The new principal of Waverley Abbey College has called for churches to do more to support mental health.

Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, which begins today (Monday, May 11), Revd Dr Caleb Nyanni said he “felt like I had disappeared” during a mental health crisis in his early 20s.

The father-of-two experienced severe depression, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts while studying theology in Birmingham in the early 2000s.

“As a young man in my early 20s, I didn’t want to admit my battles,” Dr Nyanni said, who joined the Farnham-based Christian college in March.

“Mental health was scary to me - it was widely undervalued. There was stigma in the Church, and I felt I couldn’t approach anyone.

“As a leader, I had to be bubbly - but inside I was shaking. I felt lonely in a crowd. I had panic attacks - but I was trying to be ‘a man’.

“My ego wouldn’t allow me to seek help. Nobody should have to go through that.”

Dr Nyanni grew up in rural Ghana before moving to the UK with his family in 1998 when his father came here for theological studies.

After beginning a degree in film and media studies, he switched to theology and later gained a master’s degree and PhD at the University of Birmingham.

He said his mental health worsened after developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome and losing his hair through stress.

“I went with my toothbrush and a rucksack,” he said of leaving Birmingham during the crisis.

“Truthfully, I didn’t expect to return to Birmingham – I wondered if I would survive at all.

“I felt loneliness, isolation, rejection and depression – it felt like I had nobody.”

Dr Nyanni stayed in a friend’s spare room in London, where he said he isolated himself for days.

“I felt like I had disappeared,” he said.

“I sought God. I cried. I felt empty. It was like being in a trance.”

He described the experience as a turning point in both his life and faith.

“I heard a voice telling me I was loved,” he said.

“I suddenly had a deep sense of peace and belonging. It was a transformative experience.”

Returning to Birmingham, Dr Nyanni completed his studies and later became dean of studies and programme director at Birmingham Christian College before taking up his new role at Waverley Abbey College.

The college, based beside the ruins of Britain’s first Cistercian monastery near Farnham, enrols about 500 students each year in counselling, theology and chaplaincy courses.

Dr Nyanni said he wanted churches to become more open in discussing mental health.

“I believe that a person can be deeply spiritual and profoundly depressed,” he said.

“The human soul is capable of holding both light and shadow at once and the Church needs to acknowledge that.

“With so many challenges facing younger generations, we have to remove stigma so that people of all faiths and none have somewhere to turn.”

He said he hoped Waverley Abbey College would become “a place where we equip, empower and engage a rising generation”.

For more information visit the Waverley Abbey website.