"And my proof of that is that I take the medicine daily, and I don't have psychosis and I don't hear the voices speaking anymore. You know, that's proof to me enough that says, 'No, the medicine is working.' And that's there for a reason. It's the grace of God that He gave the wisdom to the scientists and the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies, to put it together. And I'm able to be prescribed it so I can work and do everything unto the Lord in a functional, healthy way. I think He wants that." -- Katie Dale
That is known as personal anecdote. It is not "proof." I knew someone very close to me who hung themselves leaving behind two children she loved dearly. This happened shortly after taking a psychotropic regimen. That is "proof" for me that they do not work. The seven degrees of separation argument is fatally flawed as already discussed. While the Lord certainly wants us to be fully functional he would not create a solution that seems to have helped you and killed my friend. God is not responsible for human greed at pharmaceutical companies that rebrand psychotropics for pain management without informing the patients.
'Dale says that when she was 24, she decided to go off medication partially because a preacher she was listening to said, "If you have enough faith, you can be healed." On the Charisma News podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, she shares how her husband and doctor didn't agree with that, but she went for it anyway. She ended up back in the hospital suffering from hallucinations and psychosis and was discouraged when no one from her church came to visit her. "I was misguided, thinking, I'm going to be a poster child for Jesus healing me and it really blindsided me, but I ended up in the hospital again," she says. "... So where was my church at that point? We were a part of a church family ... I remember getting some one-on-one time with some friends in the church choir coming alongside me, saying, 'Hey, I see that you're suffering or you're going through this; let me pray with you.' But they didn't understand. I was having a breakdown. "So nobody from that church actually came and visited me at the hospital, which, you know, I didn't ask them to ... but with mental illness and going into a psych hospital, it would have been so encouraging and supportive if somebody had come out and seen me in the hospital."' -- Katie Dale
Listen, the church does not do a good job on this subject but mostly because they refuse to stand by the bible. I agree with Katie that the church should not be advising anyone to stop a medication they are on. Psychotropics are dangerous to full stop on. They must be weaned down. It is a shame however that the mere offering of prayer meant they did not understand. No Katie -- they did. What do we believe as Christians? I see us believing God for the most extreme healings imaginable. Cancer -- let the elders lay hands on you! Diabetes? Must bow before Jesus! Mental illness? Well, they just don't understand. The fact that none came to visit after hospitalization is unconscionable. It is difficult however when the patient has given up on the cure.
Beloved, this is not an easy topic for anyone. In the effort for full disclosure I suffered for seven years in my twenties from a panic disorder. If too many people got on a bus, I would get off. Riding the ferry was possible only if I was on the outside. Did not matter if it was the dead of winter. Subways? Not even possible. Thankfully this was before the psychotropic boom. I have worked with teenagers ruined by a childhood of Ritalin. I worked with adults who have no future because of the medications they cannot get by without. I have a close friend who almost lost her life to Xanax, which is not even a psychotropic. I am not saying that your experience of symptom relief is not real I am just saying that for everyone of you, there are four tombstones it did not work for so stop pretending it is righteous.
God does not provide symptom relief -- He solves problems. Even Katie admitted that once she stopped taking the meds the problems came back to the point that she was hospitalized. Does anyone seriously believe God operates like that? God also does not solve problems by creating secondary dependencies. Go do some serious research on the long-term results of having to take drugs like these. Next, God did not create you with mistakes in your brain chemicals. The original Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which lists all known psychiatric conditions, was 134 pages in 1968. The latest DSM 5 is almost 1000 pages today. New conditions are just voted into existence based solely on symptom self-report. Every possible mood a human being can have is now classified, quantified and prescribed a psychotropic medication. Whenever you hear them speak about "side effects" realize they are not side effects at all. They are the actual effects of taking the drug. Consider one psychotropic, Abilify. Here are the listed effects:
Possible Effects:
Severe agitation, distress, or restless feeling; twitching or uncontrollable movements of your eyes, lips, tongue, face, arms, or legs; mask-like appearance of the face, trouble swallowing, problems with speech; seizure (convulsions); thoughts about suicide or hurting yourself;
severe nervous system reaction--very stiff (rigid) muscles, high fever, sweating, confusion, fast or uneven heartbeats, tremors, feeling like you might pass out; low blood cell counts--sudden weakness or ill feeling, fever, chills, sore throat, swollen gums, painful mouth sores, red or swollen gums, skin sores, cold or flu symptoms, cough, trouble breathing; or high blood sugar--increased thirst, increased urination, hunger, dry mouth, fruity breath odor, drowsiness, dry skin, weight loss. You may have increased sexual urges, unusual urges to gamble, or other intense urges while taking this medicine. Talk with your doctor if this occurs.
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