[kimthecatlover]

I am a mental health consumer and a Christian..I'm very shy about talking about God and Jesus around my staff..because they tend to think that 'mentally ill' and 'Christian' should not mix...especially since I have schizoaffective disorder. I never say 'oh I'm Jesus Christ' or 'I'm God'...but it seems that if one has schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and you are devout in your faith...to mental-health workers, it's 'religiosity'..why?

[wanttoheal]

Ignorance?

[JustBen]

This is a really tricky issue to address, Kim, both here in the forums and out in the "real" world. Maybe the mental health workers you deal with have had experiences where folks expressed religious ideas as part of their symptoms. You mentioned the "I'm Jesus Christ" or "I'm God" kind of thing...perhaps they've dealt with a lot of clients who have said those kinds of things and now they're on their guard.

It doesn't help that most agencies don't provide their workers with clear guidelines about what is and isn't acceptable in terms of talking with clients about religion. On one hand, they're scared of being sued for discrimination; on the other, they have to worry about appearing out of touch with their clients.

I once knew a therapist who told me that if his supervisor knew that he was talking with people about their faith at all, he'd be fired.

[SleepsWithButterFlies]

I do not know if that is even a word..I know there are Christian clincis and T's who do not shove religion at you but if you want they can and will talk about it read the bible and so on..I bet it has a lot to do with the type of clinic

[mortimer]

But wouldn't a good T be able to see farther in and have the skills to tell the difference?

What the hell are they being trained in? Why would someone have to pay so much to talk to a quack and if you mentioned your faith be thought of it in a bad way?

D:<

[bipolar_bear]

I think the matter of discussing faith with a client is appropriate if that is one of the issues the client would like some help with or it is an avenue for healing. I know my t has breached the subject as one I may want to discuss but has respected that it is not at this time. So should this be a method you would like to explore I think it is totally appropeiate.

Your desire to talk about religion seems to be in a healthy manner and I think your co-workers are acting inappropriately. Good luck I know you will make a good decision.

[Genevieve]

This, I think, is another of those things where it's just bad training and lack of judgement on the part of the staff. One of the differentials in most diagnostics is Cultural Appropriateness. That means that, for instance, when staff looked at me weird and started checking my orientation more closely, just because I confessed I didn't own a TV, they were missing the fact that for me, it was culturally appropriate to live in an apartment without a TV. Make sense so far?

Religiosity, though, is a symptom of various mental illnesses, so it makes sense that they'd have it on their radar. The problem, again, is that there's a judgement call involved. Which, of course, wouldn't be a problem if they, you know, used their judgement. But sometimes people who display religiosity don't show the problem at first glance. They may have experienced people who looked to have strong faith, only to turn out to be suffering religiosity. And, if you have a different faith than they do, their inexperience may interfere with their ability to use their judgement. For instance, a lifelong Anglican might find Evangelicals seem alien. Or a lot of Protestants will see Catholics who refuse to use birth control as being religious maniacs, rather than faithful to their religion.

Hope that helps.