Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 1100028

Shown: posts 1 to 17 of 17. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 12:10:24

I know I probably shouldn't be posting this on here but years ago when I was in my 20s and antidepressants worked I thanked God to myself and felt quite spiritual.

When I started feeling suicidally depressed I felt as though I was in hell and was being punished. I still feel like that off meds. I've tried praying to God for his/her/it's peace that surpasses all understanding but feel nothing, feel just as bad as ever.

I'm just wondering if anyone on this board believes in God and if it helps.

Denise

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 12:53:40

In reply to Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 12:10:24

hi. I"m a Christian. To be honest...although my life as a Christian began with a definite conversion experience ("born again experience"), I sometimes hesitate to say that I'm a Born Again Christian, because...in the US at least, -some- self-described Born Again Christians are mean, mean, mean people.

but, yes...I believe in a loving, merciful God. As a (surprisingly...) traditional, Protestant Christian, I also believe in sin, Hell, forgiveness, redemption, the exclusivity of Christ, etc.

As for "helping"...I don't know. My conversion led to such profound changes that its now in my notes as my so-called "spiritual awakening." I'm a lot more mature now, I don't think I Have any personality disorder labels...and my new personality (complete with some much needed soical skills!) has proven to be a huge blessing. oh, and I"m also a lot healthier, physically. Before you dismiss this, just keep in mind that Jung was big on spirituality and such...just not on Jesus, for whatever reason(s).

so, yes; I believe in a loving God. As a Christian, I think repentance and faith in Christ are the ways to the one, true living God. I also acknowledge that there's loads of evil and and suffering in the world. In Christianity, that's one result of The Fall...we live in a Fallen World, marred and scarred by sin, in desperate need of redemption.

but..I do -not- view Jesus as a coping mechanism. Its been...a total change in outlook, I guess I could say a "paradigm shift," if...you know...I didn't feel awkward calling it a "paradigm shift."

in Christianity, forgivness is key. Faith in Christ=forgiveness for the believer, who is then to forgive 70x7, especially when it hurts. faith, hope, and love are vital, too..."and the greatest of these is love."

im not here to preach and such, but I'm glad you asked, no matter what you believe or end up choosing to do with your life. there's a lot more to the people here than our labels, our pills, etc.

:-)

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 15:04:30

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 12:53:40

Hi,

My mum believes devoutly in God and I consider her to be an intelligent, pragmatic person so I can't help feeling there is something in it.

My friend is also a born again Christian and I love talking to her about her spiritual awakening. She is also a bit of a fantasist so I kind of take some things with a pinch of salt. But in someways she is a very wise person.

Has being a Christian helped you with your illness. I mean do you ever feel this peace that goes beyond all understanding?

Denise

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 15:56:27

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 15:04:30

the peace that surpasses all understanding is a gift from God to His children. I've experienced it, at some of the most stressful and horrible moments of my life. I'm thankful.

My bipolar or whatever is now treated with only 2 psych drugs, plus all the vitamins I take (I do think they help, btw). Before...nothing could take the misery and the pain away. the pills and labels just piled on.

I also have come to realize...there's a very real limit to what psychiatry can do for anyone. Tranquilizers, uppers, downers, mood drugs...its not a very scientific field, and a lot of it just about trying to make life more bearable.

i hope things get better for you.

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God » meltingpot

Posted by beckett2 on July 31, 2018, at 17:30:03

In reply to Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 12:10:24

My relationship to God is complicated. My childhood was spent Catholic. After awhile, I realized I used God as a weapon against myself in my neuroses. Like, why did I feel so distant, ie not feeling much at all. But God didn't return my calls when I was a kid.

However, a big however, my parents were devout, and they were very good people, and they helped form what I think of decent moral conscience. I respect Catholics for their devotion to charity and service w/o judgement.

