The Demons of Mental Illness: What Possesses Us?
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.
Sometimes religious people can fall into the latter category, seeing demons behind every coffee cup--especially when it comes to demons of mental illness in general and borderline personality disorder (BPD) in particular.
A Lesson on Demons and Mental Illness
My pastor, Ryan Ahlgrim, was one asked to perform an exorcism. The woman making the request had a daughter who had just moved. The daughter reported feeling an evil presence at times, and a range of bizarre experiences. My pastor spoke to the daughter, and asked several questions. He learned that she would also feel the evil presence in her car.
He asked if she had any particular thoughts before feeling the evil presence, and she replied that she had memories of child abuse shortly before the presence would come. He asked if she saw a connection, and the light came on.
After realizing the connection, the evil presence never bothered her again.
We can learn a lot from this. When we sense evil, what is going on inside ourselves? What are we thinking or feeling? The evil we sense may not be an external demon, but an internal emotion. There just might be a logical explanation for our spiritual experiences.
Abuse, Trauma and Wondering Who the Demons of Mental Illness Really Are
I attended an abusive church for about two years when I was in college. 
One traumatic incident marked my severance with that church and almost with Christianity--three people, who saw my illness as Satanic oppression, pinned me to the floor of my apartment while yelling "Satan, stop!" in an attempt to rid me of the demons.
It didn't work.
On another occasion, I was told "You need to go off your meds and trust God for your healing." Thankfully, I knew that was a bad idea and stayed on them--for me, the meds were God's healing.
I was also told "If you just had enough faith and truly wanted to be healed, you would be." I countered that God does not always heal--Exhibit A being the fact that every person dies, regardless of the amount of faith he/she has.
My fellow churchgoers even showed me a book which identified "eating disorders or cutting on yourself" as so evil that they gave Satan a legal claim to torment you, which could only be defeated by renouncing it in Jesus' name. While the book acknowledged that some people have a chemical imbalance causing their mental illness, that part was conveniently forgotten by both the author and his devotees.
To this day, I get nauseated when I hear talk about demons causing mental illness. In a metaphorical sense that may be true, and symptoms like self-injurious behavior and substance abuse may be considered sin in some religious circles, but rarely if ever is it true in a literal sense.
The Demons of Mental Illness Do Torment Us, But There Is Hope
Contrast my experience with this quote from Pastor Ryan:
It is my understanding that mental illness and spirituality are two different things, just as a broken leg and spirituality are two different things. One can have a deep and enriching relationship with God and still be mentally ill, just as one can have a deep and enriching relationship with God and still have a broken leg.
Our faith in God and relationship to Jesus Christ puts all of life into a different perspective—including our mental illnesses, but it does not change the fact of mental illness any more than it changes the fact of one’s eye color. Does faith bring healing to our bodies and minds? Yes, but ‘healing’ needs to be defined.
Healing, in its most crucial sense, means experiencing grace, knowing that one is loved by God and reconciled to God even as one journeys through the darkest shadows of depression or confusion.
As Psalm 23 observes, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me."
APA Reference
Oberg, B.
(2012, February 1). The Demons of Mental Illness: What Possesses Us?, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 5 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/borderline/2012/02/the-demons-of-borderline-personality-disorder
Author: Becky Oberg
I'm agnostic and a mental health professional. I have an ex-wife who is BPD and Pentecostal. She has described to me altered state experiences while under the influence of ayahuasca in which she conversed with her demons. I understand these demons not as religious, spiritual, or supernatural beings, but as protections that she invited into her life to separate her from the childhood sexual abuse of her past. The demons provide her with amnesia in exchange for what amounts to consuming her soul. She fervently believes in the saving power of Jesus Christ but this is spiritual bypassing because, in her case, she continues to create relationships and then psychically destroy the men in her life.
I believe she will only be able to rid herself of her demons, and hopefully her BPD as well, when she's ready to confront the abuse of her father. If she can put the blame where it belongs, she may stop projecting that victim/perpetrator cycle on the present men in her life. These demons are a metaphor for the purgatory she has created for herself. That reality has consequences in the real world, but it need not be real in the tangible sense. Exorcising her demons will require the expenditure of real physical energy and probably the destruction of aspects of her personality. If this ever happens, and it's possible but not probable, then these demons will evaporate. They are only as real as one's personality is real. In short, reality is not the question, it's what you make of the things you feel to be real.
