Matthew Younger, a recent North Greenville University graduate, has a testimony with mental health that started way back before he was even in college. It started when he was in elementary school, as his mom had thyroid cancer when he was in the fourth grade and he didn’t know how to deal with this as a kid. He experienced anxiety and stress about what his family would do without her. Though school and sports were a huge part of his life, his mom was his priority during these years. In addition, he began having seizures while he was in elementary school, and no one knew what caused them. This impacted his life greatly.
Due to everything that was happening, he didn’t’ want to go off to college. Even still, he attended North Greenville University for psychology. Mental health had already been a huge part of his story, and therefore he could apply this and appreciate it through his field of study. During these years, though, a girl broke up with him and this caused a very stressful situation. It resulted in depression, with suicide being on the table.
In the midst of this, he hated God and blamed God, and he didn’t feel close to Him. It took his family and pastor getting him down on his knees to bring him hope again. Without these two core pieces working together, he would have been hopeless. He states, “Family couldn’t have been enough to get me through it.” He needed the truths of scripture.
A pastor at his church preached on Job during this season and “used an illustration about how God will use hardships to grow us.” This illustration broke Matthew down, and he messaged his pastor about it. After this, they went to Starbucks to talk through everything.
The verse that really helped him through this time is Philippians 4:6, which states, "“…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6." Keeping scripture in memory changed his life. A book that helped him was Don’t Be Anxious About Anything.
Currently, Matthew gets to apply what he learned in college by working with kids with mental health as an Applied Behavior Analysis Therapist (ABA) therapist. He gets to see the mental aspect for their families for them, and he gets to be an advocate for it. Mental health, apart from jobs like this, “isn’t mentioned in church or in the world.”
After Matthew’s testimony with mental health, which still to this day continues, he is more empathetic towards others. It opened his eyes to others’ pain. He has learned that people don’t want to be vulnerable and let down their guard because there’s “…not enough safe places for people.” He asked, “Is the church willing to be that? If no one is reaching out, why would anyone want to open up?” In his case, it took him reaching out to a pastor after breaking down for him to find the help that he needed. Matthew thinks having licensed therapists on church campuses would help a lot. As of now, all the counselors on church campuses are theologically based, not psychologically based.