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R
Where is the church? Why would a pastor send a man to a man? Jesus is the only answer. I remember when ambulances would stop by the church on the way to the hospital. Why the church has no power today I do not understand, but yet I do. The church has leaned on the knowledge of man and not the power of God. My associates have cleaned out mental institutions under the power of God. The church needs to recognize the power of God. A pastor that refers you to a psychologist is a blind man leading the blind.
Sadly, I can not pray with them, although I do promise to pray for them when they are struggling. A while back I had 3 atheists in the group that lit into me and caused a big scene, saying I was pushing Christianity on them. (I never so much as quoted a Buble verse!) After much verbal abuse, they left the group, which hurt terribly at the time, but ended up being the best thing that could have happened. We opened the group up to new members, but that included in die hard atheist so it is still a no-go with prayer. Although the hostile atmosphere created by just the presence of those three atheists is gone, and people are not afraid to speak any more! (Is that demonic, or what?)
I continue to pray for all the members, and the ones in the group respect my leadership, but it remains a secular group. Still, it is something God has called me to, and I know certain individuals are very close to believing, so I will continue to walk a fine line.
I continue to pray for all the members, and the ones in the group respect my leadership, but it remains a secular group. Still, it is something God has called me to, and I know certain individuals are very close to believing, so I will continue to walk a fine line.
The RA meds I take are very toxic. They are mostly chemo drugs; they damage the liver, kidneys, and lungs. My liver and lungs have been damaged by them. Plus, I am not cured! I have to remain on them till I die, unless someone figures out a way to turn off the genes that trigger RA.
So why would I take such poisons? Because I can get out of bed and dress myself, groom and feed myself. I can contribute in my church and play with my grandchildren. We won't even get into the pain and deformities the disease causes. And incidently, my RA was a type that showed nothing on blood tests, although I was eventually diagnosed by symptoms.
Someone with serious mental illness is no different than me. Their brain is very sick! And although there is no test for Axis 1 disorders, symptoms can definitely be indicative of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and depression with psychosis. (This is not major depression) There has been a lot of work done with brain imaging, and there are marked differences in the brains of people who suffer from these disorders. This is not personality disorders, which are not truly treatable with medications, or even major depression!
So these people take the meds, and somewhat like RA meds, they try different drugs until they find the drugs that work the best, with the least side effects. (I've gone off 4 RA drugs because of the side effects!) these drugs do a variety of things, including keep them from getting irrationally paranoid, from experiencing audio or visual hallucinations, minimizing the mood swings, helping with suicidal ideation, and finally, minimizing or eliminating psychosis. Things which, like my RA, don't seem to respond to Biblical counselling!
In fact, one of the Christian women experiences terrible paranoia in response to certain end times scenarios. I've been teaching her that much of what she believes is "pop" theology, and not Biblical. When she thinks about it rationally, she thinks I am right, but when her brain is not working properly, she gets paranoid anyway! And if not over that, then something else irrational! This is one person I do take aside and pray for her, and it does give her peace and calms her down. But she, like every other person in the group, accept that they need to be med compliant or end up "in-patient" after a psychotic break.
I'm sorry if you, or someone you know did not respond well to meds. But probably the severity of mental illness was not there. I am also a big believer in natural methods to work in combo with the meds. That includes good sleep hygiene, exercise, keeping a schedule, counselling and certainly prayer and reading the Bible daily. But for my group, at least, the meds are essential, regardless of how toxic they are!
So why would I take such poisons? Because I can get out of bed and dress myself, groom and feed myself. I can contribute in my church and play with my grandchildren. We won't even get into the pain and deformities the disease causes. And incidently, my RA was a type that showed nothing on blood tests, although I was eventually diagnosed by symptoms.
Someone with serious mental illness is no different than me. Their brain is very sick! And although there is no test for Axis 1 disorders, symptoms can definitely be indicative of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and depression with psychosis. (This is not major depression) There has been a lot of work done with brain imaging, and there are marked differences in the brains of people who suffer from these disorders. This is not personality disorders, which are not truly treatable with medications, or even major depression!
