Christians And Mental Illness: Our Experience With Bipolar Disorder
By Carol Flett |
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Posted 9:32 am on January 27, 2011
Remembering back over ten years ago to the police officer's phone call still gives me a chill. "Mrs. Flett, We have taken your daughter to the hospital. We found her at the radio station acting very strange." I was confused. I was in shock. Our brilliant and beautiful daughter, acting strange? There must be some mistake.
I was still in a state of confusion when the doctor diagnosed Samantha with bipolar disorder. We wondered what they were doing to her. We were afraid to let them put her on drugs. After a few days we brought her home, and I tried my best to take care of her.
She was on a high most of the time, laughing and giggling, hearing voices, and thinking she was infallible. I was constantly on edge wondering what was going on, wondering why it had happened and if it was demonic, wondering why our prayers for her recovery were not being answered, and wondering if the nightmare was ever going to end.
It was hard to see her acting, and thinking like a three year old. We prayed for her and asked others to pray. Many people thought it was demon possession, and we were not sure what to think.
There was definitely reason to believe that Satan was playing with her mind. Some days she would think there had been a rapture and we were all just figments of her imagination. Other times she would hear the voice of a movie star, telling her that he wanted to meet with her.
It wasn't until after she had done something pretty scarey that we called a Christian psychologist friend and asked for advice. "I know what you must be thinking," he told us, "but you do need to get her to the hospital. There is something medically wrong with some of the connections in her brain. The receptors are out of control and need to be brought into line."
I was scared enough to take his advice.
She crashed while at the hospital, and the down with it's flow of tears was as hard for me to take as the high. If she tried to read the Bible she could gain nothing but condemnation from it, and again I wondered.
She gave me permission to go through her things and throw out anything that wasn't good for her to have. I found a book and pictures of the movie star. The book was filthy and demonic. I did a thorough housecleaning of everything among her possessions that was Satanic.
During her sane times she wanted help. She asked for prayer, and during that time she let go of her obsessions. We felt that she was delivered. But the sickness was still there.
We finally realized that we were dealing with two things. Samantha had always walked the fine line of the creative genius. Her walk with the Lord and our prayers had been what kept her sane all these years, but she stepped out from under that protection when she developed an interest in the satanic movie star.
She opened the door a crack, and her mind snapped.
The mental imbalance in itself was not demonic. Bipolar disorder is a medical term for a medical condition that happens in the brain. All sickness is a result of sin in the world, and mental illness is no exception. It can often be a hereditary weakness or the result of an imbalance in the system caused by dietary deficiencies or other physical health problems.
But the devil can easily manipulate the weakened mind of the mentally ill if that mind is not thoroughly protected by prayer. When Samantha gave herself totally back to the Lord, her brain still malfunctioned, but we could see a difference in her actions and thought patterns even when she was having a break.
She learned to keep away from any of Satan's favorite tools. She got rid of her TV and tried to keep from watching it anywhere else. If she didn't, we knew there would be trouble. Satan used every foothold he could find.
We could also see the difference it made when we surrounded her with prayer. As her mother, that responsibility fell heavily on my shoulders. The connection between prayer and Samantha's safety was so great that I plan on dedicating an entire post to that topic.
Many of the questions that plagued me back when it all started happening have been answered. I now know more about bipolar disorder than I ever wanted to know. I also learned more about myself than I wished to know, but that was God's doing, and I plan on discussing it in the next post.
Tags: Bipolar disorder, demonic, mental illness, movie stars, TV
Carol is the wife of a minister of the gospel and author of four Christian novels, three that are based on the true story of a girl growing up in Russia, and one written about kids on a reserve in Northern Canada. She takes her position of grandma seriously, authoring a blog for Christian grandparents.
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