Friday, 02 October 2009

• The Chemistry Inside a Pastor's Body

  By Clayton King
  

  I pray this post is both a blessing and a warning to you, pastor.  It’s Monday again, and for many pastors and ministers, today will be challenging.  It seems my earlier post on the dangers  associated with Mondays struck a chord, judging by the amount of comments made.  I spent some time over the past 7 days reading more on what happens inside the body of a pastor.  I had a long conversation with a good friend who is a psychologist in CA.  And I found out about a prominent pastor who just suffered from a massive heart attack at a relatively young age not long after recovering from a total nervous breakdown.  All of that to say…I pray this post is a blessing and a warning to you.

  The human body produces certain chemicals that help it function in times of stress called endorphins and adrenaline.  They help you get ready for work, get the kids out the door, and get energized for staff meetings or sermon delivery.  There are several problems associated with these naturally occurring chemicals.

  1.  The body becomes addicted to them over time.  They are natural pain killers.  They also act as energy supplements.  Your body craves them once it has become accustomed to having them.  Pastors require more of them because we live in situations constantly that no one else can experience that require adrenaline; staff meetings, fund-raising, counseling, spiritual warfare, hospital visits, 40 minute sermons in front of 50 - 5,000 people, and the shepherding of precious souls in our congregations.  We live on a stage.  We don’t even know it, but our adrenaline levels are through the roof most of the time.  When they do come down, we feel depressed and discouraged and we need more.  Some guys just preach again, others run or work out, and a few do crazy things to get it, like have affairs, embezzle money, or look at porn.
  

  2.  Their levels naturally drop in your mid 30’s.  Sorry pastor, there is nothing you can do about it.  It’s science.  By your mid 30’s, the adrenaline gland (which sits right above the kidneys, thus the name “ad-renal” or “above the kidney”) begins producing less and less of the good stuff that makes you feel awesome.  So if you are like me and you feel great when you preach and right after you finish, you wonder what in the world is going on when you come down.  Your body cannot sustain the levels of adrenaline that you have become used to.  Add to that those of us who used to play competitive sports, ride bikes, rock climb, sky dive or lift hard or run hard, and you have the potential for severe depression and discouragement from your early 30’s to your early 40’s.  But the adrenaline depletion is totally normal and cannot be reversed.  Most guys just don’t have a clue what’s happening.  They think the sky is falling and have no plan to cope or adjust.

  3.  Adrenaline (and endorphins) can poison the body.  Like any good thing, too much is a bad thing.  These chemicals linger in the body long after secreted and have to be processed and metabolized, leaving residual effects.  Some guys don’t process them well or at all.  Rick Warren at Saddleback has shared publicly about his struggles with this and how at times he couldn’t even get out of the bed at all on Mondays.  Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill in Seattle has also shared about his overdose on adrenaline and how his adrenal glands nearly burst after they swelled to 3 times their normal size just from the stress of planting a church.  Adrenaline becomes toxic when we don’t give the body proper time to metabolize the chemicals after they are released; i.e. we don’t rest after a big day and get right back to the work that creates more adrenaline while the body is still trying to clean out and process what’s still in it.

  4.  Insomnia often accompanies adrenaline overload and depletion.  If you have ever had trouble falling asleep or waking up in the middle of the night with your heart pounding out of your chest, it could be that your body, even while asleep, is craving adrenaline.  Even in your sleep, the adrenal glands will secrete the chemicals that wake you up and give you energy simply because they are over-active and automatically kick into gear when the levels drop (like when you should be sleeping).  They body has been trained to keep the good stuff flowing, and will have to be trained to get by with less of it as we age.  And we all know how grumpy, irritable, and irrational we get when sleep-deprived.

  5.  The body can’t tell good stress from bad stress.  That’s right, there is no difference chemically.  It’s all stress.  And even though you feel energized after God uses you to deliver a message where people are saved but you feel drained after a lengthy and contentious staff meeting, the organs of the body simply respond to the chemistry associated with elevated stress levels.  It’s how you respond and react that makes or breaks you (time alone resting, reading, or being with your family verses another triple espresso or a Red Bull on the ride home).

  According to my friend with a PH.d. in this stuff, the tips of the neuro-receptors in the brain actually get dull over time from being used so much, which explains the loss of short term memory during seasons of high stress and adrenaline overload.  So forgetfulness, sleeplessness, and irritability can all be connected in part to the chemistry taking place inside your body.

  But you are not doomed.  You are a pastor, which should mean you understand basic problem solving.  Once you can get a handle on the situation, you can devise a plan to preempt the coming storm.  My next post will offer a handful of tips and ideas of ways to sustain your physical and emotional health as a pastor so that you can stay in ministry for a lifetime instead of a season.

  • 1:28 PM
  • 588 Views
  • 12 eProps
  • 6 Comments