Debunking Myths about Mental Illness, Part 2

Yesterday’s blog included four myths about mental illness, and the facts that debunk them. Today’s blog completes the list, with four more myths and four more answers.

Myth 5

Myth 5: Mental illness is sickness of the soul, not the body.

Fact: Psych meds work—usually not perfectly—but they can make the hallucinations fade. They can bring a depressed person back to their life. They can affect focus, anxiety, mood swings, and more. If mental illness were only a sickness of the immaterial part of a person, then the drugs would not work. You can’t put a Band-Aid on a soul. Neither can psych meds soothe the soul.

Of course, all sickness affects the soul, just as the soul can affect the body. Death—the separation of body and soul—was not God’s perfect plan for humanity. Body and soul were created to work as an integrated whole. What happens to the body affects the soul and vice versa. But mental illness is a genuine physical malady.

Myth 6

Myth 6: Mental illness is demon possession.

Fact: Mental illness and demon possession are different conditions.

Mental illness and demon possession can seem to have a lot in common. The afflicted lose power over their own minds. They act unusually. They say things that are incomprehensible. They don’t take care of their physical needs. But again, the medications for mental illness work. Is Satan such a respecter of modern medicine that he can be driven away by its powers? Can antidepressants deflect the devil? Yet the medications work. So we either have to believe that the devil is, in fact, repelled by pharmaceuticals, or we can believe that mental illness and demon possession are two separate conditions.

It makes more sense to believe that mental illness and demon possession are different matters. According to the Bible, demons are real and they interact with the lives of humans. There is no need to dispute this in order to profess a belief that mental illness is a physical ailment. They are two different things and there are countless believers who suffer from mental illness and then suffer again at the hands of well-meaning believers who try to convince them that on top of everything else, they are possessed by demons.

Myth 7

Myth 7: People with mental illness never get well.

Fact: People with mental illness can live productive, happy lives.

Mental illness is a chronic disorder. The truth is, some people may never be totally free from it. But there is healing. There is help. People with mental illness have jobs, have families, have faith, have lives. Like any other disability, it probably won’t just go away. But it is not a prison. It doesn’t have to be.

Myth 8

Myth 8: Mentally ill people are violent

Fact: Studies show that the incidence of violence among those with mental illness is close to the rate of violence among those without mental illness. Substance abuse, however, substantially increases the rates of violence among both groups.

It is easy to look at someone who commits a particularly gut-wrenching violent crime and assume that there must be something wrong with the person. No one “normal” would do something like that. But to call the wrongness “mental illness” instead of “evil” is unjust. Mentally ill people have only a very slightly increased incidence of violence that then general population (about 3% of the mentally ill population vs about 1% of the general population).

Mental illness is a physical health condition, just like diabetes or cerebral palsy. People with mental illness are not weak or bad. A huge percentage of the population suffers with or has suffered with mental illness. These are people you know. It is not their fault. It is not their parents’ fault. People with mental illness deserve to be treated with compassion, like anyone with a debilitating illness.

Are you a Christian parenting an individual with mental illness? Join the Eleventh Willow private Facebook support group to meet other parents who understand. Let’s help each other walk this path.

Sources

DeAngelis, Tori. “Mental Illness and Violence: Debunking Myths, Addressing Realities.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 11 July 2022, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/04/ce-mental-illness.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay