37 replies to this topic

[de235388]

I just feel like God has blessed me and I must share my story. After hearing voices for several months and having no idea what was going on, I checked myself into a mental health hospital in October 2011, I was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I tried several different medications before finding the right one: abilify. I would go to church and everytime they asked for a testimony , I would thank God for taking the voices away. My pastor then said see ,you don't have to go to the doctor or take medication, God can heal you. I thought,well I do go to the doctor and I do take meds, so I talked to him after church. He said " I believe you can stop taking your medication. We are going to fast for 7 days and I believe God will heal you with this fast. Do you belive God can heal you? I said "yes but will he, I don't know if I have enough faith".This is not the 1st time we had this conversation, I had fasted with the church for 3 days, taking my meds each day and praying. He said you have already done what the bible says to do James 5:14 "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." This had happened several months ago. So I said ok" I will fast for 7 days, do you think I should stop taking my medication now or after the fast" he said "Now". So I did it, I took a leap of faith fasted and stopped taking my medication. Now I want to be clear here, many of my family members were against this and said all healing comes from God, if your medication was working that is a blessing from God and I don't want to say that I disagree with that statement, but I want you all to know that God does still perform miracles and heal people it is not just something that happened in the bible days. I don't want you all to think that this journey has been perfect, 2 days into the fast I started hearing voices again, they were mild, but I freaked out and started to lose faith, I went to church that night and told the pastor that I was hearing voices. He said we are going to come against that right now, he prayed over me and I feel out in the holy spirit. The pastor said "even after you feel down, I felt this electricity come out of you, I believe you are healed, the devil may try to mess with you here and there but if you start hearing voices just say I am healed in Jesus name until it goes away and he gave me some scriptures about being healed. I prayed to God and asked him "Am I really healded,and in my heart I felt him say "yes it is done", I know what you are thinkng but this was different from any psychosis I have ever had, God gave me a sense of assurance. Every couple of days for the next 2 weeks I would hear voices, still very mild and since I was still experience side effects from my meds, I thought well maybe my meds are still in my system and that is the only reason I don't hear voices everyday, so I started googling how long it takes abilify to get out of your system and the general consensus was 21 days. I started to pray in tongues whenever I heard voices and they would go away instantly, this happened twice and then I stopped hearing voices completely. It has almost been 2 weeks since the last time I heard voices and it has been 26 days since the last time I took meds, I know it is still early but this is the longest I have gone without hearing voices without meds. I just want you all to know that it is possible. God can heal you, even if your faith is not completely unwavering, you must need to have faith the size of a mustard seed.

[bluechick]

Wow.  Um . . . not to be disrespectful but this is such a crock.  Your pastor was being very cavalier about your condition and his advice plain dangerous. 

 

I can't imagine there is anything I could possibly say to convince you to go to a pdoc but I hope you go see one sooner rather than later.  You need help and you can't get it from your church.

[The Emperor]

Everything I could say you'd probably ignore. So you seem fairly intelligent, you'll figure it out on your own. Probably the hard way, but I think you're choosing that.

[bluechick]

One more thing -- this is a pro-med website.  I doubt you will find too many people supportive of your position.

[bluechick]

I just read through some of your other posts.  They were coherent, rational and intelligent.  Those posts are quite different than this one here.  Please go get help.

[CynicalReality]

I highly doubt this. Without my meds, I end up in the hospital. My meds play a huge role in my life and I need them. It SERIOUSLY pisses me off when people don't think that I need meds and that religion can all of a sudden fix all my problems. I am an atheist, but there are some believers here that do take meds. It is ok for people to believe in a God and still take meds. Meds are here to stay and here to help us out  

[WinglessFaery]

I for dont believe this..if it happens too be working for you thats fine and dandy but your preacher has NO clue what he is messing with. Is hes ready too hold himself accountable for what could happen if you relapse? Does he do this with other people with mental illness? Or anyone with any illness for that matter? Is he ready too take responsibility for potential pain and in some exteme cases death? Or the stigma hes pushing that keeps religous people from seeking help there for leading too more destruction? And what about you? Are you ready take responsibility if someone sees your post and decides too stop there meds cold turkey and ends up hurting themselves or others? How has your preacher studied up on any type ofd MI? This make me sick too my.stomach. I sincerly hope you get help and I hope your preacher.can live with himself.

[Maybell]

God can fuck off for all I care.

[notfred]

So why did god create schizophrenia in the first place if it causes so much suffering and then god has to turn around and heal it ?

[crtclms]

Your pastor is literally screwing with your life. Your illness is an illness just like heart disease or diabetes. Does he pray and fast diabetes away? Does he blame heart disease on the devil?

[bluechick]

So why did god create schizophrenia in the first place if it causes so much suffering and then god has to turn around and heal it ?

You're asking an unmedicated, severely manipulated, schizophrenic to listen to logic?

 

I must say that I do know the feeling of being desperate for help and turning to whoever you can for help.  When I was in a post-amphetamine psychotic state a few years back, I took myself off meds (which the counselors at rehab actually helped me do!  But that's a whole story for another day), and tried to turn to God to heal my pain.  Course, it ultimately didn't work.  But I was so desperate that I would have turned to worshiping the cat if someone had told me that would fix my pain.

