Psychiatric medication is a thing of controversy in many Christian circles in today's day and age. On the one hand, some Christians who do not believe mental illness is real think that psychiatric medications do more harm than good. However, there are other Christians who know that mental illness is indeed real and that psychiatric medications do help a lot of people who otherwise would suffer without them. The divide on this issue is so strong that many Christians actually get into some pretty heated debates over this topic. It has ruined some close friendships too. In this blog, I hope to clear up some of the confusion concerning psychiatric medications and give you a biblical basis for why Christians should have no problem supporting the use of psychiatric medications. However, I would like to say that no medication should ever be used as a replacement for faith in Jesus Christ alone. Medication is not a miracle drug that we should place all our hope in. Psychiatric medication should only be seen as a supplement to help you manage your mental health symptoms, but you should place your complete trust in the Lord alone. God has given us the blessing of medication for our benefit, but just like any other gift that He has given us, there is always the potential to turn the good gift into an idol. If you are guilty of doing this to your medication, then I would recommend that you repent and turn to Jesus today. For this blog, there are two key texts that I would like to address to prove that Christians should have no issue supporting the use of psychiatric medication. These texts are James 1:17 and Genesis 1:11-12. If you are not familiar with these verses, I will cite them for you before getting into my explanation concerning them. James 1:17 tells us,
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change"
What this text means is that everything we have that can be considered good is actually from God Himself. This means that our homes, our families, our pets, our income, our friends, our good health, or anything else that can be considered a blessing in our lives is actually from the Lord. The question now remains does this text apply to psychiatric medication though? Personally, for my life and the lives of many others like me, this text does necessarily apply to our medication. As a matter of fact, many of us if we did not have our medication then we would either end up dead or in prison. So, basically, the Lord has used our medication to basically save our lives because without them we literally could not function. But do not take my word for it. Listen to what the Nexus of Hope Psychiatry & Mental Health Wellness has to say concerning mental illness,
"The fact is, psychiatric medications are effective in treating mental illness. Several research studies and controlled trials have proven such. They can reduce symptoms and improve your daily functioning and overall wellness"
If that does not convince you, then please check out what the National Library of Medicine has to say,
"In the review by Stefan Leucht et al., the authors compared the efficacy of psychiatric medications with general medicine medication by comparing effect sizes of meta-analyses [4]. For that purpose a total of 94 meta-analyses have been reviewed, of which 48 cover general medical medications in 20 medical diseases, and 16 meta-analyses cover psychopharmacologic compounds for 8 psychiatric disorders. Mean differences and standardized mean differences, as well as absolute and relative risk reductions, were calculated and the observational time of the respective trials was shown. While there were some medical drugs with impressive high effect sizes, overall it can be concluded that psychiatric drugs generally were not less effective than most other medical drugs [4].
As you can clearly see that it is a proven fact that psychiatric medications are very effective in treating people with various mental illnesses. This would mean that they are indeed good and according to James 1:17, this has to mean that they are from God.
The next verse that I'd like to address is Genesis 1:11-12. When we turn there, we read,
"And God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth'. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which there is seed"
If you notice the language in this text, it starts with God speaking the word, but then it says things like "the earth brought forth". I take this to mean that the Lord in His providence used the ordinary means of the natural order of nature to bring forth the vegetation, plants, and trees. He could have just zapped all of this into existence at once, but in His infinite wisdom, He decided to use the natural order of creation instead. How does this apply to Psychiatric medications? In the same way that the Lord uses the natural order of creation to bring forth the various forms of vegetation and plants and trees, He also uses psychiatric medication to help people like myself manage our mental health symptoms. Theologians have said that God uses "ordinary means" in His daily providence and this is basically a fancy way of saying that God uses the natural order of creation to provide for all of our basic needs.
I hope that this blog has really cleared up some confusion concerning psychiatric medication and even if you remain unconvinced still, hopefully, you are at least a little more open-minded about the benefits of psychiatric medication. I know that unless you or someone you love is affected by mental illness you may not fully understand what I am saying, but maybe now you can see that we do indeed our medications. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ every day for my medication. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog and may the grace of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ richly bless you all!!
-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
Check out the other Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change"
What this text means is that everything we have that can be considered good is actually from God Himself. This means that our homes, our families, our pets, our income, our friends, our good health, or anything else that can be considered a blessing in our lives is actually from the Lord. The question now remains does this text apply to psychiatric medication though? Personally, for my life and the lives of many others like me, this text does necessarily apply to our medication. As a matter of fact, many of us if we did not have our medication then we would either end up dead or in prison. So, basically, the Lord has used our medication to basically save our lives because without them we literally could not function. But do not take my word for it. Listen to what the Nexus of Hope Psychiatry & Mental Health Wellness has to say concerning mental illness,
"The fact is, psychiatric medications are effective in treating mental illness. Several research studies and controlled trials have proven such. They can reduce symptoms and improve your daily functioning and overall wellness"
If that does not convince you, then please check out what the National Library of Medicine has to say,
"In the review by Stefan Leucht et al., the authors compared the efficacy of psychiatric medications with general medicine medication by comparing effect sizes of meta-analyses [4]. For that purpose a total of 94 meta-analyses have been reviewed, of which 48 cover general medical medications in 20 medical diseases, and 16 meta-analyses cover psychopharmacologic compounds for 8 psychiatric disorders. Mean differences and standardized mean differences, as well as absolute and relative risk reductions, were calculated and the observational time of the respective trials was shown. While there were some medical drugs with impressive high effect sizes, overall it can be concluded that psychiatric drugs generally were not less effective than most other medical drugs [4].
As you can clearly see that it is a proven fact that psychiatric medications are very effective in treating people with various mental illnesses. This would mean that they are indeed good and according to James 1:17, this has to mean that they are from God.
The next verse that I'd like to address is Genesis 1:11-12. When we turn there, we read,
"And God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth'. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which there is seed"
If you notice the language in this text, it starts with God speaking the word, but then it says things like "the earth brought forth". I take this to mean that the Lord in His providence used the ordinary means of the natural order of nature to bring forth the vegetation, plants, and trees. He could have just zapped all of this into existence at once, but in His infinite wisdom, He decided to use the natural order of creation instead. How does this apply to Psychiatric medications? In the same way that the Lord uses the natural order of creation to bring forth the various forms of vegetation and plants and trees, He also uses psychiatric medication to help people like myself manage our mental health symptoms. Theologians have said that God uses "ordinary means" in His daily providence and this is basically a fancy way of saying that God uses the natural order of creation to provide for all of our basic needs.
I hope that this blog has really cleared up some confusion concerning psychiatric medication and even if you remain unconvinced still, hopefully, you are at least a little more open-minded about the benefits of psychiatric medication. I know that unless you or someone you love is affected by mental illness you may not fully understand what I am saying, but maybe now you can see that we do indeed our medications. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ every day for my medication. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog and may the grace of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ richly bless you all!!
-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
Check out the other Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
No comments:
Post a Comment