Pray the mental illness away...

[desertvixen]

Quoting from the sampling of whack on her blog:

If you insist your "gifts" deserve to be given to an employer over your children, drive yourself insane trying to balance it all as you go to school, or insist that government institutions must train them to be brainwashed successful...then fine but you can do that later.

There's this whole little thing called adult responsibility that insists my "gifts" be given to an employer who lets me wear pants and (gasp!) give men orders (yes, even godly Christian men) because I need to exchange my "gifts" for a paycheck.

Of course, as a single mom sending my daughter to public school and teaching her she has the right to think for herself, I am one of the factors Unmaking Civilization As We Know It....

[Annette]

If "faith" could cure mental illness, my mom should be the sanest person on the planet. But no, she lives with untreated schizoaffective disorder and is now a shell of her former self. She walks around the house wearing two pairs of sunglasses and 10 layers of clothing, plays the radio at earsplitting volume, calls me at 3am to rant about powerful people who are out to kill us all, and oh yeah, reads her Bible all day.

I'm sad for the children who will be home schooled by this woman.

ETA: Hey, there are Taryn comments on the homosexuality mega-post!

[Ruby]

Both my mother and my ex-husband (my kids' father) are fundies, but each with their own ideas. They have each accused the other of not being a "real Christian." What they do agree on, is that its wrong for me to have my children in therapy, or for them to be medicated.

What they have in common, besides fundamentalism, is untreated mental illness. When my ex-husband and I were still married, he was diagnosed with ADHD. Later, toward the end of the marriage, he was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He never saw that Dr. again, because he was obviously a quack.

The therapist he sees with our daughter told me (he paid for me to attend a session on my own, and gave her permission to "speak freely," probably thinking she'd sing his praises) she believes we're dealing with some kind of personality disorder, perhaps borderline personality disorder. She's not the first therapist to suggest the possibility.

My mother was severely depressed for most of my teen-aged years. She still has a shocking temper, struggles with an eating disorder, and my sister (a nurse) suspects she might be bipolar. To us, she seems miserable a lot of the time, and is also capable of surprising meanness. She claims to be living a victorious life, and goes to healing services instead of the doctor when she has a problem.

As for my kids, all three have ADHD, inattentive type. It was significantly affecting their educations. My oldest has Asperger Syndrome, and my middle child developed an anxiety disorder that got so bad, he almost didn't finish his senior year. Therapy and medications have been invaluble to my children, and improved their quality of life drastically. Their dad asks them from time to time if I'm still "drugging" them, and my Mom has expressed that they can be healed, but we need to get plugged into a good church (hers). It gets very frustrating, because no amount of reasoning will change their thinking.

[fundiefan]

This is why I don't believe in any god. If there is a being who could fix everything, why did he create the problems in the first place? And what do I have to fucking do to be fixed?

I couldn't live without my chemical, man made, medication. My brain won't allow me to. My answers are not the answers for everyone. But I am damned grateful that I have answers / help / information that suits me and helps me function as a human being.

No god created me to live in my bed all day, sick and scared of what life will, or won't, bring. No god created me to just 'choose him' to be magically perfect and happy with my life, circumstances or struggles.

To be a Christian and accept Christ does not mean your god takes care of everything. He doesn't give you a monthly income to pay bills; he gives you (or, your husband) the skills and abilities and motivation to work a job in exchange for pay.

If god takes care of everything, no one would ever need a job, a mortgage, a doctor or hell, even a car to get the mother of ten to the grocery store. Food would just show up in the fridge, laundry would be done, kids would be educated, government would be perfect, there would be no evil. If god and faith and belief are the answer, then god has accomplished nothing more than an epic fail.

God does all, as these insane people claim, or he doesn't.

Since I live a life where he doesn't fix everything - or better yet, create perfect life that doesn't need fixing - I'll take the human knowledge and assistance that does exist.

[Cassandra]

With her family history and her own, she is one lucky muchacha to be as evened-out as she is, now.

And really there's no telling if or when (and I'm betting on when) she'll have mental illness issues again. I've never heard of anyone being 'cured' of a mental illness, especially permanently.

[Effie]

"All those little problems (worry, guilt especially, depression, fear, paranoia, anxiety, etc etc)are one big faith problem."

:angry-steamingears: I don't know how to put my anger into words, so I will be quiet for now...

