pastors, depression and suicide

Anyone read the article in USA Today a couple of weeks ago? Propelled by a pastor's suicide in North Carolina, the article explores the reasons lead a pastor to feel depressed and that there's no way out. Some interesting notes from the article:

• Being a pastor — a high-profile, high-stress job with nearly impossible expectations for success — can send one down the road to depression, according to pastoral counselors.

• It's a job that breeds isolation and loneliness — the pastorate's "greatest occupational hazards," said Scoggin, who counsels many Baptist and other ministers. "These suicides are born out of a lack of those social supports that can intervene in times of personal crisis."

• "The likelihood is that one out of every four pastors is depressed,.."

• Counselors say ... fewer depressed ministers get treated because of career fears, social stigma and spiritual taboo.

  "Clergy do not talk about it because it violates their understanding of their faith," said Scoggin. "They believe they are not supposed to have those kinds of thoughts."

• Society still places a stigma on mental illness, but Christians make it worse, he said, by "over-spiritualizing" depression and other disorders — dismissing them as a lack of faith or a sign of weakness.

• For pastors, treatment can come at a high price. "You are committing career suicide if you have to seek treatment," said Stanford, "particularly if you have to take time off."

What are your thoughts? In what ways are PWs at risk for this occupational hazard? How can we help a PH who is depressed? How do you help a depressed PH without sidelining the ministry forever (or is this even a consideration?)

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first lady

Do people call you the first lady of the church? (Some jokingly say I'm the second lady, my husband is an associate in a 2-pastor church.) With all the glitz, glamour, pomp & circumstance of the last few days, it's probably hard for most of us to identify with the label "first lady" in general, and our new first lady, in particular.

For starters:

• the Secret Service doesn't give us a ride everywhere
• designers don't make us gowns and suits and cross their fingers that we'll wear their clothes
• what we wear is not on ET and Extra every night
• her husband's "congregation" is larger than even the biggest multi-site mega-church
• people complain if her husband says he was led by God to do something.

But in some ways, it is natural for a PW to be able to identify with a woman who very publicly is her husband's biggest supporter, who makes her own career ambitions 2nd to her husband's and who is willing to use her gifts and interests within the parameters of her role.

You, PW, have other things in common with the First Lady.

• People who don't know you, and maybe who've never even met you, have strong opinions about you.
• Good or bad, people notice what you wear.
• You have the power to be a great asset or a crippling liability to your husband's ministry/position.
• Your life is oftentimes at the mercy of the demands of your husband's job/responsibilities.
• You have the privilege of partnering with your husband and investing your life in something huge and important that you feel passionate about.
• At times your life will be lived in a fishbowl.
• You can influence and motivate the women around you.

In what ways can you identify with the role of First Lady?

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