discipline to stick to my supplement regimens and nourishing meal plans.

But in this case, it’s only after ruling out the physical factors, that I look for answers in my spirituality.

Beware to not swing the pendulum so far to the other extreme that just because it’s not a spiritual issue that you don’t invite God into your daily life.

In addition to food cravings, the next area I see over spiritualization the most is with mental health.

We have to be careful to not separate the health of our brains from other parts of our bodies.

Let’s start with anxiety.

Anxiety

Anxiety is a primary area where we over spiritualize. Too many people have been told that anxiety is a symptom of not trusting God enough.

And sure, when we feel anxious, our first response should be to let the anxiety remind us that we are dependent on God. It is important to turn to God in prayer and cast our cares upon him.

But if we still feel anxious after that, it doesn’t mean that you are spiritually weak. There may be other factors at play like inflammation and trauma.

It takes time to rewire the brain because it’s an ongoing process of growth. Some people may overcome anxiety in this life and some may grapple with anxiety their entire lives.

While we can rejoice with those who say that their anxiety left them as soon as they became a Christian, we should not make this prescriptive. Some faith communities wrongly proclaim that anxiety is sin and that it should be left behind with salvation. This is a harmful paradigm that over spiritualizes a mental health issue.

Instead, may we empower people to work through their emotional and mental factors alongside the spiritual ones. Let’s look closer at the link anxiety has with both inflammation and trauma.

Inflammation

In my own case, anxiety is strongly correlated with autoimmune and mast cell activation flares. If I have too much sugar, it inflames my body, and can lead to me feeling frantic and anxious.

One of the consequences of over spiritualizing mental health issues is that we prevent people from getting the help that they need.

In cases similar to mine, sometimes the brain is so inflamed that it manifests in anxiety.

It could also be caused by a chemical imbalance. There is nothing wrong with taking medication as you work to discern what the root causes are. You may even find medication to be helpful long term.

Please run the other direction if you ever hear a spiritual leader talk against medication.

In my pastoral experience, anxiety can also be caused by unaddressed trauma.

Trauma

For trauma induced anxiety, your brain is trying to keep you safe. It may be transferring the dynamics of a previous situation onto the present. This requires the help of a trauma informed mental health professional to help rewire the brain for safety.

When we attribute anxiety merely to a lack of trust in God, we rob ourselves and others of the opportunity to address their trauma and heal.

Trauma and our spirituality is deeply entwined. But we have to be careful to not only address the spiritual aspects of trauma and make sure that we also take good care of our brains and emotions.

Overall, no matter what you are facing, let any strong emotions be a reminder to turn to God in the moment. You can tell him what’s wrong, what you’re feeling, and ask for his help as you discern how to best address it.

In the same way that anxiety gets over spiritualized in the church, so does depression.

Depression

I took a round of the acne medication Accutane as a teen. Soon thereafter, the drug was removed from the market and had to be reformulated because so many teenagers and young adults became depressed. Some even killed themselves after taking it. The combination of antibiotics and hormone therapy that helped clear up the skin also damaged the microbiome. Some hypothesized that it damaged the bacteria in our guts that helps make serotonin and send it up to the brain.

Serotonin is a feel good neurotransmitter. A common class of antidepressant drugs, called SSRIs, are serotonin reuptake inhibitors which help your body recycle the serotonin you have in your brain.

After 3 months on the Accutane, I was severely depressed and struggling with suicidal ideation.

Even though I was warned before I took the medication that depression and suicidal tendencies were a known side effect, I wondered what was wrong with me.

While I was fortunate to have a clear medical reason for the depression, others suffer in silence and blame themselves for being spiritually weak.

Depression can be caused by anything from a tough situation to an unhealthy brain. We must beware to not attribute depression to weakness or a lack of willpower.

At the time, in my childish worldview, because a drug had made me feel bad, I didn’t want to take another drug to fix it. A combination of time for my gut to heal and cognitive behavioral therapy to address my internal conversations was enough to significantly reduce my suicidal ideation.

This wasn’t the only time I struggled with suicidal ideation.

Suicidal Ideation

In my early 20s, my gut health got really bad so I removed gluten from my diet. However, I gave myself a lot of cheat days where I would still eat gluten on occasion.

But like clockwork 4 to 5 days after eating gluten, I would end up with severe suicidal ideation.

It took about a year of this happening for me to realize that every time I was feeling suicidal, it was soon after I had eaten gluten.

Related Article: How to Handle Food Loss

I asked my doctor if gluten could be making me feel this way and she affirmed that inflammation in my gut could cause inflammation in my brain as well.

However, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a doctor who can identify this connection.

In my own case, there was a clear link between suicidal ideation and foods that are inflammatory for me.

It wasn’t a spiritual weakness. It was a legitimate health problem.

To this day, I still struggle with suicidal thoughts when I have a really bad pain flare.

On the days when my chronic pain is so bad that I want to die, I tell God exactly how I feel, which is usually that I am sick of this suffering.

Then, I let the pain be a reminder that my savior, Jesus, also knew intense physical pain and suffering on the cross. And that he did something about the problem of pain and God promises that it’s not forever.

Learn more about how I grapple with chronic illness from a Christian perspective here.

Food cravings and mental health issues are not the only places that we are guilty of over spiritualizing our problems.

How To Identify And Stop Over Spiritualization

Whatever you or someone else might be facing, it’s important to make sure that you aren’t viewing the situation only through a spiritual lens.

Ask questions about how other areas in the wheel of wellness would view the situation:

• Spiritual
• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional
• Sexual
• Financial
• Vocational
• Intellectual
• Environmental

In many cases, we need a multi system approach, lest we not swing the pendulum so far and have an overreaction where we neglect our spirituality. Instead, may we sift through the complex interplay of factors in our lives with grace and wisdom.

A Multi System Approach

Another example where I’ve seen over spiritualization is when a young guy or girl struggles with a porn addiction.

It’s important to zoom out beyond their spirituality to see what the root causes may be. Here are some examples of contributing factors:

• Social – They’re lonely and settle for a pseudo connection through a screen
• Sexual – They suffered traumatic abuse that hasn’t been addressed and this is one way to satiate their curiosity
• Emotional / Vocational – They’re in a really stressful job that’s not a good fit and don’t have good stress management techniques

While suggesting someone turn to prayer and memorize scripture when they want to look at porn may be helpful, it’s not the only thing they need.

In this case, I can coach someone to discover what spiritual disciplines may work, how to bolster their social connections, and learn better stress management techniques. However, if that doesn’t help, I’m also going to suggest ways to support their emotional health like seeing a therapist.

Resisting over spiritualization in the church requires a multi system approach where we look at people as whole human beings. We must avoid the pride of thinking we have all the answers.

If you have over spiritualized an issue, give yourself some compassion. It might have been all you knew to do at that time. And now that you know better, you can do better.

Where else have you seen over spiritualization in the church? Share in the comments below!

More On Navigating Health Issues

• Mistakes I Made In My Health Journey (And How You Can Do Better!)
• A Theology of Chronic Illness
• How To Save Money When You’re Chronically Ill

References

Betrán, A. P., Ye, J., Moller, A. B., Zhang, J., Gülmezoglu, A. M., & Torloni, M. R. (2016). The Increasing Trend in Caesarean Section Rates: Global, Regional and National Estimates: 1990-2014. PloS one, 11(2), e0148343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148343

Duffy, A., Dawson, D. L., & das Nair, R. (2016). Pornography Addiction in Adults: A Systematic Review of Definitions and Reported Impact. The journal of sexual medicine, 13(5), 760–777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.03.002