Is Mental Illness Actually Biblical?

This article highlights on of the key gaps in biblical counseling. We have a whole generation of being taught that biblical counseling is the answer for all ailments, and it just isn't true. Most churches do an utter disservice to those struggling with mental illness. It is so sad to watch these pastors and teachers fumble around with passages of Scripture that do not address the issue. The people who create this training seem to have never experienced real mental illness. Why? Because there explanations of mental illness don't look anything like what the individual is experiencing. They are explanations crafted in Scripture and "backfilled" into the situation. Does that mean there is no place for Scripture in situations of mental illness? No. Scripture is still important, just as it is important for the cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy for their illness. But Scripture doesn't replace the chemo, nor does it cure the cancer. We need to do better than this as a church.

I don’t think anyone says that biblical counseling is the answer for all ailments.

Here we go again. There is no such thing as "mental illness." The mind is inorganic and therefore can't be sick in anything other than a metaphorical sense--such as a "sick" economy or a "healthy" marriage. The brain is organic and can be diseased or injured, but we call those things by their medical terms--concussion, encephalitis, cancer, etc. Nobody calls a brain tumor a "mental illness." This author has confused the mind with the brain.

Technically the right term is a mental disorder. Which is defined as a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. It can be psychological in nature, biological or a development dysfunction. A mental disorder is rooted in the brain. Either how the brain is processing something, a issue with the development of the brain or physical defect with the brain.

Mental illness can have so many different causes. The danger is that we jump to conclusions and say it HAS to be such and such, or it CANNOT be such and such. There can be physical damage to the brain. I know a lady who had to have surgery to remove half her brain because of seizures. She gets along quite well, but it has definitely affected her.

I know of another lady who felt devastated after the father of her child left her and she did not walk again after that. Did her deep anxiety prevent the "electrical" pathways from brain to legs from working properly or was it something else? How much of that was a physical issue that stemmed from an emotional/spiritual trigger? These are not simple subjects.

I also know of multiple people who were demon possessed. I do not speak as much from first hand experience, but rather from what I have read in scripture. There have been cases where I have wondered in real life, but I do not have the insight to make a perfect diagnosis. I get concerned when others want to suggest nearly every case has demons to blame, but I also get concerned when some have the knee jerk reaction to always discount the possibility of demons.

We do not totally understand the pathways between the parts of the brain and even the brain to the rest of the body. For example, there is a close tie between the stomach and emotions. I take probiotics about once or twice a month. I went through a stage where after eating, my stomach felt like I had just eaten a full jar of peanut butter. Now and then I still get that. Probiotics solve it. But beyond the stomach fullness, there is also an emotional cloud that goes with it. It is a feeling of anxiety and stress. I typically have a very low level of stress no matter how much stressful stuff is happening around me, but when my probiotic level is off, that all changes. I can take the probiotics and have that stress vanish overnight. Others have shared the same results.

My wife had a thyroid that was having trouble regulating. She had to make diet changes and take some supplements and her mental cloud quickly resolved. Diabetes is another trigger for mental deregulation.

Beyond the basic physical challenges, we also live with souls and spirits which have been affected by sin. When I feel anxiety because I did not take probiotics, that does not excuse sinful responses. Further if I break an ankle and the pain is severe, that does not excuse sinful responses. Nonetheless, we should show grace and compassion for someone who is in pain after breaking an ankle. The same goes for mental challenges. We can be gracious and merciful towards the person in pain without excusing their sinful behavior.

I view my role as pastor as trying to direct people to act in a godly manner in spite of whatever underlying issue they are facing. If it is pain from a broken ankle or if it is anxiety from another source, I can direct them to God's word and how we should apply it. Of course, we all understand that in doing that, I am not healing the pain of the broken ankle. In the same way, we need to recognize that typically we cannot heal mental issues either.

Usually, my job is not to diagnose the source of the pain (physical or mental) but rather to help people do right in spite of the symptoms. I do not have to know the source to keep things basic. I can then let others deal with the source if it can be found. Sometimes it cannot be found.