[ems]

On snarkers:

Woo... lady, I am not attracted to your non-existent light.

Methinks her husband has not been sipping deeply enough of the Koolaid:

She's another one with the stupid modest swimsuits:

OMG THE BATESES ARE THE AWESOMEST BECAUSE THEY TAKE MONEY FROM THEIR SON:

The Schools... They are EVIL.

Of course, the requisite submissiveness:

How is it possible I've never seen this blog before!?! This woman is a TROPE of fundie mom blogs.

Ok, this women is....ick. But I just wanted to snark on a few things:

"swimsuites" ? Pray tell me where I can find a modest swimsuite oh most godly maiden...

And she wants a heart transplant?? :lol:

Judging based on the writing alone, 'cause I don't even want to get into her beliefs or attitudes...apart from the grammar issues, her style just...annoys me. I can't place exactly why, but it does.

[formergothardite]

Is she ATI? Because this is Gothard's view of mental illness and might be where she is getting it from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4gieCr-YRk

[julie]

Ah, she has mentioned an interest in ATI. Good call!

[demgirl]

She's like 1/2 ATI and 1/2 Vision Forum. She's expressed her admiration for both and her desire to participate in the organizations and use their materials. RIght now she seems most into ATI.

[Mommy22alyns]

Happy pills? Fuck her.

[VintageJen1984]

The Maxwells might be more extreme than most fundies but I seriously wish all these "mental illness doesn't exist, you should read your Bible and pray more" fundies would listen to them about mental illnesses. I mean, they acknowledge that Teri has depression and though they've been vague about how, she speaks of 'dealing with' it.

[Effie]

Happy pills? Fuck her.

Little problems? Fuck her. Depression is a big problem. Without treatment it will lead to death, just like untreated cancer will.

[MamaJunebug]

Little problems? Fuck her. Depression is a big problem. Without treatment it will lead to death, just like untreated cancer will.

Your bolded words, above, need to be put on billboards. Outside the blogger's front door. And in the sky, over the ATI/Law-loving church she attends.

Well played, Effie.

[AnnoDomini]

If "faith" could cure mental illness, my mom should be the sanest person on the planet. But no, she lives with untreated schizoaffective disorder and is now a shell of her former self. She walks around the house wearing two pairs of sunglasses and 10 layers of clothing, plays the radio at earsplitting volume, calls me at 3am to rant about powerful people who are out to kill us all, and oh yeah, reads her Bible all day.

I'm sad for the children who will be home schooled by this woman.

ETA: Hey, there are Taryn comments on the homosexuality mega-post!

Link please? (broken, of course) I couldn't find it. I generally don't read the fundy blogs unless there's a link to a particularly egregious post, so I've never actually met 'our friend Taryn'.

[Mommy22alyns]

Little problems? Fuck her. Depression is a big problem. Without treatment it will lead to death, just like untreated cancer will.

Yes, this exactly. I'm just boggled that people still think that way.

[bionicmlle]

Wow. She did publish my comment. And then basically gave a "bless your heart." Fuck her, indeed.

I love how she tells one commenter that her dead grandmother was not saved because she was Pentacostal.

This is the kind of crap that kills people.

[LynnJ0516]

How awful, I feel so bad for the woman who first replied to her! Such a Christian response Karen... :roll: ...Ofcourse Candy replies at the end!

[celticmyst08]

I read this and started to cry. I didn't read all of her replies in the comments because I just couldn't take it.

I've dealt with extreme depression and anxiety, with a side of PTSD due to being raped, for years. I was fortunate enough to eventually be able to get on medication as well as see an amazing therapist, but before that I tried everything -- a healthy diet, lots of exercise, prayer and Bible study, etc. I was the perfect Christian, the perfect "godly daughter," I was emotionally pure for my future husband and all that shit. I really believed my lack of faith led me to be raped and subsequently become depressed...I tried to "pray it away" for months and it did jackshit. I tried to kill myself three times, and thought about suicide almost every night.

The "happy pills" saved my life. My faith didn't. And it makes me so angry that people like this woman are spreading these hurtful lies that will literally cause people to lose their lives from suicide. I wish I could tell everyone who has been influenced by people like her: "You are SICK. It is NOT YOUR FAULT; it is your body's chemistry. And medicine can help you get better!"