Mental Illness not Acknowledged by Church?

Brian, I don’t think you should ever stop asking the questions, because not asking them doesn’t mean they go away. The question is there whether you actually give acknowledgment to it or not and the failure to acknowledge the question will likely just accentuate any anxiety you may have over it.

Our thinking and acknowledgment, no doubt, affects our body’s chemistry and health, mental and physical, in ways we don’t even realize. How much spiritual power we have within us to affect our health, I suspect is a lot more than we know or give credit to, or our weak faith is willing to acknowledge.

This is not to say I’m opposed to modern medicine and its beneficial effects. Our medical advances are a product of our intelligence and reason and our intelligence and reason are gifts from God that should be fully utilized, not buried. No matter if the cause of our ailment may be spiritual weakness, or some physiological imbalance beyond our control, I don’t believe anything happens that isn’t designed to happen; if medicine is a choice, it’s a choice that should be given consideration as a gift from God, as an answer to a prayer.

I found this article on the reasons.org web site that addresses the mind-body problem here http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/other_papers/the_distinctive_human_self.shtml

I'm curious as to how much we can control our minds with mindfulness and how this can obviate certain genetic predispositions and environmental factors.

Also, I wonder if the advertised program, The Total Transformation Program has any real merit.

http://www.thetotaltransformation.com/

I wasn't sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but I think one of the reasons that the early church called for the elders for prayer in regards to illness is that illness is not always so easy to discern. Paul said that he had a "thorn in the flesh," an "infirmity." There are other indications that he had some eye problems. Clearly he wasn't carrying around a demon but he did say that it was a "messenger from satan to buffet him."

I have arthritis. It is hereditary. God has given me grace not only to deal with this but to alleviate the pain. I can testify that His grace is sufficient for me. I personally see this as something that keeps me humble.

I have had situations with my children where the illness was not easily discernible and prayer made the difference. Skin problems, in particular, are very difficult to discern. I know skin problems may seem a bit off from mental problems, however, I personally believe that they are all one in the same.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:14-16

The real problem is that there are few righteous men anymore that can pray effectual prayers, although, they do exist. Also, few people actually confess their sins one to another.

Vera

Emotional illnesses and other physical disorders seem to be a complex and emergent result from the interaction of our bodies and our environment. It is very difficult and perhaps impossible to separate the soul from the body and its environment. The dualism promoted by Descartes and other Platonists insists on the separation between the material and spiritual worlds. Calvin and Augustine were very much influenced by this philosophy. Many competing Christian ideas were in contention during the years following Jesus' teachings, including the sayings found in the Gospel of St. Thomas, along with many others including the Gnostics who believed in dualism.

However, many cognitive scientists today insist that all behavior stems from the brain's neural networks that work on the principle of natural selection and they find no evidence for the notion of the soul.

Medical science, for the most part, ignores the idea of soul care and focuses exclusively on the body and the brain and its biochemistry.

But, what exactly is the soul? I know the standard definition - the essence of a person and personality. But that isn't very helpful as to how it relates to the body and brain.

Perhaps, the soul is the emergent property of all of these subsystems along with its interaction with consciousness that may in part be physical and spiritual. Roger Penrose speculates that consciousness arises from microtubules within our cells. If so, it would seem that true consciousness cannot be attained without a body. If something causes distress or interrupts a healthy mind and body (but who can say exactly what that constitutes) it may cause emotional and mental problems. Does this affect the soul? Can the soul overpower the body? But, this is not just an academic discussion. This is real life and real pain and real confusion. I pray that God will reveal the answers in time. Let us continue to pray for one another.

“View actual SPECT brain images in full color 3-D animation. See for yourself the brain of a mass murderer and the effects of depression, substance abuse, toxic exposure and more. Compare them to a healthy brain.”

There is activity in the brain for every thought we have and that activity no doubt can be imaged. It seems to me this raises a number of challenging theological questions?

The problem is, what is the cause? Where do my thoughts come from, my body’s physiology? Are we imaging the chicken or the egg? Does a brain dysfunction make a person a criminal? Are we not responsible for anything? Are we robots to our genetics, or, are we turning ourselves into robots by medically altering our body‘s physiological response to some other cause?

I don't think SPECT imaging is going to answer these questions.

I've just forwarded the URL for this blog to a fine friend of mine, who happens to counsel people and is the pastor of a church, as separate but similar vocations. I hope that he adds to this discussion as I believe he has a lot to contribute... having said that, I'll try to keep it short, which is hard.

