mental illness and christianity

Status
Not open for further replies.

Catherineanne

Well-Known Member
Sep 1, 2004
22,924
4,645
Europe
✟76,860.00
Country
United Kingdom
Faith
Anglican
Marital Status
Widowed
Hm. I don't understand how it is beyond possible that the brain could be sick just like any other part of the body. I cannot simply go to a doctor and ask them to remove the physical cause of my disorder (which happens to be a past trauma) because a trauma can't physically be removed. So I am confused. Am I making my disorder up in my head because I want to?

You are not making anything up.

When the body heals it very often does not physically remove the problem; with a broken bone, for example, the bone does not return to its former state, but is healed in such a way that the break is joined, and the weakness protected.

Similarly, in relation to mental trauma the aim is not to undo the memory as if the trauma had never happened. The aim is to provide support around that particular memory so that the person is no longer incapacitated by it, but able to function once more. Traumatic memories are stored differently from more standard memories, and this is what causes the problem. With the right support the traumatic memories can be transferred from trauma storage to standard storage; the memory remains, but the damaging symptoms that go along with it can be reduced considerably. In time the memory might even fade, as normal memories do.
 
Upvote 0

aiki

Regular Member
Feb 16, 2007
10,874
4,348
Winnipeg
✟236,528.00
Country
Canada
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
You are stating what worked for you and that is awesome. I am glad you found freedom from depression without medication and doctors. However I believe it is irresponsible to tell people that what you are doing is the only way to find relief.

Well, you can believe what you like. I don't take the World's thinking on mental health; I take God's. As far as I'm concerned, real, true, enduring relief can only be found in deep, rich fellowship with God. Only those without such fellowship, it seems to me, would think it irresponsible to point to it as the way to freedom from anxiety and depression.

How to you convince someone who believes God hates them to live in the way you describe? They will not even approach a church many times.

It's not my job to convince someone that God doesn't hate them. I can only tell them the truth about God, that He is love and offers an abundant life to them. Persuading and convicting a person that this is true is up to God Himself to do.

I personally was in a group with a woman who's mother was a Pastor, whe was in the choir and had completely given herself to her relationship with God but secretly cut herself when she was alone because she said it made her feel better.

Quite obviously she had not "completely given herself to her relationship with God." Her cutting of herself plainly contradicts your claim about her. Having a pastor-mother (which is entirely unbiblical, by the way) and singing in the church choir hardly constitutes a healthy, deep relationship with God - as her self-mutilation demonstrates. You seem to have a very superficial idea of what walking with God is like.

In my own situation, I am a believer who goes to Mass, I pray, and I thank God every day for who and what I have. I am not lacking in gratitude, I have been given every good thing one needs or could want in life. I have a family and friends who love me, a comfortable place to live, all the food I need, and I feel a Good relationship with God. I study the word, talk about it with others, pray for guidance and discernment and like I said give thanks. I talk with a spiritual advisor ad my Priest in order to stay in missions.

Being grateful to God and thankful for what you have is not fellowship with God. These things are good, but they are only a small part of knowing and walking with your Maker. Are you born-again? Do you have a second spiritual birth? Does the Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? Does your life bear increasingly the fruit of the Spirit? Are you abiding in Christ who is your life? Are you surrendered moment-by-moment to the will and way of God's Spirit? If so, your life will be filled with joy and peace, love and contentment.

I could always be doing more but I try to live my faith and having said that, people exhaust me, I would prefer to stay in the house and do nothing that go out and be with people so I have to make a huge effort not to isolate.

Loving God inevitably means loving others. The apostle John wrote extensively about this. I'm a natural introvert. Being with people doesn't energize me like it does an extrovert. But as I step into the lives of others and love them as God has commanded me to, and I do so in His power, I don't find myself drained and wanting to isolate as I once did. "God's will done God's way will never lack God's supply." Loving others with God's love and in His power is a joy, not a drain.

I have come to see that my natural tendency to withdraw from others and isolate is just selfishness (when it is not done for the sake of getting alone with God). Whenever I am serving myself, it becomes much harder to serve others - and God. It isn't for no reason Jesus said,

Matthew 16:24-25
24 ..."If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.


