I find it curious that people try to attribute things to deities. I am baffled that in some far removed world from our own, where these supernatural beings dwell, they decide, seemingly at random to shit on some people and rain down good things on another, in a completely arbitrary fashion. Even if said person getting dumped on is the most fervent and devoted follower ever, doing everything that the deity demands. I don’t understand that. Perhaps this belief absolves people from taking responsibility for bad choices, having bad genetic make up, or just random chance. I don’t know. I’ve never saw the value in such things.
I just witnessed some of this reasoning. There is a resident here with a history of mental illness. She has schizophrenia. She is bi-polar. She also has a history of seizures. Serious grand mal seizures. She has a cycle that she always repeats. She’ll be on her meds and be completely fine. She decides that she doesn’t need her medicine to be fine. She quits taking the medicine and becomes ill again. She does this at least 2 times a year. She usually hurts herself, though not intentionally, and ends up hospitalized. She gets back on her meds and eventually gets better. She’s on her cycle right now where she’s gotten out of the hospital after having a serious fall in the early morning about a week ago. She hadn’t been taking her medicine for over a month. She had a seizure. She hit her head badly and they kept her. She doesn’t remember falling. She never does when she has a seizure. And it’s sad and frustrating. There’s nothing you can do for these people to change their mind. They will repeat this cycle over and over unless it’s broken in some way, usually by the medical profession.
I am not in the medical profession. I don’t claim to be. I know this person’s habits after dealing with them for so many years. She becomes paranoid, hateful and mean. She’s not violent. She’s never hit anyone and when she’s off her meds, she’s not hurting anyone but herself. But she is convinced that her family is against her and wishes her harm. This was a fact she made clear today by voicing those exact words to her guest. Who was her guest? The pastor from her church. He doesn’t help when he tells her that all of her problems are a part of ‘god’s plan’. Actually most of her problems stem from her mental illness and have nothing to do with sky fairies. She has schizophrenia. She has had it for most of her life. It makes her paranoid. She becomes fearful that everyone is ‘out to get her’ and for her, it is real. Nothing will change that in her mind because it is true. Right now, she’s afraid that her family is against her. Did the pastor try to reassure her? No. It was all a part of ‘god’s plan’. The (his exact words) ‘emotional issues’ that she has are a part of this plan. She needed to pray.
This makes me angry. This makes me very, very angry. You cannot pray away anything. You cannot make an illness go away by praying at it. This is nonsense. There is enough stigma attached to mental illness that saying things like that, that she will believe because the pastor told her does not help bring her back to reality. It never has and it never will. It disgusts me that people are taken advantage of in this fashion. If that pastor actually believes such a thing, I don’t know who is sicker.
