Blessings for mental health

[Metis_LDS]

This topic is in no way meant to be critical of priesthood blessings.

I am starting this topic because there are many persons on the board who I respect by answers they have given in the past on various issues.

Because of having witnessed many times the healing of Church members bodies it is now a pillar of strength for me.  I have been asked to give blessings of strength and comfort over the years for mental health issues (mostly depression, some for emotional control. It was not called Bipolar back then).   I have not seen these types of blessings make a difference except in the very short term.

Questions:

1. Is long term in these cases too long to judge the role of blessings.

2. Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Metis_LDS
clarity & grammar

[Calm]

9 minutes ago, Metis_LDS said:

I have not seen these really make a difference except in the very short term.

Mental health issues are not so easy to define typically imo, they are a complicated set of behaviours and feelings and ways of responding to the world. I think it would therefore be harder to recognize significant change for the better. 
 

There have been some anxiety issues that troubled me that I have been blessed for and received peace for those, but my overall anxiety has not disappeared. I understand it better and no longer trash myself for not being able to make it go away and that is a huge part of progress for me. And most of that has come to me in connection with my faith, if not always a specific PH blessing. 

I have read of others who believe they have increased their control over their mental health in part because of blessings, but it is not a gift given to everyone in that situation for sure. 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Calm

[Hamba Tuhan]

When my parents were called to serve in the temple, my mum had a raft of health issues: congestive heart failure, arthritis in hips and hands, neuropathy in lower legs and feet, two shoulders that had required surgery, etc. In faith she agreed.

Each week on their assigned day, my father would wake early, bathe and dress. He would then wake my mum and give her a blessing of strength. Only then could she get up and ready to go serve. Following their shift, she would collapse back into bed and stay there till midday the following day. But I don't think she ever missed more than one or two days.

That my father had to repeat this process each week never struck me as evidence that priesthood power is ineffective.

I've mentioned before my best mate (and former bishop) who earlier this year divorced after more than two decades of marriage. I have given him more blessings than I can count. Sometimes that's the way it works. But he has stated that he has benefited significantly each time.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Hamba Tuhan

[Scott Lloyd]

3 hours ago, Metis_LDS said:

Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

When we consecrate oil, we set it apart “for the blessing of the sick and the afflicted” (prescribed wording). I view the latter phrase, “and the afflicted,” as indicating that a priesthood blessing may be given for a variety of maladies, including those that are not necessarily physical in nature. 

Of course, any blessing given by the authority of the priesthood must be in accordance with the divine will for it to be efficacious. 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Scott Lloyd

[BlueDreams]

6 hours ago, Metis_LDS said:

This topic is in no way meant to be critical of priesthood blessings.

I am starting this topic because there are many persons on the board who I respect by answers they have given in the past on various issues.

Because of having witnessed many times the healing of Church members bodies it is now a pillar of strength for me.  I have been asked to give blessings of strength and comfort over the years for mental health issues (mostly depression, some for emotional control. It was not called Bipolar back then).   I have not seen these types of blessings make a difference except in the very short term.

Questions:

1. Is long term in these cases too long to judge the role of blessings.

2. Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

I remember on my mission a woman who was deeply struggling with complex grief. She was completely alone and devastated in a way I don't think I've really seen a full equivalent since. Blessings helped her tremendously in the short term and when she began to read the BoM she started to experience more consistent experiences of peace and happiness. It was amazing to see. But then she would shut down. I realized later that in order for her to heal she would have to learn to separate her grief from a sense of holding on to a loved one and confront the trauma of finding said loved one dead. In short she'd have to start choosing to live again. And that was hard....no blessing could make her do it. But God could entice and persuade her when she sought Him. 

Likewise I also struggled with my emotional state early on in my mission. I was working through my own trauma. At one point I became more hopeless and received one of the most powerful priesthood blessings i'd ever received. I was struck by the feeling after. I was still emotionally struggling, but now I knew without a doubt there was hope and that if I followed that hope it would all be okay. And it was...one day. But not that day specifically.

