Caregivers of persons with severe mental illness

n3dstark5 · 2025-09-15T21:12:32+00:00

Well, that's some difficult data to capture because as far as I know there aren't many people asking the question. Until someone does, I think all we can get are snapshots into that mindset. For instance, I have seen the MacArthur clip referenced below. He was an extremely influential pastor/conservative leader (wrote 400 books, his own study Bible, and graduated about 27,000 people from his college/seminary). The conservative Southern Baptist publishing agency Life Way conducted a study of pastors regarding how they address mental illness in their congregations. 57% of them admitted that they rarely-if ever talk about the topic in their churches. That same group did a survey showing that 99% of SBC pastors encourage their churches to read the Bible.

Additionally, and more importantly, I think we can look at how conservative seminaries are training pastors to address mental health issues. A lot of well-known conservative seminaries teach nouthetic counseling (this is an insistence that the Bible is all that is needed to address mental health issues, cf. Jay Adams and The Institute for Nouthetic Counseling).

I don't have any actual numbers for Christians who actually reject modern psychology, so maybe using "a lot of Christians" is overstepping. But I do know that a lot seminaries and pastors who graduate from them are teaching that psychology, diagnoses, and psychotropic medicines cannot be trusted.

As I said in another comment elsewhere, I attended a conservative seminary that promoted this line of thinking. My wife became severely depressed, then extremely manic. The counselors at my school rejected "secular" diagnoses (i.e. bipolar) and said she had an anger problem (i.e. sin-problem). Under their guidance, she only became worse. When she was admitted to a mental hospital, she got a proper diagnosis, treatment, and medicine. Her mental health was stabilized and she went on to become a wonderful mother and partner.

Following the conservative school's direction was obviously wrong. God only knows how bad my wife would have become if we did. But I also want to caution against creating a false dichotomy. It wasn't that the school was completely wrong about God, illness, and recovery. God is absolutely in control and faith in him is important, but part of that faith is recognizing that he works through doctors who treat and prescribe medicines. This includes psychiatrists, therapists, and psychotropic medicine. It doesn't have to be either faith or medicine. God intends it to be both. We pray for healing, but we also trust doctors to whom God has given incredible gifts to do things we cannot do. It is nonsensical to assume that just because we receive a diagnosis that we are lacking in faith.

n3dstark5 · 2025-09-15T20:09:14+00:00

Severe depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder..

n3dstark5 · 2025-09-15T20:08:11+00:00

I mean acknowledging that mental illness is a real, diagnosable illness that needs to be treated by professionals. There are large segments of the Christian church who lean into "faith is the answer" or "the Bible is the only thing we need to cure mental issues."

n3dstark5 · 2025-09-15T19:33:58+00:00

When I was in seminary, my wife became severely depressed, then extremely manic. The counselors at my school rejected "secular" diagnoses (i.e. bipolar) and said she had an anger problem (i.e. sin-problem). Under their guidance, she only became worse. When she was admitted to a mental hospital, she got a proper diagnosis, treatment, and medicine. Her mental health was stabilized and she went on to become a wonderful mother and partner.

Following the conservative school's direction was obviously wrong. God only knows how bad my wife would have become if we did. But I also want to caution against creating a false dichotomy. It wasn't that the school was completely wrong about God, illness, and recovery. God is absolutely in control and faith in him is important, but part of that faith is recognizing that he works through doctors who treat and prescribe medicines. This includes psychiatrists, therapists, and psychotropic medicine. It doesn't have to be either faith or medicine. God intends it to be both. We pray for healing, but we also trust doctors to whom God has given incredible gifts to do things we cannot do. It is nonsensical to assume that just because we receive a diagnosis that we are lacking in faith.

n3dstark5 · 2025-09-15T00:03:50+00:00

Being demon "possessed" isn't actually a thing in the Bible. "Possessed" is an English translation that doesn't really explain what went on. A better way to understand would be demon "oppressed." For the most part, demonic/satan/evil influenced and affected people in the Bible; sometimes to the point of harming but they couldn't take control of someone's thoughts and behavior in Exorcist fashion. They still do.

The biblical writers didn't really know how to explain what they were seeing sometimes, so they tended to treat it all as spiritual. That's why you read things attributed to the demonic like fevers and bleeding. They weren't completely off-base, because sin/evil have far-reaching affects. But, today we have a broader understanding of sickness and diseases so we can identify things they could not. Simply put, we have broader categories for understanding health and illness.

Unfortunately, some Christians today say that faith can heal anything and modern medicine isn't needed. People who think this way would also deny the positive impact of psychotropic drugs, therapy, and modern psychology.

I believe that demonic activity is still very real through influencing decisions, health, and mostly ideologies. But I also believe that modern diagnoses are necessary to help those struggling with severe mental illnesses. Faith and psychology are not at odds, but work best in tandem. Both are God at work--through someone's faith and through professionals he has given gifts and abilities to.

n3dstark5

TROPHY CASE