I worried all the time about being a good person or a bad one, whether I was being punished, whether I was saved or not-- that was the real shackle I threw off. I decided I was already 'saved' by the same God as everyone else. Maybe that's essentially Catholic. You know, 'All Aboard! Everyone is welcome.'

Buddhist practice helps me a lot, and there are skills that crossover into DBT. Have you tried good DBT?

I've never had a religious conversion however much I wished.

Everyone's relation to God is different. My advice is to be gentle with yourself.

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God » Christ_empowered

Posted by beckett2 on July 31, 2018, at 17:35:59

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 12:53:40

> hi. I"m a Christian. To be honest...although my life as a Christian began with a definite conversion experience ("born again experience"), I sometimes hesitate to say that I'm a Born Again Christian, because...in the US at least, -some- self-described Born Again Christians are mean, mean, mean people.

I really like you CE and the way you look at things. I understand what you mean about 'born again'. Some of those people are nuts. My father was Catholic, and he was born again as well.


>
> but, yes...I believe in a loving, merciful God. As a (surprisingly...) traditional, Protestant Christian, I also believe in sin, Hell, forgiveness, redemption, the exclusivity of Christ, etc.
>
> As for "helping"...I don't know. My conversion led to such profound changes that its now in my notes as my so-called "spiritual awakening." I'm a lot more mature now, I don't think I Have any personality disorder labels...and my new personality (complete with some much needed soical skills!) has proven to be a huge blessing. oh, and I"m also a lot healthier, physically. Before you dismiss this, just keep in mind that Jung was big on spirituality and such...just not on Jesus, for whatever reason(s).
>
> so, yes; I believe in a loving God. As a Christian, I think repentance and faith in Christ are the ways to the one, true living God. I also acknowledge that there's loads of evil and and suffering in the world. In Christianity, that's one result of The Fall...we live in a Fallen World, marred and scarred by sin, in desperate need of redemption.
>
> but..I do -not- view Jesus as a coping mechanism. Its been...a total change in outlook, I guess I could say a "paradigm shift," if...you know...I didn't feel awkward calling it a "paradigm shift."
>
> in Christianity, forgivness is key. Faith in Christ=forgiveness for the believer, who is then to forgive 70x7, especially when it hurts. faith, hope, and love are vital, too..."and the greatest of these is love."
>
> im not here to preach and such, but I'm glad you asked, no matter what you believe or end up choosing to do with your life. there's a lot more to the people here than our labels, our pills, etc.
>
> :-)

I really like this :-) Kindness and forgiveness <3

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 19:32:22

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God » Christ_empowered, posted by beckett2 on July 31, 2018, at 17:35:59

im glad the responses i've gotten to this have been positive. seriously. i had/have a friendly acquaintance (long term)...once, I started talking...I Mean, just making light convo, because she brought religious stuff up...about my beliefs, etc...

she gritted her teeth. her face flushed. it got really awkward, really quickly. :-(

the shrinks are OK with some forms of Christianity. when you start talking miracles and such, they get nervous. LOL. I dunno. I believe in miracles. CS Lewis and other brilliant Christians wrote extensively on miracles.

Szasz, of course, writes about psychiatry as a state-sponsored, secular religion that functions as a pseudomedical form of social control. -ugh- I did enjoy Szasz, back when I was burned out and angry, etc. and now...

I just don't know. I'm not burned out, I"m not so angry. Apparently, I even have a quality IQ estimate going for me. The questions remain. I like my current shrink OK, but the other day I caught myself thinking...how many people does he have on involuntary treatment? how many of his patients have TD or end up committing suicide? is he this professional with the obviously poor patients?

but...this is my life, right now. I think+believe I'm only alive at all because of Christ's mercy and grace. I don't mean that in the punitive, "I deserve XYZ" way, I mean that in the sense that I don't think I would have survived my old existence without Jesus looking out for me. Which raises the obvious question...

with people dying every.single.day, why are some spared and others not? Are the Calvinists on to something here?

