Dr. A'Shellarien Addison, trained across Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant traditions, argues that churches lack frameworks for trauma. When COVID exposed widespread anxiety and depression, faith communities offered prayer and worship but no concrete path forward. She proposes three steps: talk openly, reframe God as big enough for doubt and anger, and seek professional help.
Chapters
Welcome to A Healing Moment with Dr. A'Shellarien Addison Addison. This is that part of the day where you just need a little help. This is that part of the day where you say, you know what, I need a little encouragement. This is that part of the day when you say, you know what, I need to know it's okay not to be okay. Today's topic is trauma colliding with your faith. Trauma colliding with your faith. You know what I've discovered in this 50 years of living in this body? That God is bigger than the box that I've been taught. I've been taught a lot of things about God. I went to Catholic school when I was in elementary school. I grew up in the synagogue. I went to the AME Church. I was raised in ministry in the Pentecostal Church. I was ordained in the Baptist Church, went back to the AME Church, went to a Lutheran seminary. I've learned a lot of stuff about God, and here's what I've learned. In none of those places was anybody telling me that it's okay not to be okay. In none of those places was anybody telling me what do I do when trauma collides with my faith. I've been taught, you know, pray about it, slap some oil on it, roll on the floor, let God do it. After you do all that, what you gonna do? Because clearly the Bible says faith without works is dead. And so after I've done all of that, now what? Because I still got to go home to the pain, I still got to go home to the chaos, I still got to go home to what happens in this house stays in this house. So what do you do when trauma collides with your faith? There's no framework, there's no taught framework of how to really manage that. You know, this pandemic has lift the covers off a lot of people who are not okay. Not okay. People got anxiety, they got depression, they got suicidal ideation. They don't put harmful behaviors in place. I'm telling you, people who've been married a long time, they use their job as a distraction so they don't have to deal with their spouse. They like, oh my God, Chaplain, Chaplain, I didn't know I was married to this person. My kids drive me crazy. But you had all them kids. But guess what you did? You sent them to daycare, you sent them to the teachers, and now the teacher's like, oh no, partner, no, no, no, partner, you deal with that spoiled child you created. You, you created that. So now trauma is colliding with your faith, and you like, oh my goodness, because I used to be able to go to the church and I would dance it out. Now because of the pandemic, stuff is still online. I had to learn that I had to seek God for myself. I mean, I didn't learn what to do when trauma collide with your faith. Well, let me tell you what you do when trauma collides with your faith. First of all, you got to talk about it. You gotta find somebody you trust and say, baby, listen, I thought I had it all together. I'm not sleeping, I'm not eating, I don't have no internal peace. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I need to talk to somebody because something ain't right. You ever get that? You say, you know what, I, I don't know what it is, but something's not right. That's when you need to talk about it. That's how you address when trauma collides with your faith. You got to get a new frame of reference for how God fits in this whole story. God is big enough to handle your sadness. God is big enough to handle your depression. God is big enough to handle your anxiety. God is big enough to handle all your questions. You know what? God is big enough to handle your anger. Think about this. Think about how many people died in the pandemic. It was a lot of people died. I— it's okay to be angry. The Bible say be angry and sin not. Trauma has collided with your faith. Think about all the people, they lost their jobs. Right? And then they was on unemployment, and unemployment was like $600 a month, and now it's over. Now you done bought all this stuff when you was making $600 a month, and now you back to making $200 a month. So your money is funny, your change is strange. Trauma has collided with your faith. So you need a little help, and you say, chaplain, doctor, reverend, whatever, I need to talk about it. Send me a message. I will happily talk you through it. Thank you for joining me for A Healing Moment with Dr. A'Shellarien Addison Addison. Until next time, be kind to yourself.