I have terrible bpd. I am a born again Christian. I feel tormented dsy and night..
My grandson has been diagnosed with BPD too. He doesn’t believe in God -at least he could turn to the Lord during his depressive times, if he did believe. I’m so glad you have God!
Don’t ever feel like you have to have BPD forever-God does heal! My daughter was delivered from alcoholism when I was about to give up! She got baptized and went to rehab (again) and now she’s doing great, going to church and taking care of herself!
This is a very old article. There hasn't been any comment for a number of years. I might be wasting my time. But couldn't help but comment too. I'm a Christian and legal husband to a legal wife who has NPD. And two children who are autistic.
Demonic influence cannot be contributed to everything, but it cannot be ignored either. There are instances where clear demonic influence was the cause of a definite mental health situation in the Holy Bible. Two instances I can think of right away; the man in the cave who had a legion of demons influencing him and the young man who threw himself in the fire and water.
Yet the King of Tyre mentioned in the Book of Isaiah I believe was known to have been possessed by the satan and yet there's no indication the man had mental health disorders. His problems were solely of a sinful nature. Money and power!
Mental health disorders can be contributed to imbalances inside the body just as people who are born with disfigurements. These things can be just that. Something went wrong. But we cannot say that its never linked with demonic influence. It doesn't mean the person is the problem. Demonic influence upon a person isn't always linked to sin.
Matthew chapter eight highlights different instances. Peter's mother in law was sick, but there's no mention of demon influence. The Centurion's son-like subservient got very ill and there's no mention of demons. Then there's mention of "many others" who were ill but the link of demons.
There are cases where demons are linked and other times when its abnormalities. GOD does allow people to be born with imbalances, improper functions of the body, and so on.
We can know absolute truth of what the source is by seeking GOD. HE will give wisdom to know if these problems are normal imbalances of the body. If they be we can seek in faith for GOD's healing. Of course medicine might still be necessary. Unless GOD gives clear indication it should be handled with medicine. GOD can give a miracle and heal. That might not always be the case.
My mother eventual grew old and passed on. She suffered from mental health issues. She passed on with mental health issues. I've received promises from GOD that healing would come to my family. That I hold onto with faith.
I know there's demonic influence upon my home because I've been confronted by them, I've seen them in dreams, I heard them shout stuff on two occasions. They are real and we cannot ignore that reality. They do affect emotions and can control peoples behaviors. Is it always the situation? No.
It's important to seek GOD for conformation on what the situation is and how to do it. The problem with human wisdom is that it does not have authority of a largely unseen world. That's GOD's authority. Find out what the source is then deal with it properly. Instead of denying one side of the debate or the other. A Pastor who contributes everything to demons is wrong and one that ignores demons altogether is wrong.
Another way to look at it... :)
It's my understanding that possession is more like you invited (or thru abuse someone else invited) an evil guest into your life. It doesn't mean you are evil. It is a possessed person's responsibility not to cooperate with the evil guest and to avoid inviting them in in the first place, but you cannot control or kick out a demon once it's in without supernatural grace.
Demons can mimic mental disorders and illness. Is that helpful to know? If you know how to rid yourself of it if it is a demonic source. Jesus, in the Gospels, implied that the way to kick demons out are according to their type (some require prayer and fasting, according to what Jesus said). As far as I know, the Catholics have the best understanding of such things, although if you are not Catholic I have no idea if that is helpful or not.
Demonic or not, we all rely on grace.
May God bless you either way.
Dear Blogger
i disagree with your viewpoints about damons and mental disorders.. especialy borderline.
There is no way... "having" bpd.. without massivly attacks by demons.
Also, it is virtualy impossible to heal Borderline while denying the existence of the involved demons.
Therfore, classical psychotherapy can not heal Borderline. Because nearly all "classic therapeuts" denying their existence.
Borderline can not fully explained without a fundamental understandig of the influence of demons.
Psychologics - and also the people who suffer in bpd- have to rethink their atitude. If both denying demonic influence, then healing is simply not possible and the bpd person have to live with it his whole live.
Greetings.
Don't believe everything you think. Being on a stage and in the audience is impossible. This means that a person with a "disorder" will have a hard time making objective observations about their own behavior and root causes.