If I am truly to walk with God, to fellowship with Him, I must enter a life of self-denial, a life of death to myself. I cannot be of use to God when I am preoccupied with me, with my fears, and my heartaches, and my desires, and my pride, and all the host of other ways Self works to obscure God and magnify itself. The two things are anathema to each other, you see. Where Self is enlarged, God is necessarily diminished, and vice versa. When Self is magnified and indulged, fear, depression, anger, pride, self-pity, resentment and hatred always eventually result. And the more Self reigns, the more pathological its effects.

I am grateful for my life but God has not removed my depression. Perhaps itis a trial I am meant to go through but I don't think it is because I am lacking in my effort to seek a relationship with him and have this taken away.

God in His word tells us that joy and peace come by way of walking rightly with Him. When we are depressed, and anxious, and obsessive-compulsive, as so many are today, it is clear evidence that we are not walking rightly with God. This isn't necessarily evidence of sin, or of apathy toward God, but is often the result of simple ignorance, of not knowing how to properly walk with God.

The way you describe depression it is more of a character defect and it is not, it is a medical condition.

If there is one thing the Bible makes clear, it is that we are all of us highly defective. We are all of us wicked, rebellious creatures in desperate need of God's salvation and transforming power. Our wickedness manifests in all sorts of ways, including fearfulness and depression. These days, though, the World wants to pathologize our sinfulness, to make us victims of our own sin rather than the perpetrators of it. If we capitulate to this trend, if we deny our sinfulness and responsibility for our behaviour, we will never know the life of peace and joy and love God invites to have with Him.

1 John 1:6-9
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 
Upvote 0

megan_26

Active Member
Sep 22, 2017
155
371
USA
✟44,260.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
The arrogance and condescension on this thread is overwhelming. We won't understand/know everything while we are here on Earth and it's foolish to pretend that we do. Our opinions are not law or fact. Let's remember to speak all things out of love and not simply just to prove our own points.
 
Upvote 0

Neostarwcc

We are saved purely by the work and grace of God.
Supporter
Dec 13, 2015
5,229
4,189
37
US
✟909,984.00
Country
United States
Faith
Calvinist
Marital Status
Married
The arrogance and condescension on this thread is overwhelming. We won't understand/know everything while we are here on Earth and it's foolish to pretend that we do. Our opinions are not law or fact. Let's remember to speak all things out of love and not simply just to prove our own points.

Good point. I agree.
 
Upvote 0

W2L

Well-Known Member
Jun 26, 2016
20,081
10,988
USA
✟213,573.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
Heal? Hmmm...that isn't the word I would use for what God did for me. He lifted my mind and heart out of its pathological fixation with myself so that I could properly orient fully upon Him. I was reclusive, and deeply anxious, and joyless. I knew about God but I didn't have anything but the most superficial relationship with Him. If you'd asked me at that time, though, if I knew God and was walking with Him, I would have given you a resounding "Of course!" The truth, however, was that I had no experience of the abundant spiritual life God promised. I was not bearing the fruit of joy, and peace, and love in my life. I did not have the "sound mind" that God's Spirit imparts to all of His children. Certainly, I had no idea what it was like to live in the peace that passes all understanding. And yet, I would have told you I was walking quite well with God. How deluded I was! You'd have thought my deep anxiety and depression would have clued me in to the true state of affairs between me and God. But God is faithful. He did not let me go on in my false thinking. He showed me just how severely Self-focused I was and how impossible it is to enter into the life He had for me so long as I was. It wasn't, then, that God healed me. It was more that He showed me the destructive grip of Selfishness and helped me to win free of it.
Thank you for the re.
 
Upvote 0

toLiJC

Senior Member
Jun 18, 2012
3,041
227
✟35,877.00
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Private
Nonsense.

Not least because insects are full of protein - locusts are up to 75% protein - and honey has superb antibacterial qualities.

Honey: Health Benefits and Uses In Medicine

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/eating-bugs

i haven't meant that there aren't enough nutrients in honey and locusts - they contain all the important nutrients, but are very rarely found in a wilderness such as this:
mongolia-831299-1280.jpg


and John the Baptist lived exactly in such a place

What utter tosh.

you don't know Scripture and are too hasty to deny things you don't know

Blessings
 
Upvote 0

aiki

Regular Member
Feb 16, 2007
10,874
4,348
Winnipeg
✟236,528.00
Country
Canada
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
The arrogance and condescension on this thread is overwhelming. We won't understand/know everything while we are here on Earth and it's foolish to pretend that we do. Our opinions are not law or fact. Let's remember to speak all things out of love and not simply just to prove our own points.

