Mental and Spiritual Health Guide
Are you searching for information about mental health, especially from a Catholic perspective? Whether you’re looking to understand what is mental health, seeking mental health quotes for encouragement, or raising awareness during Mental Health Awareness Month, Men’s Mental Health Month, or on World Mental Health Day, Catholic Answers is here to help. We’re sharing the Catholic Answers Mental and Spiritual Health Guide, a compassionate resource for those struggling with mental and/or spiritual health challenges. Rooted in the Faith and grounded in reason, this information offers guidance, clarity, and hope for anyone navigating emotional distress, spiritual desolation, or questions at the intersection of faith and mental well-being.
Navigating Mental Health Challenges
At Catholic Answers, we’re unfortunately not equipped to serve—in an ongoing way—people who are experiencing spiritual and/or mental health struggles. But we do have recommendations and other resources to serve you well in navigating your struggles and/or those of your loved ones. These struggles can include anxiety, clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and scrupulosity as a type of OCD.
Finding Support
In seeking needed support, we recommend that you begin with supportive family members, good friends, and your priest confessor, as they all know you well and love you. But please reach out: loved ones don’t necessarily know you’re struggling if you don’t tell them. In particular, your priest confessor can ask related questions, give helpful counsel, and administer God’s special graces in the tribunal of the Lord’s mercy: the sacrament of confession.
If needed, your priest confessor—and/or family and close friends—can refer you to licensed medical professionals, ones who are respectful of Jesus Christ and the Faith he communicates through his one Catholic Church. These are people who can get to know you personally—and thus serve you better—through consistent and three-dimensional encounters, or at least via online counseling sessions if travel is an issue.
There is no shame—nor should there be—in receiving support from a counselor and possibly taking related medication (see Sir. 38:1-15).
Scrupulosity and Related Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD is a mental health condition in which a person has frequent unwanted or intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that cause the person to engage in certain behaviors repetitively (compulsions). These thoughts and behaviors cause a person significant distress and interfere with navigating his daily activities. Treatment for OCD usually involves psychotherapy and often medication.
Scrupulosity is a type of OCD that involves religious and/or moral obsessions, and the two often go together; and the condition may or may not have related compulsive behaviors. From a religious standpoint, scrupulosity is the tendency to see mortal sin where there is, at best, venial sin or even no sin, and to see venial sin where there is no sin at all. It’s also marked by an obsessive concern with personal failings and an accompanying great difficulty to accept forgiveness, especially from God. So possibly not forgiving yourself, even when you’ve been forgiven via the sacrament of confession and/or reassured you’ve done nothing wrong. And thus to ruminate or obsess about these matters further even when, again, they’ve been resolved in the confessional—and consequently seeking out the sacrament needlessly.
Frequently, scrupulosity can be remedied through the counsel of one’s priest confessor. In addition, psychotherapy can also often be helpful as well as possibly taking medication (again, see Sir. 38:1-15).
In addressing scrupulosity, remember that Jesus always forgives our sins for which we repent (see CCC 1864), as illustrated, e.g., in the parables of the good shepherd with the lost sheep (Luke 15:3–7) and the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). Also, Jesus doesn’t want us to become preoccupied about matters that are either not sinful or definitely not mortally sinful, even though we mistakenly think that they are.
See these related resources of ours on scrupulosity.
Finding a Good Catholic Counselor—or at Least One Respectful of Jesus and His Catholic Church
As noted above, it’s important to access a counselor who is respectful of Jesus Christ and the Faith he communicates through his one Catholic Church. No doubt that a good number have suffered at the hands of Catholic officials who have gravely betrayed the mission of Christ and his Church, yet please don’t let that impede you from gaining the liberating wisdom of a counselor who affirms the truth of Jesus and his Church (John 8:31-32; 14:6)—or who is at least respectful of Jesus and the Faith. And please don’t let the sins of Catholic officials—or other Catholics in your life—impede you from receiving our Lord’s healing and empowering graces in the sacramental encounters of confession and the Eucharist.
In seeking a good counselor, again, consult supportive family members, good friends, and a faithful local priest, whether your priest confessor, parish pastor, and/or some other priest who comes well-recommended as being both faithful to the truth and having a pastoral heart in serving his flock.
In providing you a referral, they may encourage you to contact your diocesan Catholic Charities, who often have staff counselors. For a list of dioceses in the United States, including in your state, access the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which has website links for all of them.
Mental Health Services
You may also consider contacting Dr. Gregory Popcak and his team at the Pastoral Solutions Institute, who might at least be able to give you a referral; and/or visit CatholicTherapist.com. One of the indirect blessings of COVID-19 is that people can now do remote counseling sessions via Zoom or other online means, and their insurance companies will often cover them.
Those outside the United States should seek out counseling resources in their respective countries, beginning at their local parishes and dioceses. However, it’s possible one of the aforementioned resources could serve you via online counseling sessions.
Keeping Your Eyes on Jesus
Trust in Jesus, as he loves you and is trustworthy, especially in difficult times.
We have other resources to serve you, including our tract on “God’s Love for You.” See also our article on “The Problem of Suffering Reconsidered,” as well as our Q&A on “Why Do We Have to Suffer?”
Suicide Prevention Support in the United States and Elsewhere
If you are experiencing suicidal ideation and living in the United States, please don’t hesitate to contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which you can access in the United States by simply dialing “988.” Counselors are available to serve you 24/7.
See also above for related recommendations, including to find a good counselor.
See also our Q&A on “Dealing with Deep Despair and Bitterness.”
Suicide Prevention Support Outside the United States
In Canada, England, India, and many other countries around the world, there are helplines set up to serve those experiencing suicidal ideation or other crises. Access this general “Find a Helpline” resource to see whether your country—or perhaps one near you—is listed. And they may know of other resources that might be available to serve you in your particular country.
There’s also a related online resource to help you address suicidal ideation without a phone call (scroll down a bit after linking to read the “Thinking about Suicide” guidelines).
If needed, contact a local hospital to see what resources they might be able to offer you, especially if you’re poor. Your local police station also might be able to help, or they could perhaps refer you to other nearby resources. A homeless shelter, if one exists near you, could also serve you in one way or another.
Further, a local hospital, police station, or homeless shelter might be able to provide the phone number of a helpline in your country, one that’s perhaps not listed on the aforementioned findahelpline.com, yet which helps people deal with suicidal ideation and other crises, whether via a free phone call or an online chat—although the former is recommended if at all possible.
If You’ve Lost a Loved One to Suicide
Losing a loved one to suicide is a devastating experience. Don’t navigate it alone. Seek out support at your local parish and also, as needed, counseling support, using the guide above. Also recommended are faith-related support groups for those who’ve lost a loved one to suicide. Further, don’t lose hope for the salvation of your deceased loved one. Suicide can never be justified, and yet there can also be mitigating factors to one’s subjective culpability, e.g., when a person is suffering from mental illness (see CCC 2282-2283). For further support, see our additional resources below.
Additional Resources
Article – If a person commits suicide is he automatically lost?
Podcast – Confronting Suicide with Christian Hope (with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty)
Article – Homily for a Suicide and Their Survivor Loved Ones