S3:E35 - Pastor Perspective with Alastair Sterne

That's a great question.

You know, I think context matters a bit here.

I was, I was just with a friend right before your podcast over a coffee talking about this of, um, For me, it's so caught up in my mental health.

And I had to acknowledge first that I was in a season that I wasn't well.

I was numb.

I wasn't feeling joyful or sad.

And I didn't have the words at the time, but it was depression.

Yeah.

Journeying through that, there's just some different circumstances going on in my life at that time.

I think this is 2014.

And it led to me having an anxiety attack.

And I never even considered myself anxious, let alone to find myself broken down by it.

And so that led me to a doctor's office, my doctor, and she ran a mental health questionnaire.

And my score was very, very bad.

And she had, she was so sweet.

She's actually a family friend and thick Irish accent.

And she said, look, when I take this test, I score a one.

You scored, I think I scored a 17.

And so she said to me, like, I don't know how you get through a day.

Like, I can't even imagine it.

And so that intervention was really key for me of just naming it.

I kind of talk about it like receiving the gift of tongues in a way, like a new language that I didn't previously know how to speak.

And she insisted that I try medication.

And I'm not against medication, but I was... nervous about it because I thought, hey, this should be something I should be able to think my way out of or something I should be able to work my way through.

And the medication for me, my first worry was like, oh, this is going to change me somehow or it's like a shortcut.