Blind Spots!

I have been on this recovery walk for a long time. I got sober in 1974 and got saved in 1976. In that time I have made mistakes and had mistakes made on me. I talk about the two worlds and how they are different and the same. In a strange way, I found AA more reasonable about the whole area of mental health. Paradoxically I find myself in the middle of the intersection of recovery and mental health. I am a small group leader of a mixed issues group. Which is an exercise in being sensible.

I think AA wins out on the sensible side. Even years ago my fellow traveler in recovery in AA who had mental health issues was greeted with simple charity. Do not remember a stigma. AA was aware of side issues. Never was a mental issue a moral issue.

Unfortunately in the religious world mental issues are greeted with medieval prejudice. Mental health becomes a deliverance issue. As a consequence, the church is medieval in its response to mental issues in the body of Christ. A Brain chemistry issue is not a moral issue. Thank God by God’s Grace we have drugs to help with brain chemistry stuff. They are not perfect, but they are better than the alternative.

Not everything is demonic. In fact, in some cases, people with mental health struggles go to the occult to gain power in a world where they feel powerless and discriminated against. The results are tragic.

For the person with a diagnosis of mental illness, recovery is a puzzle. What does recovery look like? What testimony can you have? In the church managing, an issue does hold the attraction of testimony of clean from drugs for ten years. The church is a prisoner of our medieval past. We burn the witches and miss issues involved in the why. We mostly burn up stuff. We think deliverance rather than managing an illness. AA manages the illness of alcoholism. The church destroys to purify. Is deliver or destroy a good strategy for all situations?

To answer the question what does recovery look like for a person who struggles with mental illness. I say victory is successfully managing the symptoms and living a fruitful life thru faith, professional help with meds, and counsel. Mental illness is not a moral issue!