So these people take the meds, and somewhat like RA meds, they try different drugs until they find the drugs that work the best, with the least side effects. (I've gone off 4 RA drugs because of the side effects!) these drugs do a variety of things, including keep them from getting irrationally paranoid, from experiencing audio or visual hallucinations, minimizing the mood swings, helping with suicidal ideation, and finally, minimizing or eliminating psychosis. Things which, like my RA, don't seem to respond to Biblical counselling!
In fact, one of the Christian women experiences terrible paranoia in response to certain end times scenarios. I've been teaching her that much of what she believes is "pop" theology, and not Biblical. When she thinks about it rationally, she thinks I am right, but when her brain is not working properly, she gets paranoid anyway! And if not over that, then something else irrational! This is one person I do take aside and pray for her, and it does give her peace and calms her down. But she, like every other person in the group, accept that they need to be med compliant or end up "in-patient" after a psychotic break.
I'm sorry if you, or someone you know did not respond well to meds. But probably the severity of mental illness was not there. I am also a big believer in natural methods to work in combo with the meds. That includes good sleep hygiene, exercise, keeping a schedule, counselling and certainly prayer and reading the Bible daily. But for my group, at least, the meds are essential, regardless of how toxic they are!
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While attending the University of Illinois..Champaign-Urbana, the majority of the Psych department grad students were relatively close friends. In conversation it was easy to ascertain and obtain admissions that each of the post-doctorate students were in this field in order to learn more about his own problems, and each were complex personalities, even to a non-psych major as I.
Also while living briefly in Paris, I made friends with a psychiatrist at a neighborhood cafe in Fontenay-sous-Bois, a neighborhood of Paris near the Chateau Vincennes. After a time my friend confided that he had become a psychiatrist in order to confront and overcome his own problems, and they were dark problems. It seems at one point in his life previous, his greatest desire was to murder his mother, his girlfriend, a priest, and a prostitue. Obviously he had overcome this desire, but oh the darkness in his life.
Because I know these people, knew them, I believed that they all needed to know Jesus more than anything else, however I was not yet in the Lord, so this thinking is in retrospect.
God is the answer to all problems when it gets right down to the bottom line. Perhaps there is some, maybe much, self--help availed by psychology and/or psychiatry, but even so, I believe if it is successful, it is only because God is doing the healing.
Also while living briefly in Paris, I made friends with a psychiatrist at a neighborhood cafe in Fontenay-sous-Bois, a neighborhood of Paris near the Chateau Vincennes. After a time my friend confided that he had become a psychiatrist in order to confront and overcome his own problems, and they were dark problems. It seems at one point in his life previous, his greatest desire was to murder his mother, his girlfriend, a priest, and a prostitue. Obviously he had overcome this desire, but oh the darkness in his life.
Because I know these people, knew them, I believed that they all needed to know Jesus more than anything else, however I was not yet in the Lord, so this thinking is in retrospect.
God is the answer to all problems when it gets right down to the bottom line. Perhaps there is some, maybe much, self--help availed by psychology and/or psychiatry, but even so, I believe if it is successful, it is only because God is doing the healing.
T
I don't feel you're really in a position to question Angela's walk with God. She absolutely stands for God's truth. But she also knows when it's more important and worthwhile to wait for the right moment. To have bold faith requires someone to know when to speak up and when to shut up. And Angela knows this full well.
We are taught to pray for our enemies but not to pray for any activity that is sinful. We pray for all souls. If when we pray this is our prayer and not for the wrong-doing of the sinner, we are doing the works given by God.
If we pray for the sin of another, we are participating in their sing, but by all means pray for the sinner, always, amen.
If we pray for the sin of another, we are participating in their sing, but by all means pray for the sinner, always, amen.
I have a real hard time with Psychology/Psychiatry. I guess I feel God/Word of God can deal with these issues. Anyone else feel this way or am I a minority? 
