Psychiatry for Christians

 My father was a very good psychiatrist. He often visited his patients in hospital in the evenings. He was not only a very good specialist, but also a compassionate man.

He was not a Christian, but he respected the faith of his Christian patients. He himself only converted at the age of 88, when he was bedridden in a retirement home.

He cared for all kinds of patients. He also worked in Catholic hospitals, where he often cared for priests and nuns with psychiatric problems.

As a student, I lived in a student residence. We were quite spoilt and we ate in a dining hall.

One day, one of the maids came to see me. She told me that she had been one of my father's patients.

She was a Baptist missionary. When she returned home from her service abroad, she had a nervous breakdown and needed psychiatric care.

She wanted to tell me how grateful she was that my father had restored her life.

There are some psychiatrists who don't respect Christian faith, and that can be a problem, but there are also many Bible-believing Christians who completely misunderstand mental illness.

Jesus is our healer. I believe that Jesus can and will heal all of our illnesses. I have experienced miraculous healings.

He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. Ps 103:3 CSB

But there are Christians who do not understand mental illness as an illness. They assume all mental illness is symptomatic of demon possession. They often try to cast out imaginary demons.

I know Christians who have been treated in this way. When deliverance from imaginary demons does not help, the mentally ill person is condemned for lack of faith or sin. Jesus never abused weak people like that.

I once talked to a Christian who had been homeless, addicted to drugs and broken until he heard the good news of Jesus. He converted and became normal step by step. He claimed that we should not waste our time and money on psychiatry. The miserable people only need to hear about Jesus.

But I regularly talk to Christians who have been victims of abuse in Christian families or churches and who are traumatised and clinically depressed or mentally ill.

They believe in Jesus, but they are victims of abuse from other Christians. If I were to tell them that all they need to do is believe in Jesus, it could drive them to despair or suicide.

There are Christians who are dogmatic opponents of psychiatric medication.

Shortly after my conversion, I was harassed and excommunicated by a fanatical Christian sect. I was devastated and I had a complete nervous breakdown.

I am grateful that I had good psychiatric care, good occupational therapy in a hospital and was treated with effective medication.

Was I only saved by psychiatry? No. Many Christians prayed for me and I experienced God's miraculous healing.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:3 NIV

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; Lk 4:18 NKJV