{"id":18279,"date":"2018-08-20T10:32:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=18279"},"modified":"2018-08-20T10:57:44","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T17:57:44","slug":"asking-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/asking-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking for Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rev. Austin Adkinson<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I\u2019m not going to say everything went perfectly. I\u2019m not going to say it was easy. But about three years ago I asked my District Superintendent for help with my anxiety disorder, and I\u2019m glad I did. I said yes to the request to write about my experience in this column with the hope that you or someone you love might get help sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rev. Austin Adkinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve tried to be fairly public about why I went on medical leave. It would have been my right to keep my medical information private. However, too many people suffer through mental health issues feeling isolated and alone for fear of judgment, stigmatization, professional repercussions, and myriad other reasons that tend to only make their problems worse. Clergy are no exception to this. In fact, we are more vulnerable to mental health problems than people in many vocations, in part because of the ever-growing stresses of this work and our perceived need to appear as if our lives are in perfect order.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to throw a bunch of statistics about clergy mental health at you. Deep down, I think we all suspect how prevalent the problem is even if we don\u2019t know what to do about it. If you\u2019re one of the people who needs the encouragement to ask for help, you probably know the problem is real but fear what trouble stating the problem aloud might bring.<\/p>\n

I was afraid of the damage that asking for help might do to my standing with the appointive cabinet and the future of my ministry in our conference. But what I learned was that being transparent about my anxiety disorder has made me a better leader, not worse. We follow Christ, who in their time on earth modeled a leadership of vulnerability, \u201cto the point of death\u2014 even death on a cross\u201d (Phil 2:8, NRSV).<\/p>\n

Showing my weakness has opened others to sharing their vulnerabilities with me, and together we have the opportunity to step into more fulfilling ministry. This has extended beyond mental health concerns into other types of shared vulnerabilities, but for the purposes of this Clergy Wellness Corner<\/a> I\u2019m going to focus there. I can\u2019t even count the number of colleagues who, after I began disclosing my condition, told me they too have anxiety and how they work to manage it. Others have asked me if what they or a loved one is experiencing sounds like anxiety. The richness and life-giving opportunities those conversations provide far outweigh any stigma or career sidetracks I faced. Looking for help sooner rather than later can make all the difference.<\/p>\n

If I had learned more about anxiety and recognized it sooner, I might not have needed to take time away from pastoring a congregation. Personal relationships that were damaged because of my delay in treatment might have gone better. I\u2019ll never know what might have happened, but I\u2019m choosing not to worry about the past, because finally I am able to let it go. I pray that if you are someone in need of care for a mental health concern God will help you find the courage to seek it. Or if in the course of our stressful ministries you end up noticing symptoms in yourself that you would recommend someone else seek help for, please heed your own advice.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there is any good reason that would be worth preventing a pastor from seeking mental health services, but I know many of the barriers that feel like they stand in the way. We have fairly reasonable mental health coverage through our conference insurance, so the cost of therapy doesn\u2019t have to be as hard as it feels like it might be. Congregations are much more understanding than we give them credit for. Naming your weakness doesn\u2019t mean it will be used against you. I\u2019ve been open about my condition from day one at my current appointment, and it has opened so many doors. Also, when I was on medical leave, I received 70% of my previous income with the cabinet working hard to make sure I got that benefit. Money was tight, yes, but the quality of life more than made up for the difference.<\/p>\n

The greatest barrier for me was anxiety about whether the cabinet would trust me when I returned to the appointment system. I\u2019m pleased to say that I\u2019m now in my second year of an incredible appointment, doing ministry that is well aligned with my calling. Life is better on the other side.<\/p>\n

Blessings as you face whatever challenges stand between you, your well-being, and your best ministry. We\u2019re in it together. It is an honor to serve in this conference with each of you, so let\u2019s plan on being well enough to do so for many years to come.<\/p>\n

\n

Rev. Austin Adkinson serves as pastor of Haller Lake United Methodist Church in Seattle, Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I\u2019m not going to say everything went perfectly. I\u2019m not going to say it was easy. But about two years ago I asked my District Superintendent for help with my anxiety disorder, and I\u2019m glad I did.” <\/p>\n

Rev. Austin Adkinson, pastor at Haller Lake UMC in Seattle, shares his story of asking for and receiving help as a means of encouraging clergy colleagues in need to do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482,475],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-clergy","8":"category-clergy-wellness"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/help.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4KP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18317,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18279\/revisions\/18317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}