My previous post was about a woman we called Flower Queen who probably was schizophrenic. I knew another person who was very close to me, and a believer, who had schizophrenia. Whenever the person stopped taking the prescribed medication, after a few weeks, the voices were back, and we would sometimes have some bad episodes. We would then find some way of motivating the person to take the medicines, and when that was accomplished, relief was almost instantaneous because the person came back to us from the terrifying world of insanity in a matter of hours. The times when the person refused to take medication are similar to the stuff that nightmares are made of. I know that there is a chemical imbalance or something biological that is behind the condition.
Pastor John MacArthur has been criticised for his opinion about most so-called mental illnesses actually being results of sin and treatable by prayer and repentance. We have been reading his books for 20 years now, he has won over our confidence many times over, and I do not think he would have expressed his opinion on this matter without much thought.
I do not know how exactly to reconcile his opinion with my experience, and my little brain cannot begin to understand all the ramifications of either theology or medicine.
(more…)