 

I hope the OP can get the help they so desperately need.

[The Emperor]

So why did god create schizophrenia in the first place if it causes so much suffering and then god has to turn around and heal it ?

You're asking an unmedicated, severely manipulated, schizophrenic to listen to logic?

 

I must say that I do know the feeling of being desperate for help and turning to whoever you can for help.  When I was in a post-amphetamine psychotic state a few years back, I took myself off meds (which the counselors at rehab actually helped me do!  But that's a whole story for another day), and tried to turn to God to heal my pain.  Course, it ultimately didn't work.  But I was so desperate that I would have turned to worshiping the cat if someone had told me that would fix my pain.

 

I hope the OP can get the help they so desperately need.

 

"You need help and you can't get it from your church" bluechick, that is YOU trying to use logic with "an unmedicated, severely manipulated schizophrenic" Re-read your own posts before you start criticizing someone else's response because you did the same thing that you're looking down on someone else for doing.

[bluechick]

 

So why did god create schizophrenia in the first place if it causes so much suffering and then god has to turn around and heal it ?

You're asking an unmedicated, severely manipulated, schizophrenic to listen to logic?

 

I must say that I do know the feeling of being desperate for help and turning to whoever you can for help.  When I was in a post-amphetamine psychotic state a few years back, I took myself off meds (which the counselors at rehab actually helped me do!  But that's a whole story for another day), and tried to turn to God to heal my pain.  Course, it ultimately didn't work.  But I was so desperate that I would have turned to worshiping the cat if someone had told me that would fix my pain.

 

I hope the OP can get the help they so desperately need.

 

"You need help and you can't get it from your church" bluechick, that is YOU trying to use logic with "an unmedicated, severely manipulated schizophrenic" Re-read your own posts before you start criticizing someone else's response because you did the same thing that you're looking down on someone else for doing.

Whoa whoa whoa.  I wasn't looking down on anyone's post and I genuinely apologize if that's how it came out. 

[de235388]

Listen, I mean no harm with my post, I like I said I do not disagre wit the notion that all healing comes from God, including meds that work, I just wanted to share my story because I truely believe God has healed me.

[bluelikejazz]

Your pastor's beliefs are against the mainstream teaching of Christianity and are very unwise.

 

God has provided scientists and doctors with incredible medications that can help manage psychiatric illnesses. I take my meds with gratitude that God has placed me in a situation where I'm able to access doctors and medication. I had a friend who wanted to go off medication and pray and his pastors sat down with him and explained that he should not do this, and God is just as capable of healing you on medication than off it. 

 

In 1 Timothy 5:23 Timothy had stomach ailments. Paul didn't admonish him to have 'more faith', he told him to follow the common health advice at the time. By stating you need enough faith to be healed is placing an incredible burden on you, and Jesus says "my yoke is easy and my burden is light". 

 

I'd encourage you to go back onto your medication. You can keep praying and you don't need to let your Pastor know if you prefer.

[bpladybug]

ok kids

lets focus back on the OP

[Phoenix_Rising]

I was recently told that all that was wrong with me was that I was possessed by a demon and needed an exorcism which this person was more than happy to perform.

 

I'm all for being spiritual and believing in God if that is your choice, but please refrain from dissing meds on this site.

[bpladybug]

de23,

are you still in contact with a psychiatrist?  Perhaps you could check and let your pdoc know how you are doing.

Don't let that relationship fade away, keep in contact with your doctor.

 

You might need your doctor in the future.

And your pastor is unscrupulous.  He is not a medical doctor - who is he to advise anyone to stop their medications?

Edited by bpladybug, 29 January 2013 - 04:48 PM.

[enlightened_plutonian]

I tried the whole faith healing thing, believing that I just needed God and I would be cured. But it didn't work. Turned out I needed the meds.

 

Keep in touch with your pdoc because this might just go badly.

[The Emperor]

I agree that your pastor is acting very inappropriately and is likely giving you very dangerous advice. Your symptoms may have abated for now. . . some people can go a while without having many symptoms off meds, it happens. But this is very fleeting, for the most part. And after only two weeks without symptoms, you really are jumping the gun thinking that you've been "healed." 

 

I really don't like it when I hear shit like this because it's totally dangerous to tell anyone who is vulnerable to actually taking your stupid advice (I'm referring to your pastor) to do something that isn't healthy. Do you think he'd give someone with AIDS the same kind of advice? Just to stop taking medications that may help prolong their life because God will "heal" them? I somehow doubt it. Seriously, ask him if he thinks that God can take AIDS away. If he says "yes," you need to find a new pastor because frankly, this guy is wacky. And if he says "no," then what the hell makes your disease any different in the eyes of God? Why are some people worthy of being healed and others not? I mean, you even stated that your faith wasn't the strongest it had been. If God would heal you with your maybe less-than-great faith, would he heal someone with AIDS who has very powerful faith?

 

I just don't think these things happen. Even if I DID believe in God, I wouldn't think that this is possible.

 

Sorry to use AIDS as an example. I couldn't think of much else that you absolutely cannot recover from under any circumstances. Had to use an extreme example, I guess. I do not think ANY of this is a joke.