It's not the first time that I've seen pastors in power offer answers that were more likely to disappoint than to uplift people who come to them seeking help.

I recall sitting with my wife having Sunday brunch near a group of people, obviously from the same church, one of whom obviously was the pastor of the church. A child told the pastor that he wanted a goldfish. The pastor (who may have known something I didn't, but either way seemed misleading) told the child that he should pray for a Goldfish.

It is obvious to me that the majority of people on this wet ball of rock need a lot more Jesus in their lives. Christians can either bring people to know Jesus or drive them from him. Being well read in the bible, or even knowing lots and lots of people doesn't make pastors subject matter experts

I've been close to many people who have survived dreadful times in their lives, thanks to well informed doctors and well administered medications. I've also seen doctors write prescriptions that seemed to make matters worse. I've seen people hear comments like that from Christians (including pastors) that have caused them to feel alienated or unworthy, or damaged. Jesus didn't want us to Judge each other... something I struggle with daily. I can say with no doubt, I judge more often than any Christian should At any rate, diagnosing each other should probably only be done by one {or more} qualified people.

Why does medicine improve the mental health of so many people with a variety of mental conditions from depression to ADD and more? Why are the imaginations, thoughts, voices, hallucinations, speech and behaviors of people afflicted with these mental problems, including drug use, almost always "demon-like", negative, destructive and often foul? Ever hear of a drunk coming home to meet his wife all sweetness and light with a bouquet of roses in his tremulous hand? More than likely they cuss and strike. Why is "madness" pathological and not, say, just an alternative state of normal consciousness? Manic states often turn ugly too with the bipolar person exhibiting an uncanny ability to intimidate, insult and control both those closest to them and the system. Depressed people share a common darkness amplified, and perpetrated, by the culture and art. And schizophrenics often describe bizarre evil voices. Suicidal issues are often part of the whole package. Just weird wiring? Why doesn't our brain chemistry make us perform random acts of kindness and mindless deeds of mercy? (Although there are notable exceptions here - from medieval "saints" to modern ones.) These things hint of both a natural and supernatural dimension and the conflicts raging within and between both, which is what one would expect of creatures of dust made in the image of God into whom was breathed the breath of life yet who rebelled at the Fall. So clergy as well as counsellors and clinicians all have stake in helping the sufferer. Jesus was all of these, and so much more. Certainly we need to treat the "whole human" - something the church and the clinic need to accomplish together.

Yes, you are correct. No one came to life from a cloth. However, I find this passage interesting in Revelation 13 (NIV):

He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

There have been books written regarding the Shroud of Turin and what it could possibly lead to. Maybe there is nothing to it.

Also, please disregard my comment about Moses. That was a bad example.

In regards to the Fall, I am still waiting patiently for a better explanation. I believe it be an allegorical account of how the first humans developed a prefrontal cortex which brought them into spiritual awareness and an acute sense of self-conscious loathing and guilt from not being connected more fully with a perfect God or something resembling that line of thought.

However, we are obviously getting off the subject of this post of a serious dilemma within the church and its understanding of mental illness and how best to address it. Of course, this a component of the much larger issue of how to reconcile science, the scientific method of experimentation and observation (including medical science) with Christianity and its reliance on God and faith.

Although I consider myself a Christian, the questions regarding the Bible and religion in general are endless. There seems to be a fine line between creativity and mental illness. Some of the most famous people in the world including politicians, artists, musicians, writers, scientists, etc. all suffered from mental illness. http://depression.about.com/od/famous/Famous_People_With_Depression.htm You mention Isaiah, but what about Moses talking to a burning bush? You could name almost any person in the Bible and make the case that they suffered from some type of mental illness, but that makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable to consider that.

Brian,

The article that you linked includes the following:

'The Human Genome Project that deciphered the human genetic code, uncovered thousands of genes that, IF MUTATED, are involved in human genetic diseases.'

So it is the mutations, not the genes themselves that cause the problems.

When my oldest daughter was three, she was put into speech therapy. Her speech was ninety percent unintelligible to others around her. As I was flipping TV channels one day I heard a television pastor say, "God cannot use disabled people." I was horrified, disgusted, and angry. That is NOT in my bible!

