Survey: Mental iIlness and the Church
This request came in from a researcher at a Texas University - please help him if you have a few minutes to spend responding to his survey, and if you have had any involvement with a Church with regard to a brain disorder like schizophrenia (or other mental illness):
My name is Matthew S. Stanford, Ph.D. and I am a professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Baylor University. I am presently gathering information on the interactions between people struggling with mental illness and the Church.
If you have sought help or counsel from the Church in regards to your or a loved one’s mental illness please go to
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=252901469283
and complete a brief, anonymous 10 minute survey. Your feedback and involvement are greatly appreciated.
Posted by szadmin at November 17, 2005 08:26 PM
More Information on
Schizophrenia Advocacy
i'm so happy that someone else cares about this!!
Posted by: Vykky at November 25, 2005 12:24 PM
I remember having a very, very bitter talk with a member of an evangelical church, I think it is Pentecostal. I suffer of schizophrenia, and sometimes I have weird symptoms such as feeling "the air is heavy here", "there's some bad energy in the ambient" or feeling like if there was a presence, what made me believe I was possessed.
Well, I sometimes lost my reason, and even want to die, want to commit suicide, then one day I was in my classroom and there was no class because the professor was sick, and there was one ugly, fat and with few friends girl playing guitar and singing a very depressive music by Cranberries. Then I just commented "It is music to try to become depressive, then lock yourself in your room and commit suicide just to think how your parents will feel blame".
Then, I heard this unhappy response:
"Do you know what happens with suiciders? They go to Devil's cradle" in this stupid irony.
Then I said "It happens when the suicider was in consciousness that he was commiting a sin"
Then she said "All mental ilness is caused by the Devil".
I also was told by Pentecostalists to stop taking my medication since "physicists are proud and they cannot heal the illnes of the spirit" and "science and wisdom are for faithless people", "science is to proud people". I am a Christian and I trust God can heal my illness wit a miracle, but it doesn't means He would not work through matter and science too, if He wants. Matter, nature and science are given by God to our well-being. This same person, when asked if she used aspirin, beauty cream and hair conditioner, said "Yes".
Posted by: Mariana at November 27, 2005 05:04 PM
Marianna,
I'm a christian too, and i also suffer from schizoaffective disorder, ocd and clinical depression, and i find it absolutely APPAULING that so many people in the church think that you can get sick in any orifice except for your brain. i was told by a pastor to get off my medication to have a closer walk with God ( which, by getting off of it, i wouldn't recognize who he was, you know?) ugh i hate so say it but so many people who claim to love God are just ign orant and hurtful when it comes to mental illness. i was even discriminated against by my last church because of it, after working with the kids for over two years and being completely open with them about it. things got tough for the youth pastor, and i was the first one to go, even though the kids favored me over him...
sucks, you know?
peace&joy
Vyk
Posted by: Vykky at November 28, 2005 03:33 PM
I am an art therapy student completing my thesis on the topic of spiritualism in schizophrenia. I am finding that everything is completly black and white in reagrds to this topic. I would appreciate any info or comments on both the spiritual side and the medical side for my measurments on this matter!
Posted by: Nicole at December 7, 2005 02:52 PM
I have schizo affective disorder. In many cultures hearing voices is considered to be a spiritual thing. In England it is classed as mental illness and treated with medication that has harmful side effects. To top it all after all this anti smoking stuff they want to use what is in cigarettes put it in a pill to treat schizophrenia. Eh! No wonder there are so many mental illnesses. I think the medical proffession causes half of them.
Posted by: Rachel at June 25, 2006 12:04 PM
Schizophrenia transcends all that is presently known of to mankind in general.
Reality is composed of more than what you are presently aware of. Over time minds are evolving such that they become less dependent on belief, and more focused upon facts or truths.
Unfortunately this also means that as the axis of the mind rotates due to evolution, it point towards that which exists outside of the scope of reality that we can see before us.
Those on the other side wish for the border between the two planes of reality to be kept separate. Those who have tapped into the other side, are then made fools of such that the road to complete truth, which includes all sides of reality, is perceived to be the road that leads to an unstable mind.
Once done and accepted by the majority, it does not matter what a " Schizophrenic " says, their words are considered to be worthless.
