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It seems to me that Christians understand mental disorders in one of three chief ways:
1. Mental illness is demonic in origin. So the antidote is to cast out the demons that are causing it.
2. Mental illness is psychobabble. There's no such thing as a "mental disorder." All so-called mental illnesses are just sinful behaviors. So the antidote is for person to repent and get right with God.
3. Mental illness is a physiological disorder. The brain is a physical organ just like the heart, the thyroid, the joints, etc. Thus if someone has panic attacks or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or chronic depression or ADHD, they have a chemical imbalance in the brain, not dissimilar to a hyperthyroidism or high blood pressure or arthritis.
I cut my teeth on a movement that promoted #1. I've met many people who believed #2. But I believe #3 is often the case.
When you see someone with a Mental Illness don't do these.
When we see symptoms of mental illness, here's how we often respond:
• Interpret their behavior through the lens of our own experience and assume their symptoms mean they're selfish, lazy, self-absorbed, undisciplined, or simply failing to trust God.
• Distance ourselves, hoping that something —prosperity, clean living, more faith, a strong family—separates us from them and guarantees we are not vulnerable.
• Ignore them and hope someone else will help.
• Reject them.
• Fear them, usually with no rational basis.
• Blame them for their problems and shame them into silence.
• Tell them to go get help and come back when they're "cured."
• Try to cure them with spiritual practices like Bible reading and prayer, which by themselves are inadequate for people who need medical intervention.
• Try to solve the problem with pat answers and unhelpful advice.
• Try to "fix" them with amateur counseling.
Instead try these
• If you don't know what it's like to live with a mental illness, acknowledge to yourself that you don't understand.
• If you don't know what you're talking about or you don't know what to say, be quiet—but be there.
• Recognize that many of your ideas about mental illness are based in superstition and inaccurate portrayals in pop
culture.
• Get better information—read a book, attend a NAMI workshop, do some research online.
• Understand the need for treatment and encourage rather than discourage it—refuse to belittle, mock, or demonize medical intervention.
• Resist the temptation to believe that people in treatment are having all their needs met; doctors and therapists
don't provide spiritual guidance or loving community.
• Try to recognize yourself in the other person—not in a way that fosters fear for your own mental health, but in a way that nurtures compassion and connection.
• Differentiate legitimate from illegitimate fear—if someone presents a threat to self or others, call the police; if not, maybe you don't really need to be afraid.
• Draw boundaries and be consistent in enforcing them—you don't have to sacrifice your own health and join another person in an unhealthy place
• Acknowledge you don't have all the answers and can't offer easy solutions that are also true.
• If you're not a mental-health professional, acknowledge your limitations but remember no professional qualifications are required to be friendly and kind or to enter into a supportive friendship.
• Offer companionship, the dignity of a handshake and a smile, and perhaps even friendship.
*For those that don't know about me, I suffer from Mental Illness, I have PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, and depression. For a long time I let my Mental Illness control me, yet last year God showed me that I no longer have to be controlled from Mental Illness, He has showed me that I am in control of it through His Holy Name. That doesn't mean that I am completely cured but what it does mean is that I have a handle of it now and I can look for ways to not let it control me anymore.*
For those with Mental Illness or those that have questions about it, feel free to respond in this thread or PM me and I will help, talk, or pray with you or for you.
My hope is that this thread can help people with Mental Illness to longer be in the dark about it, because there is a stigma about Mental Illness.
For instance, if you take blood pressure medicine, you have no right to judge a believer who is taking medicine for depression.
If you take thyroid medication, or medicine for migraine headaches or arthritis, you have no right to judge someone who takes medicine for bipolar disorder.
Or let's put it in terms of what Paul and James both said: If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have no right to judge a fellow Christian.
Romans 14:4: Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:10: You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
James 4:11: Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?
John
1. Mental illness is demonic in origin. So the antidote is to cast out the demons that are causing it.
2. Mental illness is psychobabble. There's no such thing as a "mental disorder." All so-called mental illnesses are just sinful behaviors. So the antidote is for person to repent and get right with God.
3. Mental illness is a physiological disorder. The brain is a physical organ just like the heart, the thyroid, the joints, etc. Thus if someone has panic attacks or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or chronic depression or ADHD, they have a chemical imbalance in the brain, not dissimilar to a hyperthyroidism or high blood pressure or arthritis.
I cut my teeth on a movement that promoted #1. I've met many people who believed #2. But I believe #3 is often the case.
When you see someone with a Mental Illness don't do these.
When we see symptoms of mental illness, here's how we often respond:
• Interpret their behavior through the lens of our own experience and assume their symptoms mean they're selfish, lazy, self-absorbed, undisciplined, or simply failing to trust God.
• Distance ourselves, hoping that something —prosperity, clean living, more faith, a strong family—separates us from them and guarantees we are not vulnerable.
• Ignore them and hope someone else will help.
• Reject them.
• Fear them, usually with no rational basis.
• Blame them for their problems and shame them into silence.
• Tell them to go get help and come back when they're "cured."
• Try to cure them with spiritual practices like Bible reading and prayer, which by themselves are inadequate for people who need medical intervention.
• Try to solve the problem with pat answers and unhelpful advice.
• Try to "fix" them with amateur counseling.
Instead try these
• If you don't know what it's like to live with a mental illness, acknowledge to yourself that you don't understand.
• If you don't know what you're talking about or you don't know what to say, be quiet—but be there.
• Recognize that many of your ideas about mental illness are based in superstition and inaccurate portrayals in pop
culture.
• Get better information—read a book, attend a NAMI workshop, do some research online.
• Understand the need for treatment and encourage rather than discourage it—refuse to belittle, mock, or demonize medical intervention.
• Resist the temptation to believe that people in treatment are having all their needs met; doctors and therapists
don't provide spiritual guidance or loving community.
• Try to recognize yourself in the other person—not in a way that fosters fear for your own mental health, but in a way that nurtures compassion and connection.
• Differentiate legitimate from illegitimate fear—if someone presents a threat to self or others, call the police; if not, maybe you don't really need to be afraid.
• Draw boundaries and be consistent in enforcing them—you don't have to sacrifice your own health and join another person in an unhealthy place
• Acknowledge you don't have all the answers and can't offer easy solutions that are also true.
• If you're not a mental-health professional, acknowledge your limitations but remember no professional qualifications are required to be friendly and kind or to enter into a supportive friendship.
• Offer companionship, the dignity of a handshake and a smile, and perhaps even friendship.
*For those that don't know about me, I suffer from Mental Illness, I have PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, and depression. For a long time I let my Mental Illness control me, yet last year God showed me that I no longer have to be controlled from Mental Illness, He has showed me that I am in control of it through His Holy Name. That doesn't mean that I am completely cured but what it does mean is that I have a handle of it now and I can look for ways to not let it control me anymore.*
For those with Mental Illness or those that have questions about it, feel free to respond in this thread or PM me and I will help, talk, or pray with you or for you.
My hope is that this thread can help people with Mental Illness to longer be in the dark about it, because there is a stigma about Mental Illness.
For instance, if you take blood pressure medicine, you have no right to judge a believer who is taking medicine for depression.
If you take thyroid medication, or medicine for migraine headaches or arthritis, you have no right to judge someone who takes medicine for bipolar disorder.
Or let's put it in terms of what Paul and James both said: If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have no right to judge a fellow Christian.
Romans 14:4: Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:10: You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
James 4:11: Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?
John
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