Healing: Faith, Medication & Therapy

When I was about 10 years old, while attending a cub scout meeting, the cub master indicated some poisonous things to avoid to stay safe while at a scout day camp. He told us about which berries not to eat and which plants were poisonous (i.e. Poison Ivy). He also mentioned that apple seeds were poisonous in large amounts. This triggered something in my brain that has changed my life ever since. As I walked home from that scout meeting I tried not to walk on any red berries common in Utah, for fear or somehow transferring the poison from my shoe to my hand and then too my siblings causing their death. I was terrified for many months, looking down wherever I walked for fear of getting something poisonous on me and hurting loved ones. I became reclusive and tried not to go out at all to avoid any chance of "contamination".One night I was watching the news with my parents and the newscaster indicated that Russian Leader Leonid Brezhnev had died. Absolute terrifying fear came into me. I rushed into my room, closed that door and was absolutely convinced that I was the one responsible for his death. Somehow, I had transferred some poison from Utah to Russia to him. I was in tears and in pain. My father came into my bedroom to ask what was wrong, and I told him that I had killed Leonid Brezhnev. My father assured me that there was no way that I had anything to do with this because I was in Utah and he was in Russia. This did not convince me. For days I was in disarray and in fear. My parents took me to a child psychologist to see what the problem was. Back then OCD ( Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) was not well understood. The therapist told my parents to take some pressure off of me. The did this and all the fear went away. Since then I have had 6 or 7 full blown "flare-ups" of the mental illness OCD (diagnosed in 2004), including at the beginning and end of my mission (Not Fun).

Recently, I have had a full blown flare up of OCD. I tried to get through it without medication and therapy for many months. I was absolutely sure that I was going to die of some debilitating Neurological disorder. Daily( sometimes 5 or 6 times a day) I would perform neurological exams on myself ; testing my reflexes, walking on my heals, jumping on one foot to see if there was any weakness in my limbs seeing if I was showing signs of MS or ALS. I could not work, could not sleep, and was withdrawn. My wife kept telling me to go see a therapist, but to me that showed a sign of weakness. "I can get through this myself", I would think. "I have more will power than the OCD." I would often take showers at work during lunchtime to relax thereby reducing OCD symptoms (Stress=OCD= More Stress= More OCD). I would pray many times a day to my Heavenly Father asking to heal me. One day while in the shower at work and praying for help the words came clearly in my mind "Go and see someone now!" I went and did what the Lord asked of me and went and saw a therapist that day.

Why do I tell about this story? While talking to people who suffer from mental illness many say they do not want to see a therapist and / or receive medication for their symptoms. I have heard one person say to me,"The Lord will help me" and others have said " I can do this on my own, I am doing the right things and will be strengthened because of it". Still many ask for repeated priesthood blessings to be relieved of the symptoms of mental illness or to be healed all together.

In the early history of the church, the Lord tells Oliver Cowdery ( Who at the time wanted the gift of translation), " Behold you have not understood: you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say onto you, that you must study it out in you mind..." (D&C 9:7-8) I believe the Lord helps those who first try to help themselves as the Lord tries to teach Oliver Cowdery in this example. I believe that the Lord has inspired scientists and therapists to come up with new medications and treatments to help the children he loves so dearly. He understands our pain and suffering. His son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while in Gethsemane suffered all the mental pain that those with mental illness go through on a daily basis. (2 Nephi 9:21).

So were does faith come into all this? The Lord requires us to have faith to be healed of our afflictions.The prophet Moroni sums this up by saying, " For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore he showed not himself until after their faith." (Ether 12:12). In order for those who have any physical or mental illness to be healed one must show faith by taking the necessary medication and doing the necessary therapy required to be healed.

Alexander Morrison in the June 2008 Ensign article entitled The Spiritual Component of Healing said, "We should not believe that all who suffer from illness, whatever the cause, need only receive a priesthood blessing to have their burdens lifted, perhaps permanently. I am a great advocate and supporter of priesthood blessings. I know from many personal experiences that Jesus Christ, and He alone, has ownership of the precious “balm in Gilead” (Jeremiah 8:22) needed for final and complete healing. But I know also that God has given us wonderful knowledge that can be of inestimable assistance in dealing with suffering. We must, I believe, take every advantage of such God-given information.

Some persons who are ill, who have received a priesthood blessing and have prayed fervently that their burdens might be lightened, may feel that they suffer from a lamentable lack of faith if they seek professional help for their affliction. They may even stop taking prescribed medication, thinking erroneously that their faith will replace the need for it. Such thinking is quite simply wrong. Receiving and acting upon professional advice and the concomitant exercise of faith are not in conflict. In fact, exercising faith may require following the advice of experienced health professionals.
Wise health professionals—whatever their academic training or orientation, be it primarily medical or psychological—increasingly are aware that spirituality is a significant component of their therapeutic resources. As recently as a decade ago only a handful of medical schools in the United Sates offered courses in spirituality and healing, but now more than half do. Particularly with religiously devout patients, evidence is beginning to show that spiritual approaches to the psychotherapy of depression, for example, are at least as effective as those that are purely secular. A growing number of physicians and psychotherapists now use spiritually oriented approaches and interventions in treating patients with both physical and mental illnesses."

My advice, whatever it is worth: Go to therapy and take your meds!!!

Just another thought...

By the way, the picture above shows what I take on a daily basis to help me with OCD, Panic Disorder, and General Anxiety Disorder. My own little Pharmacy!!!