4.25.2008

Christian Belief and Mental Illness

Institute of Mental Health 8, Nov 06
Institute of Mental Health 8, Nov 06 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The boundary between religious belief and mental illness can sometimes be fuzzy. It is common for persons suffering from some forms of mental illness to have religious content in their delusions or obsessions, and this can be a complicating factor in effective diagnosis and treatment. Still, beliefs which may seem quite unusual to most of us are almost never sufficient for a psychiatric diagnosis.

Sam grew up in a small town in the Midwest and was raised in the same fundamentalist Protestant denomination of most of his neighbors. Faith was an important part of his life, not because he was particularly devout but because it was the context in which he grew up. His childhood was fairly ordinary, but he was never what his parents would consider a typical child. Sam was always much quieter and more introspective than his brother. He struggled in school, had difficulty making friends, and was never the athlete his father sought.

Sam was 14 when his father died, and this affected him greatly. Within two years, he would drop out of high school and take a job at a gas station near his home to help support his family. Sam's brother, 3 years his elder, had graduated from high school and received a scholarship to attend a state college, leaving Sam and his mother behind.