Mental health concerns are sometimes more biological than anything else. But more often than not, they're a complex dance between our inner selves grappling with the world around us. That takes more than one type of potential miracle to bring peace. It often will take a change of us, our circumstances, and how we interact with them to heal fully. It will take help from family, friends, therapists, and other positive influences. It may include medication too depending the concern. I don't think all maladies should be cured all at once. There is lessons in choosing what we do with the maladies that may be too important to simply heal the pain. Most of these healings are part of our journey to grow... not a one time reprieve from our cloudy minds. 

 

With luv,

BD

[Rain]

4 hours ago, Hamba Tuhan said:

When my parents were called to serve in the temple, my mum had a raft of health issues: congestive heart failure, arthritis in hips and hands, neuropathy in lower legs and feet, two shoulders that had required surgery, etc. In faith she agreed.

Each week on their assigned day, my father would wake early, bathe and dress. He would then wake my mum and give her a blessing of strength. Only then could she get up and ready to go serve. Following their shift, she would collapse back into bed and stay there till midday the following day. But I don't think she ever missed more than one or two days.

That my father had to repeat this process each week never struck me as evidence that priesthood power is ineffective.

I've mentioned before my best mate (and former bishop) who earlier this year divorced after more than two decades of marriage. I have given him more blessings than I can count. Sometimes that's the way it works. But he has stated that he has benefited significantly each time.

Yes, this is how I feel.  As a diabetic I have never expected to be healed of diabetes. It's not that I don't believe I could be. It's just that I feel I have much to learn from living with it so I don't think it is God's will.  But I have been blessed when my blood sugars were out of control and I couldn't figure out what to do more.  I would think that mental illness may work the same way sometimes.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Rain

[Fether]

7 hours ago, Metis_LDS said:

This topic is in no way meant to be critical of priesthood blessings.

I am starting this topic because there are many persons on the board who I respect by answers they have given in the past on various issues.

Because of having witnessed many times the healing of Church members bodies it is now a pillar of strength for me.  I have been asked to give blessings of strength and comfort over the years for mental health issues (mostly depression, some for emotional control. It was not called Bipolar back then).   I have not seen these types of blessings make a difference except in the very short term.

Questions:

1. Is long term in these cases too long to judge the role of blessings.

2. Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

I don’t think we can expect anything from blessings beyond that which we are inspired to say while giving the blessing.

We live in a world where when people are sick, we give them X and X tends to fix them. I don’t think we can look at blessings the same way. The ultimate affect of a blessing has to do with faith, worthiness, God’s plan for you, and probably a multitude of other things. I don’t know that we are meant to understand blessings (but I may be wrong, perhaps there is an equation of sorts). For me, I just have faith that something good is coming of it.

[Metis_LDS]

12 minutes ago, Fether said:

I don’t know that we are meant to understand blessings (but I may be wrong, perhaps there is an equation of sorts).

 Yes solid information is sparse.  I remember buying a LDS book about the gifts of the spirit and it was a very thin book indeed.  

The Gift of Healing (D&C 46:19–20)

Some have the faith to heal, and others have the faith to be healed. We can all exercise the faith to be healed when we are ill (see D&C 42:48). Many who hold the priesthood have the gift of healing the sick. Others may be given a knowledge of how to cure illness.                                                                                                              https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-22-the-gifts-of-the-spirit?lang=eng

Edited August 5, 2021 by Metis_LDS
grammar

[Fether]

18 minutes ago, Metis_LDS said:

 Yes solid information is sparse.  I remember buying a LDS book about the gifts of the spirit and it was a very thin book indeed.  