JD, that is a good approach. While I don't believe biblical counseling can resolve many mental disorders, I do feel, and what I have experienced on my journey, that Scripture is very critical as you are dealing with a mental disorder. Just as someone who is diagnosed with cancer, needs to see an oncologist to resolve the cancer, there is significant room for Scripture in helping the individual navigate through the cancer, come to peace, have the right perspective and view on what they are going through. And at the end of the day, medicine will even confirm that a positive attitude has a huge impact on the success of overcoming diseases, sickness and disorders.

I've got a number of people among my family with mental illness--depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, gender disphoria, and dementia--and one of the most dangerous things I've seen is when someone "piously" decides to stop taking his (her) medications. The end result is that the person tends to spiral out of control, and it takes a tremendous amount of cajoling to get them to start taking care of themselves again. Right now, one of them is spending a tremendous amount of time sharing quasi-charismatic rants on Facebook featuring tarot cards (no joke here), and the end result is that she's brutalizing her husband by accusing him of a variety of things with absolutely no evidence.

On the flip side, there are interesting correlations where I can suggest that some portions of nouthetic counseling can be helpful. One person had huge tax liabilities due to an ugly divorce, and one could predict when he'd go manic by noting (a) the IRS gets done with processing tax forms and starting to do audits in the late summer and (b) he decided to buy and sell cars and "witness" at strip clubs. Others have lifelong financial difficulties where they never quite figure out the difference between needs and wants, and yet another went through a messy divorce and is scarred from that. The person with gender disphoria has always shown--as seems to be linked--signs of autism.

What I see when I visit reputable medical websites (e.g. Mayo, Cleveland, Johns Hopkins), what I notice is that the prescription described has three general parts; self-care, talk therapy, and drug therapy. We are generally very comfortable with self-care, though we often do not do it well enough--things like sleep, exercise, diet, and the like. Our counseling resembles, to a degree, standard talk therapy.

Where we get uncomfortable is with the medications, but in that light, perhaps Proverbs 31:6-7 ought to come to mind; sometimes a drug, an intoxicant, can actually be key for giving a suffering person enough room to function. It may not cure the problem, but there is Biblical warrant for the idea.

There is no such thing as “mental illness.” The mind is inorganic

It’s almost possible for this hold up biblically, but you have to define things so narrowly that they lose their connection to anything useful.

And there are major biblical problems with the idea.

Scripture is clear that the body influences the mind and the mind influences the body. (Examples here) Even if we insist that the mind itself is fully inorganic, it is intertwined with the organic—always. This is biblical. Science happens to generally agree, but we’re talking about biblical anthropology.

So if someone has a problem where they are not thinking right and/or feeling right, is the problem in their organic body or their non-organic “mind”? The answer is not as obvious is often assumed—again, because of biblical anthropology. We are always embodied creatures. There is no spiritual aspect doing its thing completely separate from chemicals and chemical process—as long as we’re alive in the flesh.

So is it technically incorrect to call an illness “mental” when it’s only half mind and half body? I suppose, but no more than it’s technically incorrect to call it “physical.” Either way, we’re half wrong and half right.

Language being what it is, that’s pretty good terminology.

But let’s note this also: The Bible is clear that the mind is a thing that can be unwell (e.g. Prov 13.12; Ecc 9.3), even if we do accept the premise that it’s totally inorganic (which I have to file as ‘dubious at best’ in a physically living person).

So a model of the human person that identifies the “mind” as both totally inorganic and totally incapable of being unwell (“ill”) has a lot of Scripture to try to harmonize with that view. (“To explain away” might not be unfair.)

Edit to add: Deut 28.28 is quite interesting also on this topic, where God inflicts ‘madness’ as a judgment. Also John 10:20 is case of demon-inflicted/influenced ‘insanity.’ Though our modern concepts are different in some ways, humans have had a concept of ‘crazy’ for a very long time.)