To whom are you referring here?
 
Upvote 0

aiki

Regular Member
Feb 16, 2007
10,874
4,348
Winnipeg
✟236,528.00
Country
Canada
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
I feel as if your responses have been a bit hostile/condescending and I did not want my thread to be a debate over things like this.

I've been matter-of-fact, but not hostile or condescending. I know God's word and I know what obeying its commands and following its wisdom and principles has done in my own life. Why shouldn't I speak, then, confidently and plainly about both? If you wanted simply to be confirmed and comforted in what you think about psychological struggles and walking with God, you should have said so.
 
Upvote 0

Adzinfi

Active Member
Sep 27, 2017
59
16
43
Suva
✟1,161.00
Country
Fiji
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
there are some "Christians" who claim mental illness is not real or it is caused by sin. I wouldn't stay in a church where that idea is put forth.
Have witnessed many become completely well after experiencing devils cast out.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

rturner76

Domine non-sum dignus
Supporter
May 10, 2011
10,484
3,582
Twin Cities
✟724,721.00
Country
United States
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Green
Well, you can believe what you like. I don't take the World's thinking on mental health; I take God's. As far as I'm concerned, real, true, enduring relief can only be found in deep, rich fellowship with God. Only those without such fellowship, it seems to me, would think it irresponsible to point to it as the way to freedom from anxiety and depression.
Forgive me, I didn't mean to imply that a relationship with God is not a good path to obtaining freedom from depression and anxiety. In fact I believe I said something to the effect of it has been found to be one of the most reliable means of recovering along with surrounding yourself with people who love you and living a moral life. What I actually said was irresponsible was to teach that it is the ONLY means of finding relief.
t's not my job to convince someone that God doesn't hate them. I can only tell them the truth about God, that He is love and offers an abundant life to them. Persuading and convicting a person that this is true is up to God Himself to do.
A couple things here. As a Christian I believe we do have a responsibility to at least try to counsel anybody that discloses that they think God hates them but you are right, if they can't bring themselves to believe it there is nothing you can do about that fact. Having said that, A person like that who feels they don't belong in church, should they not still be able to receive some form of treatment? Someone that can meet them where they are in life and perhaps talk with them every week more or less without judgement and encourages them to begin to look at different narratives to describe their situation like just throwing in a "maybe" and getting a person to accept that and build them up to where eventually they are saying "I am a good person.".
Quite obviously she had not "completely given herself to her relationship with God." Her cutting of herself plainly contradicts your claim about her. Having a pastor-mother (which is entirely unbiblical, by the way) and singing in the church choir hardly constitutes a healthy, deep relationship with God - as her self-mutilation demonstrates. You seem to have a very superficial idea of what walking with God is like.
This is exactly the kind of judgement she feared if her secret got out about her depression and especially about her cutting. I won't get into it too much but she felt like she had to punish herself for not being able to live free as God intended. Similar to how you put it, she felt she was neglecting some aspect ofher spiritual life though she couldn't figure out what it was and her depression and anxiety was displeasing to God so she felt she had to punish herself. Now people who do that have a whole other thing going on besides depression and anxiety. Self harm is it's own affliction and people are triggered by all kinds of different things. I don't pretend to know what drives people there. I just know this person was suffering greatly though she was in the church and had she spoken with someone who shares your stance, the blame would be placed on her which would only serve to make her feel lower and less able to manage her emotions.
Being grateful to God and thankful for what you have is not fellowship with God. These things are good, but they are only a small part of knowing and walking with your Maker. Are you born-again? Do you have a second spiritual birth? Does the Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? Does your life bear increasingly the fruit of the Spirit? Are you abiding in Christ who is your life? Are you surrendered moment-by-moment to the will and way of God's Spirit? If so, your life will be filled with joy and peace, love and contentment.
In terms of my spiritual condition and how that affect my depression, I am very satisfied with my relationship with God. I gave my will and my life over to the care of God and haven't looked back yet. I quit smoking, drinking, and became celibate. My spiritual walk gives my life it's meaning and really it has become my identity. Even with all that, depression still nags at me. It doesn't rule my life. Over time I have learned how to engage in positive activities and watch out for those mental cues that tell me when I am going into behaviors that feed into a depressed mood or mind state and redirect back into the things we have talked about, prayer, meditation, social interaction, enjoyable activities etc. My depression is being treated but it is not cured. I believe in body, mind, spirit. I get help from God, family, and the medical community so I don't endorse any one particular approach only.
If I am truly to walk with God, to fellowship with Him, I must enter a life of self-denial, a life of death to myself. I cannot be of use to God when I am preoccupied with me, with my fears, and my heartaches, and my desires, and my pride, and all the host of other ways Self works to obscure God and magnify itself. The two things are anathema to each other, you see. Where Self is enlarged, God is necessarily diminished, and vice versa. When Self is magnified and indulged, fear, depression, anger, pride, self-pity, resentment and hatred always eventually result. And the more Self reigns, the more pathological its effects
Here again it is the shortcomings of the depressed person that has caused their depression. Depression is seen as an indulgence and the implication seems to be if a Christian is depressed it is because they are putting themselves before God. I do not see compassion for the one who suffers. Instead I see a cycle of shame and blame which drives depressed person further into their depression, further into isolation, further away from their deliverance.
God in His word tells us that joy and peace come by way of walking rightly with Him. When we are depressed, and anxious, and obsessive-compulsive, as so many are today, it is clear evidence that we are not walking rightly with God. This isn't necessarily evidence of sin, or of apathy toward God, but is often the result of simple ignorance, of not knowing how to properly walk with God.
Again, I do not think people choose to be depressed, have anxiety or OCD. These are afflictions of the human being's mind brought on by many different causes, natural and unnatural. It is my opinion that we need to tell people with these afflictions of God's ever enduring love and forgiveness. These are the teachings to introduce to a person with mental illness. They can work on "walking rightly" as they grow in love for their creator and with gratitude.
If there is one thing the Bible makes clear, it is that we are all of us highly defective. We are all of us wicked, rebellious creatures in desperate need of God's salvation and transforming power. Our wickedness manifests in all sorts of ways, including fearfulness and depression. These days, though, the World wants to pathologize our sinfulness, to make us victims of our own sin rather than the perpetrators of it. If we capitulate to this trend, if we deny our sinfulness and responsibility for our behaviour, we will never know the life of peace and joy and love God invites to have with Him.
I fail to see how having a mental illness means you are giving in to sin and how wickedness equates to depression unless you are talking about a depressed drunk or something even then, addiction is a disease as well.
If I were you and I was going to say religion is the only way to recover from mental illness.....I would focus more on how God saves us through grace and heals us with unconditional love rather that how we must obey God and stop the sin of mental illness. You will get more people to sign up if you focus on the miracle God can perform in your life
 