The Gift of Healing (D&C 46:19–20)

Some have the faith to heal, and others have the faith to be healed. We can all exercise the faith to be healed when we are ill (see D&C 42:48). Many who hold the priesthood have the gift of healing the sick. Others may be given a knowledge of how to cure illness.                                                                                                              https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-22-the-gifts-of-the-spirit?lang=eng

What is a little frustrating is that even if someone has the gift to heal and the person getting the blessing has the gift of the faith to be healed… none of that matters if the will of the lord isn’t different. Or maybe it does… there doesn’t seem to be a reliable equation for it all

[ksfisher]

8 hours ago, Metis_LDS said:

Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

When giving a blessing the handbook instructs us that the person performing the anointing

"States that he is anointing with oil that has been consecrated for anointing and blessing the sick and afflicted."

Mental illness would seem to me to fit the definition of "afflicted."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/18-priesthood-ordinances-and-blessings?lang=eng#title_number43

 

edit: I see that Scott Lloyd made the same point earlier.

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by ksfisher

[Metis_LDS]

28 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

edit: I see that Scott Lloyd made the same point earlier.

More than one person stating the same is a good thing IMO.

[JAHS]

9 hours ago, Metis_LDS said:

This topic is in no way meant to be critical of priesthood blessings.

I am starting this topic because there are many persons on the board who I respect by answers they have given in the past on various issues.

Because of having witnessed many times the healing of Church members bodies it is now a pillar of strength for me.  I have been asked to give blessings of strength and comfort over the years for mental health issues (mostly depression, some for emotional control. It was not called Bipolar back then).   I have not seen these types of blessings make a difference except in the very short term.

Questions:

1. Is long term in these cases too long to judge the role of blessings.

2. Are we using the wrong tool.  In D&C scriptures are the "sick" only those with sick bodies.

The scriptures seems to say Jesus healed the mentally ill:

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (Psalms 147: 3)

There are other places where he healed those with unclean spirits or possessed with evil spirits, which in those days in some cases may have actually been referring to mental illness rather than actual possession of an evil spirit. (Luke 8:29, Luke 9:42)

[Kenngo1969]

While I am acutely aware that the primary subject of the thread is healing from psychological, emotional, or mental maladies, and while, certainly, I don't wish to derail the thread by straying too far from that subject, I wish to discuss healing from both physical and emotional maladies because I believe that such a discussion will illustrate my point best.  When I was a full-time missionary, I was healed from a physical malady by a Priesthood administration, pretty much instantaneously.  I don't recall my companion, who served as voice, saying anything to the effect of "I command you to be healed ...", or some other, equally dramatic, equally emphatic, equally definitive pronouncement, and I'm not sure why I was. 

Particularly, I'm not sure why I was healed given that I will admit, readily, to not necessarily being the most faithful or most effective missionary, and particularly, I'm not sure why it happened in light of the fact that I am aware of other missionaries who served in much direr circumstances and were equally faithful, if not more, yet who dealt, much of their missions, if not the duration, with problems that might've killed  me, yet who were not healed despite repeated earnest prayers, pleadings, and administrations.  I laud them, and in no way am I setting myself up as any kind of an example.  In fact, I wonder if the Lord said, "Me!  [How does the Lord swear?  He can't say, "God!"  He is!]  Elder Gourdin's such a snowflake!  We better remove this obstacle to his service completely, otherwise, he's just gonna melt! "   Conversely, he might tell other missionaries what, reportedly, the Lord told President Nelson after the Lord took Dantzel: "I thought you could take it, My Boy!"

And yet, I've chronicled in some detail, both here and elsewhere, my apparent "thorn in the flesh": How, apparently, I am destined simply to keep running while the Dog of Depression alternates between nipping at my heels and threatening to devour me whole.  Conversely, give me a good old physical challenge any day!  Tell me you've got to whack off a limb!  Tell me I've got to undergo a procedure with a 99% risk of failure or I'm going to die!  While I think I could handle those challenges with some degree of aplomb and resignation ("Is that all you got?!" )  I think the Lord knows that, so He's not going to saddle me with anything like that.  No, no: My "thorn in the flesh" is going to be much more intractable and harder to deal with ... and that means that also, probably, to one degree or another, it's going to be lifelong.

