Regarding the OP, I agree with others that it can be spiritual at times, but not always.
I think it's also a symptom of our society and no willingness to take responsibility for our actions that got us into unpleasant situations. That runs parallel with the inability to recognize our sinful nature and rejection of God's plan for us.
Look at how many kids are put on meds for ADD or hyperactivity instead of the parents making more of an effort to *gasp* parent. Kids so often seem to feed off their parents' emotions and if they're stressed from having to work all the time, taking away from energy that should be given to the family and caring for the home, which then can make parents depressed because they know they are failing on some levels and so goes the cycle.
It's what the world does to some folks who think they have to keep up. Of course, that's not true in all instances, but it seems to be pretty prevelant. I'd say those are victories for the evil one, for sure.
This is so true. What used to be just kids being disobedient has now been labeled with various illnesses. So now the parents don't have to take so much responsibility, and can just give them drugs instead, or bend over backwards to make sure little Jimmy is happy all the time, even if it's at the expense of everyone else around him. I also think sugar and preservatives are a huge part of the problem. Lots of studies have been done and show that when kids have a healthy diet, their behavior improves. A little discipline goes a long way too.
Speaking of mental disorders and such~do you thing Sphinx is a real person or a bot?
I'm thinkin' bot, but I usually get these things wrong. But think about it, wouldn't it make sense that a bot would cruise a forum and insert information into thread to help clarify terms...SphinxBot, I'm tellin' ya
LOL, good theory!
There are all sorts of reasons. I think hormones play a large part too. I forget the test but didnt they find most violent offenders somewhere in a prison tested had excessive testosterone levels? It can be environmental, chemical, personality defects - and yep, sometimes spiritual.
Excellent point. I've struggled with hormone imbalance for most of my adult life and can tell you it really does take over your personality. My PMDD gets so bad sometimes that I have to just stay home and do nothing because I know it would not be safe for me to drive a car. There are days when I'm totally fine, and days when I can barely function, bogged down by sever frustration or exhaustion, or depression. Doctors have prescribed various hormones over the years to try and help, but that just made things worse in the end because modern medicine has so little info about hormones.
I'm pretty sure I'll take some attacks, but I think MOST of
them are spiritual & less are medical.
(or, that the spiritual can turn into medical over time & cause
real medical problems later...
like massive stress if it's a spiritual source can cause a
physical consequence) --
I don't know if most are spiritual or not. But I do agree that spiritual can cause real medical issues.
Our Pastor just touched on this issue in church this past Sunday
& he said that Christians MUST get a handle on these
emotional disorders going on & how they're rendering us
impotent anymore.
He also said alot of these depressions & so forth stem from
selfishness. I totally agreed with that becuz I had severe
depression/oppression & there was definite selfishness in it
in demanding special attention from everyone .
Yes. That's the whole responsibility issue again. Society lets us excuse bad behavior with a "diagnosis", when often "suck it up!" would be the better response.
Don't get me wrong, I know there are some genuine physical causes for depression in some people, and I'm sure a number of other problems as well. And there are times when antidepressants do serve a valuable purpose. But that is not
nearly as often as most doctors would like us to believe. Partly, many of them prescribe antidepressants because they don't know what else to do. And partly, some of them do it for the kickbacks.
With depression, I think a big part of the problem is that society has taught us to expect to be happy all the time. It's ridiculous. People need to be allowed to experience the bad along with the good. Like, I remember when my dad died, and the management at work expected me to just have a week or two to grieve. Then I was expected to bounce back as if nothing had happened. Um, NO! And just a few months later, another woman at work lost her husband suddenly. Same thing there. They pushed her to go through counseling (supplied by the employer... ick) and take antidepressants. What she needed was time to grieve and work through her anger, etc. Our Western culture does not allow us to be human beings sometimes.
And don't get me started on pharmaceutical companies! LOL.
They're basically like the mafia in how they operate. They don't put all their money into finding cures, but instead, finding "treatments" that patients become dependent on, and that cause side effects that need other medications, etc, etc.
When DH and I see a new drug being promoted on TV, one of us will at some point say "may cause death". And once you hear the long list of side effects, often we're right!
Which leads me to consider....should PMS be a defense when a crime is committed?
I mean....these guys can't really be found not guilty by reason of excess testosterone...
Nope. As one who struggles with these hormone problems, I know how hard it is to deal with. BUT even if we cannot control our emotions, we can control our responses to them.
But, speaking from someone who was given a dose of birth control one time that had too much or too little of something, and saw how weird it made me instantly, I can relate to how extreme shifts in personality can certainly happen to change a person 'just like that'. It's kind of scary actually.