Upvote 0

megan_26

Active Member
Sep 22, 2017
155
371
USA
✟44,260.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
I've been matter-of-fact, but not hostile or condescending. I know God's word and I know what obeying its commands and following its wisdom and principles has done in my own life. Why shouldn't I speak, then, confidently and plainly about both? If you wanted simply to be confirmed and comforted in what you think about psychological struggles and walking with God, you should have said so.
My question was "can you be a Christian and have mental illness?" You could have simply answered "I don't think so."
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Strong in Him
Upvote 0

megan_26

Active Member
Sep 22, 2017
155
371
USA
✟44,260.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Wait, I'm confused. Who said you can't be Christian if you have a mental illness?
I may have misspoke a bit. A few users on here were saying that having a mental illness or still suffering from one after you turned to Christ was still a sign of not giving your whole self to him.
 
  • Friendly
Reactions: vinsight4u
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

mnorian

Oldbie--Eternal Optimist
In Memory Of
Mar 9, 2013
36,781
10,563
✟980,332.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
Mod hat on
upload_2017-9-30_0-12-53.jpeg

This thread has been permanently closed
due to
Flaming, goading and SOP violations:
SOP
This is just a reminder that this area is a place for New Christians to come and ask questions and get encouragement & support from other Christians. So if you are not a new Christian please feel free to browse the threads and post, but please do not start new threads. If you are looking for a place to post an encouraging word and want to start a new thread please consider the following forums:

Daily Devotionals
Deeper Fellowship
Positive News
Praise Reports


Off topic threads will be moved or deleted.
Carry on.
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.