Still No Apologies

Christianity and Mental Illness

A Christian always smiles!
He never wears a frown!
He's always up and out again
You'll never keep him down
And when he's up he's up
And when he's down he's down
And when he's in the middle,
Then he's either up or down!

What a dumb song! Can you believe that this is a song a teacher would sing to the little children in my church? I really wish I respectfully told her to not sing that song. Not only is it logically absurd, it teaches a horribly wrong message.

Christians are not always happy. In addition to experiencing a wide range of negative and positive emotions (as normal, healthy people should), and horrible life circumstances, Christians also experience depression, anxiety, psychosis, and even (as discussed earlier) suicidality. Experiencing these things is part of being a human being who lives in a fallen world and suffers like anyone else.

Some Christians believe that mental illness does not affect Christians. Or, if you are mentally ill, that you are a prodigal son. What's even worse, is after you are labeled a bad Christian, when you take your medicine to try and help this problem, people say, "Oh, you are really unfaithful and untrusting in God to take this weirdo brain chemical toxic stuff, thinking that's going to cure you. You should pray more and read your Bible, and then voila! You will be cured!"

I wish it was that simple. I mean, if it was, everyone would be Christian!

As I mentioned before, I suffered from a variety of mental illnesses, mostly based on anxiety and psychosis. While I have completely recovered from the latter, I still have to work on my anxiety issues. Arrogant and ignorant attitudes against the mentally ill brothers and sisters in the Christian church is very aggravating. I have a few stories on the internet and some from real life, and I will briefly share some with you.

A religious family had a daughter with schizophrenia. They thought this was because she was unspiritual, so they took her off the meds and shipped her to a Bible camp. Needless to say, this did not help her at all, and her mental health severely declined, so she had to be taken out of the camp.

You can't expect miracles. God is most likely not going to come down and heal you from your illness (physical, or mental) to reward you for being a good Christian. We all have our struggles. Health and sin related. And yes, mental AND physical issues can come from lack of a relationship with God, but to say that happens all, or even most, of the time is going too far.

Plus, mental illness is often physical (note that this doesn't mean recovery is impossible... the science and philosophy behind this is quite complicated... DM me about it if you want). Your brain is an organ, and we can see structural and activation differences between healthy people and various mental illnesses. If you are going to blame someone for a mental illness, you might as well blame someone for a physical illness (never mind that mental illnesses affect the body and the body affects mental states in a variety of ways).

Take Alzheimers. That is widely known as a brain disease, not a mental illness. I am pretty sure no Christian would blame someone's dementia on lack of spirituality. Go online and look up pictures of what a brain with Alzheimer's looks like. Then, look at pictures of brains with schizophrenia. Seems pretty physical, huh?

But what about demons? Can we explain mental illness in terms of demonic possession? Now, I am no expert on demons. And I don't care to be. But I do know that people who perform exorcisms actually do distinguish between mentally ill and demonically possessed people. Certainly, demons are an unnecessary and insufficient explanation for the majority of cases of mental illness. I have anxiety. But I go to church, sing hymns, and mostly refrain from hissing at the Bible, standing on ceilings, and spinning my head around like a tornado (and by mostly, I mean that never happens). You can blame anything on demons. Some Christians say demons caused them to have feelings of doubt, or to miss their bus. It gets kind of ridiculous at a point.

I can understand why people would say mental illness comes from not being a faithful Christian, just because God commands us to not be anxious. Philippians 4:6-7- "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." I am not going to sit here and say, "I have a mental illness, I don't have peace of mind!" because I do! I know where I am going after I die, and I know my life's mission is to glorify God. I know this sinful, scary world won't be my life forever. I also know Joshua 1:9 (my favorite verse)- "Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you, wherever you go." Ever since I was little, this verse has made my heart feel energized and unafraid in my soul. This knowledge hasn't kept away the hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, paranoia, or anything else of my illnesses, but I know my soul is safe and nothing can take that away from me.

Plus, you have to admit (mental illness or not), if you were being stalked, you would be pretty scared. If you thought someone was poisoning your food, don't tell me you wouldn't care a bit. If you thought you were going to hell because your mind kept saying horrible things without you trying, you would be terrified! If someone is going to kill your family, or blow up your car, or torture you, your heart would be pounding, even though you are a Christian who knows "If God is for you, who can be against you?" (Romans 8:31) Fear is a natural human response that God gave us to keep us safe. But sometimes it goes out of control. And sometimes you can have complete trust and faith in God, yet still be hyperventilating and crying in class just because that is your response. Not saying you shouldn't work on it, just saying it isn't always our fault.

There are a lot of devoted Christians with mental illness. From OCD to bipolar and schizophrenia, it is clear these diseases are not caused by lack of faith. (And please, if you are an atheist who likes to say, "Of course you guys are mental, you're Christian!" please do not for your sake. There are mentally ill atheists as well, and religion is actually correlated with better mental health.) (And yes, I know not all atheists are rude like that). My illnesses have only increased my trust in God. I know I can't rely on myself. I can rely only on Him.

And as for the meds, taking them if you need them is not lacking faith in God, it is taking care of yourself. Saying taking those meds means you are faithless is like saying people on chemotherapy should stop it and just pray. Miracles are miracles. Don't expect them to happen for everyone every time for everything. God owes us nothing.

If you are one of those people who say to your friend (who is, say, suffering from depression), "You should pray for forgiveness. This is a result of your lack of spirituality with God. You must have angered Him," then beware. If you talk like this, you are being just like Job's friends. Job's friends knew a lot about God, but they were so wrong about Job's suffering. They made his sorrow greater, and made him feel more alone. At the end of the book of Job, God scolds his terrible friends. Job 42:7b- "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has."

Make sure you are not like Job's friends. Be an encouragement to those who are suffering. Whether it be cancer, bipolar, or the death of a loved one, don't blame these circumstances on the sufferer. Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people in this fallen world. We are not in heaven yet. And if someone's suffering is caused by his or her sin, then God will be the one to tell them. Not you. "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:1-2).

I hope you all found this chapter helpful! Just a suggestion: try to do a little something to make someone you know happier. Do it not just for yourself, or for that person, but for the glory of God as well.

God bless!