- Dec 27, 2015
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My own two bob's worth - I had reactive depression for a number of years. Fortunately I had the good experience of being directed to a Catholic psychiatrist (who, like me, is a convert from Protestantism). The advantage of this was that he has had quite a lot of spiritual experiences of his own.
To deal with the depression first - he prescribed Prozac, and I suppose I was on that for about 10 years. I no longer need to take it, and while I get frustrated at times, I no longer get depressed like I used to. So he was quite prepared to prescribe medication when required. His comment about the Prozac was "When you've been depressed for a long time, your brain chemistry changes. What Prozac does is to slowly change it back towards what it should be."
He has also written a few books, some of them for the layman. Here is one example.
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Home_Psychiatrist.html?id=EeAqRgEhRyMC
Now for the spiritual bit. I told him about "voices" I'd heard on a couple of occasions. Each time they were specific, and directed to something I was thinking about, but they didn't come from me. On one occasion, I was complaining in my mind about my lack of vocational openings throughout most of my working life, and this voice just broke right through and said, point blank, "Bob! What's wrong with being a writer??" with a real emphasis on the word "wrong". I'm still dragging my feet on that one, as I feel so cranky about the way things have turned out in other ways. The psychiatrist is always at me to 'write' though every time I see him.
On the other occasion, I had a crush on a (not suitable) young lady in our church (years ago), and this time the voice said "Bob! Is (Miss Piggy) suited to you?" In other words, "No!", but by the relatively gentle method of a leading question. The pastor had been trying to talk me out of it as well.
When the psychiatrist heard these stories, he replied, "That's interesting. Did I tell you my story?"
Obviously he hadn't, so he obliged. He'd been working on his computer in his office typing away, when a voice just said to him, very directly and with no question about it, "Go to Maclean!" And that was it - no context, no explanation, nothing.
He said he wasn't even sure which Maclean it referred to - North or South Maclean not far from where I live, or a Maclean over the border in New South Wales, or wherever. So he just noted it.
Now he gets mixed up in family healing masses, as he has both psychiatric and spiritual credentials you might say. About two weeks after the "voice", he was at a family healing mass in Lismore in northern New South Wales. He'd finished, and afterwards an aborigional woman came up to him and said, "I don't want to interfere, or cause any problems, but I seem to be getting told you should go to Maclean."
Well, well. Having been primed by the voice in the office two weeks before, he went. He said he finished up on some river island which was used in the early days of settlement as a temporary lockup for aboriginal prisoners. He said there was some unfinished spiritual business there. In the long run though, he said he thought it was mainly to help the lady herself, as she was having some trouble with her own people now that she'd become Christian.
So much for "voices".
His own attitude to the psychiatric profession is that many of them are too ready to throw drugs at people, and there's not enough psycho-therapy (talking issues through). Nor is he averse to taking a stand if he thinks the trade is abusing its power. The following link (some years old now) about the misuse of psychiatrists and psychologists to get rid of unwanted employees contains his name and the following paragraph, for example -
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2001/s331042.htm
Anyway, I was fortunate to be directed to a psychiatrist with both medical and spiritual credentials.
To deal with the depression first - he prescribed Prozac, and I suppose I was on that for about 10 years. I no longer need to take it, and while I get frustrated at times, I no longer get depressed like I used to. So he was quite prepared to prescribe medication when required. His comment about the Prozac was "When you've been depressed for a long time, your brain chemistry changes. What Prozac does is to slowly change it back towards what it should be."
He has also written a few books, some of them for the layman. Here is one example.
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Home_Psychiatrist.html?id=EeAqRgEhRyMC
Now for the spiritual bit. I told him about "voices" I'd heard on a couple of occasions. Each time they were specific, and directed to something I was thinking about, but they didn't come from me. On one occasion, I was complaining in my mind about my lack of vocational openings throughout most of my working life, and this voice just broke right through and said, point blank, "Bob! What's wrong with being a writer??" with a real emphasis on the word "wrong". I'm still dragging my feet on that one, as I feel so cranky about the way things have turned out in other ways. The psychiatrist is always at me to 'write' though every time I see him.
On the other occasion, I had a crush on a (not suitable) young lady in our church (years ago), and this time the voice said "Bob! Is (Miss Piggy) suited to you?" In other words, "No!", but by the relatively gentle method of a leading question. The pastor had been trying to talk me out of it as well.
When the psychiatrist heard these stories, he replied, "That's interesting. Did I tell you my story?"
Obviously he hadn't, so he obliged. He'd been working on his computer in his office typing away, when a voice just said to him, very directly and with no question about it, "Go to Maclean!" And that was it - no context, no explanation, nothing.
He said he wasn't even sure which Maclean it referred to - North or South Maclean not far from where I live, or a Maclean over the border in New South Wales, or wherever. So he just noted it.
Now he gets mixed up in family healing masses, as he has both psychiatric and spiritual credentials you might say. About two weeks after the "voice", he was at a family healing mass in Lismore in northern New South Wales. He'd finished, and afterwards an aborigional woman came up to him and said, "I don't want to interfere, or cause any problems, but I seem to be getting told you should go to Maclean."
Well, well. Having been primed by the voice in the office two weeks before, he went. He said he finished up on some river island which was used in the early days of settlement as a temporary lockup for aboriginal prisoners. He said there was some unfinished spiritual business there. In the long run though, he said he thought it was mainly to help the lady herself, as she was having some trouble with her own people now that she'd become Christian.
So much for "voices".
His own attitude to the psychiatric profession is that many of them are too ready to throw drugs at people, and there's not enough psycho-therapy (talking issues through). Nor is he averse to taking a stand if he thinks the trade is abusing its power. The following link (some years old now) about the misuse of psychiatrists and psychologists to get rid of unwanted employees contains his name and the following paragraph, for example -
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2001/s331042.htm
Anyway, I was fortunate to be directed to a psychiatrist with both medical and spiritual credentials.
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