A Religious Perspective on Psychotic Disorders

[thephoenix]

disclaimer: I am not a health care practitioner and do not advocate a turning away from medication nor treatment.

Psychiatry does not know the cause of psychotic disorders. Modern research merely "implies" that it is a brain disorder. This is nothing but a poor educated guess. For thousands of years it was known to be evil spirits to drive a person mad. The word madness was changed to insanity and now to a psychosis. The treating physicians would drill holes in people's heads to release the evil spirits. The problem with this is that evil spirits do not reside in a person's head. And needless to say, this form of treatment killed a number of patients. Frontal lobotomies would leave patients with brain damage and yet no cure. Physicians would subdue patients with excessive electric shock and heavy drugs. Research shows a chemical imbalance in most psychotics today. This would parallel cases with a history of drug abuse. The brain disorder that psychiatry has discovered would be brain damage caused by some drugs. Drugs like methamphetamine and crack cocaine are sins that bring evil spirits into a person's life. The paranoid drug user believing that the cops are following them is being deceived by evil spirits who are masquerading as cops. Many cultures today still teach the truth that psychotic disorders are caused by evil spirits. Psychiatry has failed to discover the cause of these disorders and they have also failed to find a cure. Some psychiatrists today will tell their patients that their symptoms may be do to evil spirits. Good spirits are not the cause of psychotic disorders. Jesus Christ died is so that our souls would be salvaged (restored) and we would not end up as an evil spirit in the afterlife. God, Jesus and the angels reach out to help these psychotic people. This is the reason why some psychotics claim to have seen and/or heard God, Jesus, angels, demons and the dead.

Psychology is part of the course curriculum required to become a priest today. There are few people that would know some of the works of evil spirits upon mankind today. The priests trained in exorcisms and permitted to perform them would have a better understanding. 100 years or so ago, before psychiatry, the Catholic Church taught that psychotic disorders were caused by evil spirits. I believe that this is no longer taught do to lawsuits and the Church's repetition.

Evil spirits do indeed cause a mental illness. I believe that a healthy lifestyle with psychiatric treatment if needed and spiritual growth can benefit a person with a psychotic disorder.

1 Peter 5:8-11. Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, steadfast, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. The God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory through Christ [Jesus] will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little. To him be dominion forever. Amen.

[thephoenix]

Researchers are limited to studying the physical. They lack knowledge of things spiritual. This is the reason that they haven't found the cause of psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. They have noticed it can be hereditary. This is do to one or more close family members having evil spirits in their lives. When these people pass away and even before, the spirits will sometimes go to a familiar child and/or an adult.

[thephoenix]

Exorcisms are on the rise in America.

"In lengthy interviews with The Telegraph, the two exorcists discuss how the increase in drug and pornography addiction, failure of the mental healthcare system and a rise in popularity of "pagan activities", such as using a Ouija board to summon the dead, are among the factors contributing to the huge increase in demand for the Rite."

Leading US exorcists explain huge increase in demand for the Rite - and priests to carry them out:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09 ... r-the-rit/