USA (MNN) — Experiencing trauma is fairly common in the United States. Between 50- and 60 percent of all U.S. adults say they’ve experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.
Trauma is complex, and reactions vary widely. Sometimes, reactions to pain lead to harmful life habits.
“Sometimes when we’re traumatized, when we’re sinned against, we don’t know what to do with it. So, we push it down; we hide it, and then we have sinful responses,” Set Free Ministries Executive Director Dean Vander Mey says.
“‘I’m going to drink until I can’t feel the pain anymore. I’m going to get high; I’m going to find love in all the wrong places’ – these are all coping mechanisms, and they’re all sinful. Then, the trauma gets compounded.”
Most mental health centers are not designed to address the spiritual component of trauma.
“I’m not against mental health, but most of the time, mental health facilities do not have a biblical worldview. Their solutions are going to be medication-oriented,” Vander Mey explains.
Medication can help relieve symptoms, but it does not fix the spiritual issues. Learn more about the connection between trauma and spiritual freedom.
“When we take the sin that was done to us and our sinful response to it, and we bring it to Jesus and say, ‘I can’t hold this anymore. This is killing me,’ Jesus says, ‘I’ve been waiting for that for years, I’ll take it,’” Vander Mey says.
“James 5:16 says, ‘If we confess our sins one to another, we get healed.’ It’s true. We just have to activate our faith through obedience to the truth. It’s that simple.”
Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Gadiel Lazcano/Unsplash.
