Spirituality in large
measure needed to boost recovery

by Ron Dearden

I am a skeptic concerning the diagnosis of the condition that attacked by mind in the period around 1976. It was defined as paranoid schizophrenia and explained as having as it's cause a chemical imbalance in my brain. I am convinced that our bodies, especially the brain, have been created so skillfully that the possibility of this type of malfunction does not make sense.

I agree that there is a likelihood of a measurable chemical imbalance but I believe it is important to recognize that the imbalance has always been detected after the detection of the "illness". My considered opinion is that the chemical imbalance results from a traumatic experience of the victim and is not the cause of the trauma.

I owe my recovery to perfect mental health to a primarily spiritual solution. Yes, I received medications orally and by injection over the period of my incarceration and they did affect me. But I think that injected chemicals are still almost as primitive as shock treatment and frontal lobotomy. Symptoms I experienced from these medications were first of all a total suppression of my natural, God given emotions. On more than one occasion, nursing staff would actually criticize me for being inhuman, showing no normal emotions and being rather "flat and lifeless". There were for me, and all other patients, extreme side effects which required additional side-effect medications which, in turn produced their own side effects which were sometimes more uncomfortable that the effects they were to counter.

I don't have any particular expertise to espouse from a scientific or medical basis, but please consider the possibility that one who has 'been there' and 'back' may have something to offer experientially to help break through the darkness that still pervades research and solutions to the growing occurrence of 'mental illness'.

Consideration must be given to another virtually unexplored track which can bring more far reaching and satisfactory results than the ingestion of test-tube, man-make chemicals. We are human beings. A human, spiritual approach, considering the complexities of mind and emotions should suggest that we enter problems of the mind and heart through our natural entry points, the senses, and not the unnatural via the discomforting needle. At the possible expense of losing the attention of most of you scientific/medical people, I realize your training does not happily accept the threat of having to relinquish acquired authority and control to those who have been relegated to pulpits inside of ornate churches.

My testimonial is all I have to offer but is has immense possibilities. Faith in Jesus Christ has made me well. The transformation from fear and anxiety has come through salvation by the renewing of my mind through study of scripture, the actual and powerful words of God, our life giving Creator.