OK. Kinda rambled a bit, but..thanks. :-)

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by sigismund on August 1, 2018, at 16:10:13

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by Christ_empowered on July 31, 2018, at 19:32:22

I don't think these do exactly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism

One remnant of which is the Gospel according to Thomas, which I liked.

Can you be a pagan and believe in a loving God? Before my operations I put that down as my religion, having nothing better to say.

To cut a long story short, no. But I see it as a series of metaphors about consciousness, and part of life, and I love them, within limits.

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 2:31:35

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by sigismund on August 1, 2018, at 16:10:13

Laing quoted this at the beginning of one of his books. I love it

(22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."

I don't like Paul much, I dislike Revelations.

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God » sigismund

Posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 2:32:54

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 2:31:35

That is psilocybin for you.

 

To Sigismund - What's that all about

Posted by meltingpot on August 2, 2018, at 7:07:16

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 2:31:35

Hi,

That paragraph was pretty mind boggling. How do you interpret that???

Denise

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by Christ_empowered on August 2, 2018, at 10:57:04

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 2:31:35

I think one aspect of The Catholic Church I always appreciated was its universality. Poor catholics, rich catholics, mystic catholics, play it by the book catholics...somehow, both Dorothy Parker and Scalia were Catholics. Hmmm... (it is worth noting that Dorothy Parker is now a saint, of course )

Growing up and living as a Protestant in the US, I don't see much of that. Now and then you'll run across a starry eyed, progressive Calvinist, but...that's about it. :-(

sadly enough, a lot of the denominational differences in the US seem driven by social class. Not just income, but education levels, occupational prestige, etc. Kinda...disconcerting, as a Christian.

 

Re: To Sigismund - What's that all about

Posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 14:40:49

In reply to To Sigismund - What's that all about, posted by meltingpot on August 2, 2018, at 7:07:16

Well......how about.......forget everything you think you knew, and forget the shape that left in you too.

I'd always assumed that the psychedelic experience and what he was talking about there had some kind of relation. It seemed obvious.

An idea of being born again? It's not phrase I have ever used, now I think of it.

I don't know.

 

Re: To Sigismund - What's that all about

Posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 19:36:42

In reply to Re: To Sigismund - What's that all about, posted by sigismund on August 2, 2018, at 14:40:49

It's not like I do that now. Not very often at all.

A Valium, a cup of tea and a nice lie down is more my speed these days.

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by rjlockhart37 on August 2, 2018, at 19:37:19

In reply to Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by meltingpot on July 31, 2018, at 12:10:24

i've done the most exact same thing with God before, all these secular christians say "out pouring of love" that really is misleading, i've done some research and the term 'god' can mean many things, the main god in the bible in early books was known as the God of Abraham, and moses, he lead them out of egypt, and promised them a blessed land. But they rebelled, and he sent them out into the wilderness. The 'loving god', these are my own thoughts, not statements: there is love from the lord, but also there is judgement of people's sins, that choose to continue sin. But let me explain more: this 'our pouring of love, and ecstasy' from god, that is a big indication....it just does not seem biblical, and in seems mystical and new age spirituality.

But i'm not oracle, or figure, but some of the loving god terms, just pray every night to god, and don't immediately think it will be a extazy experience, you humbly pray and agree to do the will of him

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by rjlockhart37 on August 2, 2018, at 19:39:15

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by rjlockhart37 on August 2, 2018, at 19:37:19

and jesus christ, but those were just thoughts, nothing telling or giving a statement facts

 

Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God

Posted by rjlockhart37 on August 2, 2018, at 19:45:33

In reply to Re: Do any of you believe there is a 'loving' God, posted by rjlockhart37 on August 2, 2018, at 19:37:19

judgement not meaning being depressed, what i ment was back in the bible, for those who deliberately disobeyed a covenant,....not being punished with like .... no, goodness i got over my head writings this,

just pray, and do it over again, maybe reading scriptures from new and old testament, that's all


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