By Ada Brownell
“You know these people are out to get us,” the young patient
said, his eyes squinting and glaring with anger. “They let us swim in their
pool, and give us games to play, but we need to be careful. Did you know they
have a graveyard on the grounds?”
As a reporter who worked the medical beat for the local
newspaper, I rode with a public relations guide, guards, and a group of
mentally ill youth on the grounds of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at
Pueblo.
“Is that so?” I said.
He nodded and continued sharing his delusional thoughts as
the driver delivered the load of disturbed kids to the pool.
I met and interviewed a number of mentally ill folks in the
seven years I spent on that beat. In addition, I picked the brains of the
amazing people who work with these patients. Some of those kept in the
institution were dangerous killers.
Not all murderers were on the forensics unit which housed
criminals who had been ruled “not guilty by reason of insanity.” There was one
kid on the juvenile unit rumored to have killed his parents. A woman on the
general adult unit killed her children. Another woman beat a guard nearly to
death with the metal turn handle from a window.
Yet, most patients were more a danger to themselves than to
others. One teenager cut her arms trying to get rid the wickedness in her. In
addition to the stitched new cuts, scars showed tracks of agony—from her wrists to her shoulders. I saw a
middle-aged woman with the same problem.
At the turn of the last century, these types of people were
thought to be demon possessed. When
knowledge of the brain expanded, doctors at psychiatric institutions, often
called insane asylums or lunatic asylums, began to diagnose the causes of mental
disease. Often perfectly sane people were housed with the severely disturbed.
The 1899-1900 Board
of Lunacy Commissioners reported among those admitted with obvious mental
disorders were a number with epilepsy, Down’s Syndrome (labeled idiocy then),
paralysis, kleptomania (a compulsion to steal,) sexual paranoia, alcoholic
paranoia, religious excitement, ill health, intemperance.
I asked nurses who worked with the patients today if they
thought some of their patients, admitted because they were a danger to
themselves or others, were demon possessed.
“The patient who escaped recently who had murdered someone
in Denver and stabbed him about 70 times, seems to qualify,” one said.
After escaping, the gal was free only about a week, then was
caught and returned.
“She goes into a rage if she requests a movie and the store
doesn’t have it,” the nurse said. “You never know what will set her off.”
I was told no matter what treatment used, nothing helped
some of the patients.
A psychiatrist who had recently become a Christian said,
“It’s difficult to tell whether a person is mentally ill or demon possessed. I
do my best to counsel them, then I pray for them all. God knows what they
need.”
I learned mental illness is a disease like diabetes—it’s
often caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Even a brain tumor or
injury can cause adverse changes in behavior. So mental illness is a physical
problem.
In contrast, demon possession is a spiritual problem and I
think Satan takes over the part of brain reserved for God. From what we read in
the New Testament and hear from missionaries who encounter it, demons need to
be cast out.
I don’t believe a born-again Christian who lives in obedience to
God can be demon possessed, because scripture says “greater is he who is in us
than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
The goal is to stay close to Jesus, watch what we put into
our minds, and shun even the appearance of evil. We’re told, “Submit yourself
to God. Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you (James 4:7).
May that thought give you joy when you hear stories about demon possession. Also remember not everything attributed to demons actually was done by Satan.
©Copyright Ada Brownell Oct. 31, 2013
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