There is hardly a clear distinction between deeply negative emotions and negative spirits. Entities of that kind get created just like a new life (baby) can be created with an act of love. Whether one calls that a "possession" or "attraction" or "invocation" does not matter so much - there will be negative entities around, as "devil is roaming the earth looking for ruin of souls". Those who are weakest among us are the most suspect. The weakest are those who have been abused as children, usually in more ways than one: by put-downs, and being side-tracked in their natural urge to develop a healthy, rational mind and ability to think clearly.
Here are some weaknesses in your text:
- "After realizing the connection, evil presence never bothered her again". Exactly. Because her own negative emotion was an open door invitation for evil spirits to move in and attach themselves. Once that emotion was cleared, there was no more open door for them and they moved on, roaming the earth, looking for the next victim.
- You "attended an abusive church". Whatever an "abusive" person or organization attempts, it will fail. No wonder, their "excorcism" failed. In addition, I see that they made at least two mistakes: you don't excorcise by telling the "satan" to "stop". You keep evil out by keeping Jesus in. Second: you never asked them to help you get rid of your demons. That's a guarantee of failure. Even the toughest cases have a moment of clarity when they break down and express their wish to be rid of the influence that is ruining their life.
- Chemical imbalance does not in exclude possibility of possession. As a matter of fact, it strengthens that possibility, as chemical imbalances weaken our aura, which is the most essential part of our natural protection from possession. That is why many herbs that are used in healing and naturopathic medicine also help keep negative spirits away: sage, garlic, etc.
- The fact that everyone dies is not a proof of God's inability to heal for simple reason that there is no "death". There is only death of our body, which is not as important as you think. Our souls are invincible, we live on and on. That's the proof of God's healing ability: God does not need to interfere to save your life - you will live, no matter what. But you will also live according to your deepest desires, the ones you are probably not aware of. Hence the importance of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis: the learn to know yourself. "Know thyself", in order to see that you have not taken wrong values and beliefs in life as your own. You were told well: if you truly wanted to be healed, you would be (and not strictly through "faith healing" - as they say: God works in mysterious ways). Since you are not healed, you are either following a false "god", or are not as interested in being healed as you are in being ill. Usually, the reason is in the perceived benefits: most people enjoy the benefits their disease brings them, as much as it seems irrational...
Good luck on your journey!
ps. I hope that you can see that one or even more negative experiences with religious institutions has nothing to do with true nature of God and Jesus. They are there to help, but you need to form a correct picture of the world we live in to be able to approach them for help. Simple, honest and humble prayer goes a long way towards that goal.
I have been fascinated by this subject for some time, particularly as I believe that I have been miraculously cured from BPD myself. Granted not everyone is healed without Grace but with regards to personality disorders there are clear biblical guidlines to restore order from the disorder. Gods order is to love him first, then your wife or partner, then your children, then your parents and finally your neighbour. Many people cannot abide by this as they do not place God first and then the house of cards built on sand topples over. My personal journey to a healthy mind and spirit is directly related to my commitment to taking God's advice in all things. I frequently get it wrong but he knows that my desire to overcome my natural state of disordered thinking is a proof of putting God first.
Becky. I appreciate your time in writing your article. However, I find it difficult to follow as it appears to be inter-mixing terminology, specifically diagnoses. BPD is not a mental illness, yet it is a mental disorder. It is coded on Axis II, the axis of personality disorders, developmental disorders and pervasive disorders. Certainly, one with BPD may experience mental illness, coded on Axis I. Perhaps I am too focused on the terminology and specifics of coding. If so, my apologies. My feeling is that it is so critical to distinguish between Axis I and Axis II as they are very different in their etiologies and treatment methodologies. And, unfortunately, also very fiscally important in relation to whether or not insurance companies will reimburse.
Help me out as I feel I am not grasping your effort and voice.
Best regards. Again, thank you for your article.
Jeanne Morrow
Thank you for your reply. I am not a mental health professional, just a consumer, so I'm not up on the terminology. But you're right--terminology often determines if treatment will be covered. For example, most of my medicine is covered, but one is not, so I use that one as a PRN (as needed). It's an unfortunate situation, but not that uncommon. I wish insurance companies would cover more of the Axis II diagnoses--I knew one NP who would never diagnose anyone with Asperger's syndrome (she would use "pervasive developmental disorder") because "they'll never get insurance with that". We need health care reform in this country, especially when it comes to mental illnesses and mental disorders. I'm lucky that my treatment is covered, but I'm not sure if it's billed as "BPD" or something else--I have more than one diagnosis.