Yes, the "footprints in the sand" story is a cliche, but how do we know that we and others, at times, are not being carried?  Perhaps, if someone invokes the Priesthood and gives a blessing to rebuke a psychological, mental, or emotional malady and, yet, it doesn't seem to bestow the promised blessing, just because we mere, myopic mortals cannot see that the angels are "keeping the dogs at bay" doesn't mean that that isn't what's happening. 

My $0.02, actual value, as always, much less.  Your mileage may vary.  Not available in all areas.  Void where prohibited.  See retailer for details.

 

[CV75]

3 hours ago, Kenngo1969 said:

While I am acutely aware that the primary subject of the thread is healing from psychological, emotional, or mental maladies, and while, certainly, I don't wish to derail the thread by straying too far from that subject, I wish to discuss healing from both physical and emotional maladies because I believe that such a discussion will illustrate my point best.  When I was a full-time missionary, I was healed from a physical malady by a Priesthood administration, pretty much instantaneously.  I don't recall my companion, who served as voice, saying anything to the effect of "I command you to be healed ...", or some other, equally dramatic, equally emphatic, equally definitive pronouncement, and I'm not sure why I was. 

Particularly, I'm not sure why I was healed given that I will admit, readily, to not necessarily being the most faithful or most effective missionary, and particularly, I'm not sure why it happened in light of the fact that I am aware of other missionaries who served in much direr circumstances and were equally faithful, if not more, yet who dealt, much of their missions, if not the duration, with problems that might've killed  me, yet who were not healed despite repeated earnest prayers, pleadings, and administrations.  I laud them, and in no way am I setting myself up as any kind of an example.  In fact, I wonder if the Lord said, "Me!  [How does the Lord swear?  He can't say, "God!"  He is!]  Elder Gourdin's such a snowflake!  We better remove this obstacle to his service completely, otherwise, he's just gonna melt! "   Conversely, he might tell other missionaries what, reportedly, the Lord told President Nelson after the Lord took Dantzel: "I thought you could take it, My Boy!"

And yet, I've chronicled in some detail, both here and elsewhere, my apparent "thorn in the flesh": How, apparently, I am destined simply to keep running while the Dog of Depression alternates between nipping at my heels and threatening to devour me whole.  Conversely, give me a good old physical challenge any day!  Tell me you've got to whack off a limb!  Tell me I've got to undergo a procedure with a 99% risk of failure or I'm going to die!  While I think I could handle those challenges with some degree of aplomb and resignation ("Is that all you got?!" )  I think the Lord knows that, so He's not going to saddle me with anything like that.  No, no: My "thorn in the flesh" is going to be much more intractable and harder to deal with ... and that means that also, probably, to one degree or another, it's going to be lifelong.

Yes, the "footprints in the sand" story is a cliche, but how do we know that we and others, at times, are not being carried?  Perhaps, if someone invokes the Priesthood and gives a blessing to rebuke a psychological, mental, or emotional malady and, yet, it doesn't seem to bestow the promised blessing, just because we mere, myopic mortals cannot see that the angels are "keeping the dogs at bay" doesn't mean that that isn't what's happening. 

My $0.02, actual value, as always, much less.  Your mileage may vary.  Not available in all areas.  Void where prohibited.  See retailer for details.

 

I think this is why the Lord's will is so important in priesthood blessings: what needs to be done that only a healthy body [mind] will allow this person to accomplish? The thing that needs to be done might a) be done without healing by grace after all the person can do; b) be done with the grace of healing after all the person can do. I also think healings of any kind are the Lord's way of witnessing to others, and this may well change by culture and the times. For example, what do we as a people in [location] 2021 need to learn about grace (or any other Christ-centered principle) vis-a-vis healing (or not being healed)?

Edited August 5, 2021 by CV75