On the FB page:
From a saint, “My first husband who I met in the church had schizophrenia but we never dated before getting married so I didn’t realize how mentally ill he was. It got so severe he went to the elders and was told “no psychiatrists, no meds. You just need to pray-read more.” He got worse and worse, became totally disabled, couldn’t work and lay for hours in a fetal position. After 20 years of marriage I told him I was done. Sadly he was shunned for years by lots of “saints” because he didn’t measure up.”
This right here is why I am speaking up about receiving mental health help. I have received message after message from saints both still in and those who have left who were afraid to go to a psychologist or psychiatrist due to things told to them in the church life. If LSM no longer endorses this view from Brother Lee they need to issue a public retraction of his statements that are used against the saints.
Here’s a direct quote from Brother Lee regarding not receiving mental health help. I also find this statement to be sexist:
“Most young women are sick either emotionally or mentally. No psychiatrist can help them. However, if you live the church life, the very Christ whom you offer to God will heal you. He is better than any psychiatrist. Do not go to a psychiatrist—come to Christ and offer Him to God. Then you will be healthy, sober, and emotionally balanced.” (Witness Lee, Life Study of Genesis, Volume 2, Message 32, Anaheim, CA, 1975, page 431).
One aspect of high control groups is programming their members to fear receiving mental health help:
http://bit.ly/ProgrammedtoFearMentalHealthHelp
Any other experiences both positive or negative regarding receiving mental health help in the church life? I realize many of you cannot comment due to needing to protect yourself and your families. I received permission to anonymously post this story about a saint with schizophrenia.
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I came into the LC thinking all my problems were over -- I was in the church life, on the local ground, calling "Oooh Looord Jeeezuss!!" with all the saints. What could be finer?
Eventually my problems came back. I went to three elders, one by one. And one by one they blew me off. One by one they looked glum when I privately confessed my woes, and in a few sentences they each made it clear that they were not in the business of providing mental health counseling. That's probably one reason that they told us they wanted "good building material" - stable college students from stable homes. Good potential earners with no serious problems. Because the LC is not very interested in your problems. It exposes their inability to actually transform human lives.
To repeat my previous question: if you are "becoming God" shouldn't there be some tangible issue, today, more than with the Baptists and Presbyterians? Where are the Gerasene madmen, now clothed and whole to the astonishment of natives? Where is the sign of your "kingdom power"? I don't really see it in the LC. I see temporary soulish excitement of getting together and shouting repetitively. But people by and large are not getting fundamentally transformed. So "becoming God in life and nature" is an abstraction of the mind, to hold captive imaginations in thrall, while lives slowly fade away.