A human barrier is then successfully constructed, and two separate planes of reality are kept separate.
Unfortunately, many of those on the other side feel that they can do what ever they want to those who have become human barriers, since no one will believe what each of these now human barriers have to say.
That is when it gets real nasty.
Posted by: Sean at November 8, 2006 02:50 AM
i'm so happy that someone else cares about this!!
Posted by: Vykky at November 25, 2005 12:24 PM
I remember having a very, very bitter talk with a member of an evangelical church, I think it is Pentecostal. I suffer of schizophrenia, and sometimes I have weird symptoms such as feeling "the air is heavy here", "there's some bad energy in the ambient" or feeling like if there was a presence, what made me believe I was possessed.
Well, I sometimes lost my reason, and even want to die, want to commit suicide, then one day I was in my classroom and there was no class because the professor was sick, and there was one ugly, fat and with few friends girl playing guitar and singing a very depressive music by Cranberries. Then I just commented "It is music to try to become depressive, then lock yourself in your room and commit suicide just to think how your parents will feel blame".
Then, I heard this unhappy response:
"Do you know what happens with suiciders? They go to Devil's cradle" in this stupid irony.
Then I said "It happens when the suicider was in consciousness that he was commiting a sin"
Then she said "All mental ilness is caused by the Devil".
I also was told by Pentecostalists to stop taking my medication since "physicists are proud and they cannot heal the illnes of the spirit" and "science and wisdom are for faithless people", "science is to proud people". I am a Christian and I trust God can heal my illness wit a miracle, but it doesn't means He would not work through matter and science too, if He wants. Matter, nature and science are given by God to our well-being. This same person, when asked if she used aspirin, beauty cream and hair conditioner, said "Yes".
Posted by: Mariana at November 27, 2005 05:04 PM
Marianna,
I'm a christian too, and i also suffer from schizoaffective disorder, ocd and clinical depression, and i find it absolutely APPAULING that so many people in the church think that you can get sick in any orifice except for your brain. i was told by a pastor to get off my medication to have a closer walk with God ( which, by getting off of it, i wouldn't recognize who he was, you know?) ugh i hate so say it but so many people who claim to love God are just ign orant and hurtful when it comes to mental illness. i was even discriminated against by my last church because of it, after working with the kids for over two years and being completely open with them about it. things got tough for the youth pastor, and i was the first one to go, even though the kids favored me over him...
sucks, you know?
peace&joy
Vyk
Posted by: Vykky at November 28, 2005 03:33 PM
I am an art therapy student completing my thesis on the topic of spiritualism in schizophrenia. I am finding that everything is completly black and white in reagrds to this topic. I would appreciate any info or comments on both the spiritual side and the medical side for my measurments on this matter!
Posted by: Nicole at December 7, 2005 02:52 PM
I have schizo affective disorder. In many cultures hearing voices is considered to be a spiritual thing. In England it is classed as mental illness and treated with medication that has harmful side effects. To top it all after all this anti smoking stuff they want to use what is in cigarettes put it in a pill to treat schizophrenia. Eh! No wonder there are so many mental illnesses. I think the medical proffession causes half of them.
Posted by: Rachel at June 25, 2006 12:04 PM
Schizophrenia transcends all that is presently known of to mankind in general.
Reality is composed of more than what you are presently aware of. Over time minds are evolving such that they become less dependent on belief, and more focused upon facts or truths.
Unfortunately this also means that as the axis of the mind rotates due to evolution, it point towards that which exists outside of the scope of reality that we can see before us.
Those on the other side wish for the border between the two planes of reality to be kept separate. Those who have tapped into the other side, are then made fools of such that the road to complete truth, which includes all sides of reality, is perceived to be the road that leads to an unstable mind.
Once done and accepted by the majority, it does not matter what a " Schizophrenic " says, their words are considered to be worthless.
A human barrier is then successfully constructed, and two separate planes of reality are kept separate.
Unfortunately, many of those on the other side feel that they can do what ever they want to those who have become human barriers, since no one will believe what each of these now human barriers have to say.
That is when it gets real nasty.
Posted by: Sean at November 8, 2006 02:50 AM