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I am open about my struggle with mental illness on this blog and in my life. I’ve shared my story of how, before I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I had a public episode of psychosis at a church that I attended. During worship practice, something in my brain just snapped, and I ran around telling everyone that we were in a cult. While I was non-violent, my actions were interpreted as a threat and I was asked not to come back – even after I reached out to apologize and explain that I was wrestling with mental health. This experience has made me passionate about the topic of mental health and the church.
You can read my testimony if you’re interested in more of my story, but in this post I want to explore how the church responds to mental health issues. What exactly is mental illness? Are we responsible for our actions when our brains are not working properly? How should the church respond to mental health issues?
When I had my mental health episode, the people at my church decided I was possessed and that there was no way my salvation was genuine. I don’t believe I was possessed, but I do feel that my issues stemmed from a dark influence that I was wrestling with. According to most psychiatrists I’ve encountered, mental illness stems from a chemical imbalance in the brain. Believing anything else is usually dismissed and viewed as part of the disorder.
As I’ve healed and moved on from what happened, I’ve come to understand that my thinking was the culprit when it came to my struggle. I do believe that the devil is real and his influence can affect believers. When our thinking does not align with truth, this gives the devil influence over us.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV
When Paul talks about “strongholds” in the passage above, he is talking about areas of our life in which the devil has power. It’s interesting that right after referencing demolishing strongholds, he talks about our thought life and the “knowledge of God.” I think there is a strong connection between our beliefs about God, our thought life, and the enemy’s power in our lives. This does not just apply to unbelievers – Paul is writing this to believers.
In my case, there were a few things happening in my thought life. I was trying to hear from God, and I believed that he was making certain promises about my future. In addition, I was growing somewhat mystical in my thinking. My focus was too much on the future, on signs from God, and figuring out what was coming next. I also had my head in some conspiracy theories that really started to alter my thinking.
I also just didn’t comprehend how the devil operates. In my quest to understand what was happening to me, I read so many books, talked to many different people, and was told so many different things by other believers. Some told me the enemy couldn’t influence me at all if I was a Christian. Some told me I needed more authority in Christ in order to overcome his power in my life. Still others told me that this influence in my life stemmed from listening to metal music. This included Christian metal (apparently just the sound of it can conjure up spirits). The church I attended seemed to think that worshipping hard enough would unleash a power that could overcome this influence.
Here’s what I learned: we need to have right theology, and we also need to control our thoughts. This simple solution was right in front of me all along. When I finally took hold of it, I found my freedom. Though worship is powerful, it’s not enough if your thoughts aren’t right. There’s no special ability that only some people have to cast out demons. You don’t need to jump through hoops to be free. It simply comes when you study scripture and get your heart and mind right with God.
Sometimes, a proclivity toward having a certain struggle can be passed down to us through our family line. When certain sins are committed by people who came before us, we can be born into an inherited struggle. I believe this to be true of mental health issues, but I don’t believe that this means we are stuck with them. If we work to understand truth and get our own hearts right with God, we are not bound by parental sin. I used to think that I needed to understand what came before me in order to be free, but this is not true. When we get our own hearts right with God, he is faithful to cleanse us, regardless of what our parents or grandparents have done.
In my situation with the church I attended, I felt that by confessing I had a struggle with the demonic, they took this as a license to abandon me. Since it was a sin issue, they felt right in putting me away without any support from them. I could have hid behind the common mental health belief that I had no control over what happened. If I had done this, I probably would have experienced more compassion than I got for being honest. I think this is totally the wrong response coming from the church.
We all have different types of struggles that give the enemy influence over us in some way. It could be anger, impatience, a porn addiction, fear… so many different sin struggles. They don’t always result in mental illness episodes. I think we need to treat mental illness as just another type of issue that we need to support fellow believers through. We need to withhold judgment, criticism, and condemnation and extend compassion and help. If someone is stuck in a struggle and looking for a way out, the church ought not abandon them just because they think the struggle is sin related. We need to offer the kind of love and support that helps people overcome their struggle.
In my case, I was not given any support from my church. Fortunately, the Lord gave me the knowledge, wisdom, and help that I needed to find my freedom. But it would have been an easier path if I had support from a body of believers. My path was made unnecessarily painful by the actions of my church.
In the Bible, mental health is not always talked about in terms of how we discuss it today. But we do see Jesus interacting with the demon possessed. In the most extreme of cases, there is something Jesus always did that we need to emulate: he responded with compassion, and not with fear or condemnation. We do not need to fear the work of the enemy. We need to respond in love and offer others the freedom we have in Christ. If you have Christ as your savior and you know scripture and know the truth about God, that means you have authority over the enemy. Rather than casting out demons in some wild and showy fashion, we can have conversations with people who are struggling in this area and point them to truth.
I had the opportunity to do this once in my life. I met a girl who confessed to me that she was wrestling with a demon having power over her. We talked together about God and what she believed about him. In many areas, her thinking about God was wrong, so I opened my Bible and read to her the truth, combatting each lie she believed. We then prayed a simple prayer for freedom, after which she told me she felt “lighter.” This stuff doesn’t have to be rocket science. It’s as simple as presenting truth to those who need to hear it.
If you are struggling with mental health issues and need someone to talk to, I am open to hearing from you and praying with you. You can email me at lauren@laurenmagazine.com.
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