During the pandemic, Carl Blumenthal was one of the team members at New York City’s mental health hotline. “I had many encounters of a spiritual kind,” he recalls. “It’s amazing how deeply you can connect with people over the phone, or even through chats and texting. When people are vulnerable, and reaching out for health, you’re their lifeline.”
“Essentially,” he says of this work, “you’re recognizing that of God in everyone.” As a Friend and a person with bipolar disorder, Carl is drawn to the ways Quakerism can speak to people’s mental condition, and has as far back as the days of George Fox.
To determine if you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition, visit Mental Health America at mhascreening.org for a free, anonymous, and confidential test. You can also call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—dialing 988 works nationwide to access compassionate, accessible care and support for mental health-related distress.
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Transcript:
Lately, in the last few years, I’ve had more what I would call “spiritual experiences”, that are hard sometimes to separate them from psychological ones. And, as I mentioned before, the fact that I have a mental illness, bipolar disorder. So you can be very high or very low and especially on the times when I’m very high, that’s when I feel more in touch with the universe.
Okay, so my name is Carl Blumenthal, and my personal pronouns are he/him/his. I live in West Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, and I attend Brooklyn Monthly Meeting. It was around the beginning of 2000 or so when I decided, I had been an urban planner (urban health planner) for like 25 years, and decided it was time for me to give back to the community that I had acknowledged as being part of, which is people living with mental health conditions.
And I became what’s called a peer counselor using my experience of of mental illness and adding to that training from other people who have gone through it themselves. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 20 years or so. During the pandemic when I was working for NYC Well, it’s the city’s mental health hotline crisis line, I had many encounters of of a spiritual kind and it’s amazing how deeply you can connect with people over the phone or even through chat and texting when you know people are vulnerable and they’re reaching out for help and you’re their lifeline. I mean, I help people who are in the process of trying to kill themselves, you know, get, get help. You know, essentially, you’re recognizing that of God and everyone and encouraging the healing process, the natural healing process that everybody can tap into if they’re open enough to it. And I think that spiritual experiences is often an important part of the healing process for for people.
The reason I’m interested in the connection between Quakers and mental health is that George Fox himself I think was going through — you might call it — an existential crisis, you might call it a severe depression, when he found himself on Pendle Hill and discovered, or rediscovered, Christ and realized that Jesus spoke to his condition. As a result, he went on to heal a lot of people, I think both psychologically as well as spiritually.
In the late 1700s, the York Retreat was founded in York, England. At the time, people with mental illness were being chained in dungeons, and that was, you know, they were treated like criminals or poor people, I mean, all lumped together in that same inhumane way. And this Philadelphia Minister, Thomas Scattergood, went over there. He suffered from a depression himself. And he learned from the principles of the York Retreat to bring them back to Philadelphia. And he helped found Friends Hospital. It was called Friends Asylum at the time. This is about 1813. So that was the first private psychiatric hospital in the U.S..
So, when I wrote my first article about this was during the pandemic about Quakers and Quaker therapies, how they were reacting to the mental health challenges of the pandemic, I cited this history.
My ability to write has at times saved my life. Being able to be in touch with my unconscious, both spiritually and psychologically. And then at other times when I’ve had writer’s block, it’s resulted in depression and even suicide attempts. So it’s a kind of a double edged sword. I think there’s probably a history of creative people who’ve also had mental health conditions, particularly those who have had bipolar disorder. And so I feel like I’m in that tradition. And I guess you can say I’m a descendant of George Fox in that way. I’m sure on Pendle Hill he was pretty high!
Discussion Question:
- What is the history of Quakers in Mental Health?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
Thank you, Carl Blumenthal, for being a proponent of mental health awareness.
Our cultural silence, caused by fear and shame, is part of why we lack funding and facilities and have a shortage of therapists to help the MH crisis we’re in now. We and legislators can’t fix what we’re afraid to talk about, and little known is that 20% of us, people at work and our neighbors, are walking around with mental illness. (According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 58 million of us in 2021.)
Due to shame and fear of discrimination, I struggled in silence for decades with mental illness. I was fortunate to have people around me who saw a problem and encouraged me to seek help and step out of the darkness to feel life again.
I hope this video encourages folks to end unnecessary suffering and reach out and talk to a trusted friend or their family doctor about a mental health issue.
The hotline 988 is not only for people with suicide ideation; it encourages anyone in crisis to call and talk.
Thank you, Ray, for highlighting the support needed from professionals and other caring individuals when we’re faced with mental health challenges. I tried to pass for “chronically normal” before becoming a peer counselor. New York Yearly Meeting’s Differently Abled Friends and Allies (DAFA) support group is a safe space where we can not only share our struggles but also band together for social change, whether our dis-abilities are visible or not. If you haven’t already watched Nichole Nettleton’s QuakerSpeak about DAFA, I encourage you to do so.
Indeed a mystical experience of the Spirit speaking to you and a bi-polar high are almost indistinguishable.
I experienced this at FGC Gathering in 1982 when I said to God “I will be faithful to you all my life”. A few days later I was given the message “All is for Joy”. I recommend the newsletter “What Canst Thou Say?” in which many Quakers over the years have told of such spiritual openings which do often combine with mental breakdowns/breakthroughs. Thank you Carl for your forthrightness and kindness.