I am also the mother of a son with Tourette Syndrome. This diagnosis is complex. He has both physical and psychiatric symptoms that fall under this diagnostic umbrella. It is not his fault that his nerve endings are not connecting properly in his brain. He cannot always control his inappropriate behavior and anger outbursts. We have wrestled with this diagnosis and the impact on our family. This is not a result of his sin or our sin. This is genetically how God wired our son. For some reason God allowed this to happen and He placed Mark in our family.

Our job is to seek out the best medical and psychological care that we can to give our son the best opportunities for him to lead as normal a life as possible. Our job is also to look for the lessons and blessing that God has for us as we travel this road. Many times it is only through the trials in our lives that we stretch and grow. James 1 tells us "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Pastors or others who disparage mental health care do a disservice to many families. They are putting the lives of many individuals at great risk. I am very thankful for the Christian psychologist who is guiding my child to learn to control his behavior. My son is learning to recognize the signals that his body sends out that precede an anger outburst. He is learning coping techniques for calming himself down when he becomes too angry. He is also on medication to help with these issues. Without that medication, he was unable to enjoy a normal day like his friends.

And yes, we do pray.

I think the problem here is we are not always dealing with an exact science. Mental illness is often not represented by some physiological dysfunction that can be determined with x-rays, or blood work. If you leave religion out of it, we are nothing more than a body responding to physiology, it would seem all behavior would have a physiological cause. So which way does it work, is the physiology the cause of our behavior, or the result of our choices in the way we live and perceive our life. And does the truth make a difference in how it should be treated?

No doubt psychology has made some real advances, but unfortunately I think it has also become highly politicized. When you couple that with a strong emphasis among many to absolve people of personal responsibility for anything and a willingness among many to accept that absolution, I think it becomes very destructive. Today we are often just left with medicating people who don’t behave according to our prescribed norms.

Religion has also had successes with people, helping them overcome addictive behaviors, depression and other things that might have been diagnosed as mental illness. So, in my opinion, you can have good and bad options either way. It could just as well have more to do with how honest and receptive the individual is than some imbalance in his physiology. There has to be some middle ground where we can avoid the politics corrupting the science, or the religion, and just focus on the truth.

There is a psychiatrist, William Glasser, M.D., who has developed something called Choice Theory and Reality Therapy that he’s had success with. His theories are controversial by mainstream psychiatrists, but they make a lot of sense to me and they don’t conflict with my religious and conservative world view.

His ideas focus on personal choice, personal responsibility and personal transformation. He believes behavior is influenced by four components: Acting, thinking, feeling and physiology and that most mental illness is an expression of unhappiness. According to Glasser we can learn alternate behaviors that will result in greater satisfaction, it becomes a matter of choice.

In his book, Choice Theory, he suggests that we choose our feelings, such as depression, because we see it to be the better choice among the choices we have. He claims there are potential detriments caused by the traditional form of psychiatry where there is a common goal to diagnose a patient with a mental illness and prescribe medications, when, in fact, the patient may simply be acting out of unhappiness, not a brain disorder.

Glasser doesn’t approach it from a religious perspective either, but I don’t find his ideas to be destructive to the idea of personal responsibility. This therapy seems to offer the alternative of confronting what may be the real source of your psychological “demons” instead of making excuses and depending on drugs to cover them up, which I think happens too often today.

(overlooking the obvious fact atheists have no ground for what is actually "backward" or "dangerous" thinking...)

I would have to agree with Atheists on this one. Unfortunately, there is a mantra in the Church today that science can't be trusted at all. There is also a mantra (at least at the churches I've been to) that states that ALL suffering is the result of not being in good standing with God (Christian or not). This leads to unsound theology and when it is questioned, it is easily ripped to shreds, leaving the person with little or no faith at all.

As the Atheists point out, many evils have been committed in the name of Christ. What they fail to point out, though, is that Christ teaches against these evils and the ones committing the evil in the name of Christ have either misinterpreted Him, or are using His name because it wields power.

This attack from Atheists will remain until the Church recognizes that God can work in people's lives through all disciplines of the sciences. I doubt those same ministers would recommend a crash victim not go to the ER- "You were in that accident because you have unconfessed sin in your life. Confess your sin and have more faith in Christ, and you will be healed."

Let's also keep in mind that God works through Atheists. This is a legitimate concern raised by them, that the Church must address. If it is addressed with logic and reason, the faith of many Christians can be strengthened and the faith of many atheists can be weakened.