- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I think it is a healthy sign when the GA’s share personal experiences that deal with mental & emotional illnesses.
Many times people feel they are alone when dealing with personal struggles like this.
Thanks for sharing MM. It is nice to understand that some of them understand and have compassion. I have been moved by some of Elder Holland’s words of late on the subject. I mentioned to my missionary son recently that Elder Holland has suffered from depression and he was completely unaware. The trick can be to distinguish between mental illness and revelations. I truly believe there are differences. But there is something about what goes on inside our minds in this life that is puzzling to me, and how to know truth from error, spirituality from delusion. We use terms like “visions” and “spiritual eyes”. We describe things as “the devil and his angels” and “evil spirits” and sometimes how they try to trick us.
Mental illness is a fascinating area to consider in parallel to religion.
Do you think Joseph Smith on today’s medications would have been able to reveal the D&C?
I want to be clear that I applaud the efforts of this article. I believe that my expectations were too high. I clicked on the link expecting a sitting GA to admit to being on prescription medications for depression, anxiety, etc.
Instead what I found was some GA quotes that were copied and pasted from previous sources and then had some commentary from the author.
Heber13 wrote:
The trick can be to distinguish between mental illness and revelations. I truly believe there are differences. But there is something about what goes on inside our minds in this life that is puzzling to me, and how to know truth from error, spirituality from delusion.We use terms like “visions” and “spiritual eyes”. We describe things as “the devil and his angels” and “evil spirits” and sometimes how they try to trick us.
Mental illness is a fascinating area to consider in parallel to religion.
Do you think Joseph Smith on today’s medications would have been able to reveal the D&C?
Heber are you saying that you think that JS was delusional or had a metal illness when I wrote the D&C? Mental & emotional illnesses are difficult to diagnose when a patient is sitting in the same room. It has to be almost impossible when the person lived in a different century. Keep in mind, this comes from a retired Accountant.
Minyan Man wrote:Heber are you saying that you think that JS was delusional or had a metal illness when I wrote the D&C?
There are times that I wonder, but it kinda depends on what we define mental illness as…but for him to be seeing this world with new set of eyes, and seeing how those with mental illnesses express things that way…I see similarities. Perhaps not all delusions are bad. Some clearly are…but some may be needed to take thought to a new level. I don’t know for sure…just musing.
Quote:Mental & emotional illnesses are difficult to diagnose when a patient is sitting in the same room. It has to be almost impossible when the person lived in a different century. Keep in mind, this comes from a retired Accountant.
I would agree with this.I see a lot of good come from JS and some brilliance in his ability to restore things in a new light.
But like other brilliant minds…there are some disorders that sometimes lend to genius!
As you so correctly said…diagnosing someone else is way beyond my abilities, and doing it for someone more than a century ago is not likely possible.
It is what it is, call it what you will…it’s an interesting topic to me.
Heber13 wrote:
It is what it is, call it what you will…it’s an interesting topic to me.
It is for me too. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, my wife has been diagnosed with sever depression, paranoia, & bipolar.
90 to 98 percent of the time, she is perfectly normal. The rest of the time she can hear voices (that aren’t there), see people
(that aren’t there), have thoughts that can be described as delusional. One minute she is normal & in an instant she changes. She will call our sons
with dire predictions or warnings. She will make accusations that people are out to get her or that I’m having an affair.
This behavior came on gradually over the past 10 years. It you talked to her at church or in the store, you would think that she
has it all together. She takes medication, gets plenty of sleep & attends counselling sessions on a regular basis.
It is difficult to experience but interesting to observe from a distance.
Minyan Man wrote:
She takes medication, gets plenty of sleep & attends counselling sessions on a regular basis.
That is really good to hear she is able to comply with things to try to help. I’m sure these things don’t remove the burden you carry caring for her and having things impact you the way they do. But, at least these things can help to reduce the drastic situations. God bless you, and I hope the Lord strengthens you and eases your burdens as you deal with it.
There are so many various degrees and manifestations of the mental illnesses. The quotes by GAs are somewhat nice to hear, but also many of them seem to just not really describe the depths of crisis that some mental illness creates, which don’t seem to have any explanation or reason.
Asking “why God allowed mental illness in mortality” is a losing battle, I think. There is no “why”. It just is part of this life. It can be devastating for families, and there isn’t much we can do about it. Other than just try to cling to goodness and cope best we can.
We have progressed as a society to deal with it better than in the past, but it is becoming a greater and greater societal issue.
Reading through Rough Stone Rolling and other Joseph Smith sources…it does not seem impossible he had his moments of dealing with so many things he had going on inside his head. I revere him as a prophet. God works in mysterious ways.
And sometimes there is just illness, with no explanation or understanding why it part of this existence so bound to learning things in this life for eternal progression in the eternities.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.