Posted by:
paulk
(
)
Date: January 14, 2017 11:55AM
I have a few thoughts on the subject. For me religion is permanently entangled with mental illness, and not in a good way. My very first post was about the experience we had with a calling that the bishopric gave my wife.
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1865698,1865698#msg-1865698She has bi-polar. Sometimes it is controlled (the last couple months have been generally ok), sometimes it is not. She's had three major psychotic breaks. And in each case, the main symptom was bizarre and frightening religious delusions. She has felt inspired to write books on love and repentance, go up to random strangers and "share the gospel". She has believed that she is Eve, or even that she was the Savior and needed to atone for the earth. Needless to say such episodes have resulted in hospitalizations and intensive treatment to get her to come back to reality
At the same time, her parents have been religious extremists in the whole situation. They discourage her from taking meds (thankfully she hasn't listened to them). They believe that through more faithful living (she is very TBM already), faith and priesthood blessings she can get by. Their whole approach disgusts me.
Finally the last episode was kicked off by her being called as the YW president. I should have spoken up and said no, but the whole bishopric was "united in revelation." When she was starting to crack, a counselor came over and gave her a blessing that "satan" would stop discouraging her.
So I still attend because we are still recovering from the latest upheaval. I'm afraid to make any major sudden change. But I keep a very close eye on things. When the pressure and guilt start to be too much for her, I make sure to speak up and tell her to back off the religion. It's received to varying degrees depending on her state of mind.
So yeah, religion is irreparably enmeshed with mental health in my life. I went on being sort of a TBM for several years after her problems started to surface. But the last episode, being so directly caused by her calling, has really opened my eyes.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2017 11:57AM by paulk.