So, my theology teacher was talking about mental disorders and the like. He explained how schizoids, manic-depressants and such don't have anything mentally or physically wrong with them, they're just possessed by the devil...

One...two...three...What the fuck?!

Seriously, have you ever heard anything so retarded? I mean, faith is one thing, but this is just stupid. The man is a fucking idiot.

I asked him if that meant my mom was possessed (she has schizotypal tendencies), and he quickly changed the subject.

Honestly, where do people come up with this shit? I'm not an atheist and I come from a Catholic background (even though I don't buy into all of it) so I'm not poking fun at the man's faith, but this is just so fucked up...

And then when I confronted him about it, he ran away like a scared little kitty.

Sorry, its been a long week, but what the fuck?

Extremist christians claim shit like that all the time. In fact one of the higher-ups,I beleive that he was a Cardinal or something, claimed that the symptoms of possession were:

Speaking unknown languages.

Inability to physically control themselves.

What is speaking 'in-tongues', is that not an unknown language??

What about those people that alwasys yell and scream, and drop to their knees randomly, is that not another sign of possession.

It's just the christian church propaganda of the old days trying to have more control and power over their beleivers.

And psychiatrists use X-rays to take minerals from you which causes mental disorders, then they sell the minerals back to you at high prices.

I bet there were christians that laughed at Tom Cruise, "Stupid Tom Cruise it isn't a lack of minerals it's demonic possession, duh, what a moron." http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif)

Good ol religion taking over common sense.

In the past they couldn't explain mental problems so they labeled the people possessed. Since these religious authorities can't be wrong, people who believe in them decide science is wrong.

We are now finally finding the genetic defects that lead to mental disorders.

When I was in high school, one of my classmates had an epileptic fit in the middle of Religious Studies. My teacher then proceeded to try and exorcise the unfortunate student (who by that point was shivering in a sweating puddle on the carpet).

My born-again Christian teacher claims that Hell is physically in the center of the Earth...

Thank the stars she doesn't teach science.

That's a dangerously ignorant concept... That's what I call 'extremism'.

go to an asylum, find the most insane person there, and have you teacher attempt an exorcism (however the fuck you spell it). Report back with the positive/negative results.

As someone who has skitzophrenia and PTSD it's hard for me to really comment on this. I don't believe I'm posessed. I have an active social life, I hold a job, I go to school, I'm rather popular, no one ever seems to notice that I have this problem, so I don't feel posessed at all by anything for it. The PTSD I sometimes feel posessed by, but that was given to me through circumstance and I wouldn't think it would be the devil.

In conclusion: I can see why some people would define mental illness as being posessed by the devil, but mental illness is a broad thing. I mean, most people with mental illness aren't trying to bite their ears and lick their elbows. Most people with mental illness are like me and we're more or less fine. So, I think it's silly to try to stick it all into one thing.

Cheers,

Lost

Would chronic insomnia be considered a mental disorder? Maybe I can save some money on melatonin and just go to a priest.

I'm sure that when Christians nowadays say "possessed by demons," they're not envisioning a Chupacabra playing congas on your cerebral cortex (except maybe for the guy who tried to exorcise the epileptic).

A drug addict could potentially be considered "possessed," but only in a metaphorical and metaphysical context.