Comments on: iMonk 101: The Christian and Mental Illness II: Is There Such A Thing As Mental Illness?

By: cdc

cdc — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:50:20 +0000

jeremy – i believe you misunderstand the scripture you quoted. Christ was comparing love for Him to love for anything else… in that you must love Me so much that “by comparison” it will look like you hate everything else.

By: cdc

cdc — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:37:20 +0000

i agree. the bible is not pre-scientific. God, who designed and created every facet from the unseen to the seen existing in the universe today hardly requires mere man to offer speculated theories about how things work. it’s laughable.

By: cdc

cdc — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:34:39 +0000

thank you.

By: cdc

cdc — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:28:10 +0000

answer: if those are the only two choices… the answer is ‘melancholy member of the faithful’. no Bible-believing Christian would choose otherwise… life without Christ means death without Christ.

By: Mark Zamen

Mark Zamen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:02:21 +0000

This is a very good post: balanced, thought provoking, informative, and articulate. The subject matter and tone indicate you would find a particular work of literature to be of considerable interest and especially relevant. I refer to my recently released biographical novel, Broken Saint. It is based on my forty-year friendship with a gay, bipolar, Mormon man, and chronicles the intense internal and external struggles of his bizarre and often troubled life as he battles for stability and acceptance (of himself and by others). More information is available at http://www.eloquentbooks.com/BrokenSaint.html or authorautobahn.webs.com/bookpeek.htm.

Mark Zamen, author

By: RonP

RonP — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:43:16 +0000

I’ve seen both sides of this issue.
We had a guy in our fellowship several years ago who was seriously bipolar, and he kept his condition somewhat in check with meds. But he apparently read something or heard some televangelist on TV that gave him the conviction that he should stop taking his meds and trust God to miraculously heal his condition. After several weeks of this (and some seriously crazy behavior on his part) we in leadership had to put our foot down and tell the guy to take his bloody meds — which he did and leveled back out almost immediately.
On the other hand, there was this other guy who was in our church’s alcohol and drug recovery ministry. He was a recovering alcoholic and a Vietnam Vet who had frequent flashbacks and psychotic episodes. He was also on a lot of meds prescribed by various doctors, and I highly suspect he was abusing them. In fact, he tried to kill himself by overdosing on one of his medications. Luckily, he failed. But after that, he decided to cut out the medications altogether — and his condition improved greatly. He stopped having psychotic episodes, and he was starting to resemble a functional, rational human being. Unfortunately, he had been ordered by a judge (because of his suicide attempt) to undergo counseling, And that doctor insisted that he start taking a new drug, basically giving him the choice between taking the drug and doing jail time. It wouldn’t suprise me if the doctor was so insistant because he was being offered kickbacks from the company that manufactures that drug. Facing that kind of choice, the guy agreed to take the drug — and (go figure) his mental state started to deteriorate as soon as he started taking them.
I think situations like this call for some wisdom and discernment on the part of both the mentally ill person and those close to that person. I believe that professional treatments and medications do help a lot of people from slipping over the edge. I also believe that the transforming power of God in a persons life can heal emotional and mental problems. And I don’t think God insists that we abstain from modern medicine or science before He’s willing to do His own healing work in our lives. He’s God, and He can do His thing alongside medical science or without it. And rejecting the help of modern medicine isn’t necessarlily an act of faith. Sometimes, it’s just pure ignorance at work.
Then again, I don’t think it’s too wise to completely trust everything that comes down the pipe in the world of medical science. There’s a lot of monetary incentive driving some diagnosis and prescriptions — and there are some professionals in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, and pharmacy that would like to keep us all doped up so that they can better line their pockets.

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:59:02 +0000

Have you read the Desert Fathers on acedia?

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:29:14 +0000

Thank you for this. As a Christian who suffers from mental illness, I can’t stand to be told to “pray harder” or “let go and let God” or any other of the useless platitudes we use to make ourselves feel better about someone else’s pain.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:44:46 +0000

This approach seems to shift some of what is needed for Johnny to change into an arena outside of his control. Medication-based treatments have a tendency to minimize responsibility for seeing our emotions, behavior and mental state as part of our own human stewardship.

As someone who continually struggles with depression, I found that finally entering into therapy and accepting that I might need medication to fuction at times–not even taking the medication, but accepting that I might need it and making a decision to ask my doctor about it–filled me with peace and has made me better able to function.

I no longer feel as if I am alone in tackling the monster, but that’s just a side benefit–recognizing that it’s not my fault that I am depressed has enabled and freed me to actually work on changing my own behavior and taking responsibility for my wellness, emotions, and mental health in a way that I was flat-out rejecting before I became open to the possibilities of therapy and medication. It has enabled me to enhance, rather than minimize, responsibility toward my own emotions and mental state and how they affect others.

I think sometimes illness–whether something concrete like cancer or something mental like depression–forces us to rely on forces outside ourselves for healing, and that in itself can be part of the healing process. When our emotions and culture constantly bombard us with messages of “don’t rely on others,” or “sickness is weakness” or “you ought to just get happy,” relying on others and acknowledging that you can’t always be in control is viewed as weakness, but I think it’s a very important and very Christian step toward healing. I know that acknowledging, “God, this problem is outside of my control” through prayer was the first step I needed to make the decision to talk to my doctor and get help.

I don’t think I know anyone on medication for serious mental or physical problems who isn’t keenly aware of how the medication and other outside help allows them to take responsibility for their own health in ways that they weren’t able to before getting that help.

Allowing myself to take responsibility for my sickness as something in myself that I need outside help to fix also allows me to take responsibility for the times when I have sinned and blamed it on the untreated depression. Depression? Not my fault. Arguing that I don’t need treatment for my depression? That’s a lot of pride, there, thinking that I and I alone must shoulder my illness. Making life miserable for my roommates with my anger? Making my friends and family worry about me? Performing lazily at work because I can’t be bothered to care about anything besides my own misery? Being resentful of being stopped from committing suicide by my partner? That’s certainly a lot of sin, and it was sin informed by my attitudes toward my illness, but the sin wasn’t caused by the illness–the sin was caused by my decision not to take responsibility for getting care and controlling my illness because I thought that getting outside help meant abdicating responsibility for myself. Nothing, I think, could be farther from the truth.

By: JoeA

JoeA — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:20:20 +0000

Haven’t been there. Was in a different hospital – only once. Anice one, but they still lock the doors behind you.

An angel would be very nice when I’m having a bad ‘down’ day. *smile*

As for the food & sleep, both were probably good for that person in his situation, but many depressed people (me included) eat *more* when they’re down.