Schizophrenia

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this new episode of Become A Competent Biblical Counselor.

[00:00:25] I'm Dr. Dave Jones and today's episode is entitled Schizophrenia.

[00:00:31] Often people ask me what is schizophrenia and what can be done about it?

[00:00:37] Well, the first thing I'd like to do is to talk to you about labels.

[00:00:42] It's very important for us to get the proper labels because labels point to solutions.

[00:00:49] Labels tell us what's wrong and labels tell us what we must do about it.

[00:00:55] For instance, if you label something schizophrenia, that probably would point to some kind of psychiatric solution to whatever the person's problem might be.

[00:01:10] If you label the same thing sin, that would point to the Lord Jesus Christ as the solution to the problem.

[00:01:18] So it begins to be important then as to what kind of label that we put on a problem that a person has.

[00:01:27] Now schizophrenia obviously is not a biblical label.

[00:01:33] There are biblical labels and I think we had better use those labels.

[00:01:38] We don't read for example about alcoholism but some sort of disease in the Bible, but we do read about drunkenness.

[00:01:46] We read about homosexuality.

[00:01:48] We read about adultery and people are labeled as adulterers, homosexuals, drunkards, and so on, even liars.

[00:01:59] Well, here's another label and we need to analyze it carefully.

[00:02:05] The word schizophrenia itself indicates a kind of split, not a kind of Dr. J. Cole and Mr. Hyde split

[00:02:14] that we often think about when people use this word, but rather a split between the way a person feels and what really he is doing and saying at the same time.

[00:02:26] That was the original idea in schizophrenia as it was first thought through and as the name was first given to it.

[00:02:34] But I want to warn you about labels like schizophrenia.

[00:02:38] I want to warn you about labels like psychotic and psychoneurotic and neurotic and all these psychological terms.

[00:02:49] Actually, Carl Menenger, the Dean of Psychiatrists in this country, the old man of psychiatry as they used to call him had to say this about the word schizophrenia recently

[00:03:02] in commenting on a report in Medical World News which I'll tell you about in just a few moments.

[00:03:09] He says schizophrenia, that's just a nice Greek word and he's right because the word is absolutely meaningless,

[00:03:18] except that it has tremendous meaning when it's gummed on your label.

[00:03:22] You can't get a job anymore.

[00:03:24] You find that people look down upon you as some kind of queer, strange, unusual person or whatever.

[00:03:32] It has that kind of an effect but it really has no meaning.

[00:03:37] And let me explain to you why I say that.

[00:03:40] The report that Menenger was talking about was this.

[00:03:44] A psychiatrist played a trick on his fellows.

[00:03:49] He sent 12 people, as sane as you and I, into 12 of the country's top mental institutions.

[00:03:57] Now there wasn't anything wrong with any of them.

[00:04:01] They lied about one thing.

[00:04:03] They said, I have hallucinated.

[00:04:07] But of course you can hallucinate for almost any reason.

[00:04:12] Lack of sleep or taking a medicine that had some kind of strange effect upon you.

[00:04:18] All sorts of things lead to hallucinations.

[00:04:21] So that's all they said.

[00:04:23] Then they acted as normally about their way of living during that diagnostic period

[00:04:28] and while they were there in the mental institution as they possibly could

[00:04:32] and they told no other lies.

[00:04:35] Well, do you want to guess how many people were diagnosed wrongly?

[00:04:40] Would you guess half?

[00:04:41] Wrong.

[00:04:43] Would you guess three-fourths?

[00:04:45] Still wrong.

[00:04:46] Would you guess all 12?

[00:04:49] Right.

[00:04:50] All 12 were diagnosed as having serious mental difficulties.

[00:04:56] Now these were in 12 of the top mental institutions in this country.

[00:05:02] And guess how many of these people were labeled schizophrenic?

[00:05:07] 11 out of the 12 were labeled schizophrenic.

[00:05:11] So I want to make clear to you at the beginning that this whole business of labeling,

[00:05:16] this whole business of diagnosing problems among psychiatrists

[00:05:20] that is a very unsatisfactory thing.

[00:05:24] So manager had reason for saying that schizophrenia is just a nice Greek word.

[00:05:31] Actually, the word doesn't tell us anything.

[00:05:33] All that it really means today when anybody uses that word is something like this

[00:05:39] that a person is involved in bizarre or very strange behavior.

[00:05:44] And you know, bizarre or strange behavior can come from all sorts of sources.

[00:05:50] For instance, the word schizophrenia is just like the word red nose.

[00:05:56] If you have a red nose, I have no right to come up to you and say,

[00:05:59] aha, say you've been bruising.

[00:06:03] Now maybe you have that may be the reason for your red nose,

[00:06:07] but there are many, many other causes of red noses.

[00:06:11] You could have fallen asleep under a sun lamp.

[00:06:13] You could have a cold.

[00:06:15] You could be growing a pimple on it.

[00:06:17] Maybe your wife has hit you on it.

[00:06:21] There are a lot of reasons for red noses.

[00:06:24] So just to look at a red nose and say, aha, you're bruising.

[00:06:27] That doesn't follow nor to see a person's bizarre behavior

[00:06:31] and to say, aha, some particular kind of cause is at the bottom of it.

[00:06:36] That doesn't make any sense either.

[00:06:39] Bizarre behavior can come as camouflage to throw people off the track.

[00:06:44] Bizarre behavior can come because of chemical deficiencies within the body

[00:06:49] or malfunctions of the body.

[00:06:52] Bizarre behavior can come as a result of taking LSD or some other hallucinogenic

[00:06:57] or as I said before from cough medicine or something of that sort

[00:07:01] that works strangely in your case in a way that didn't in 100,000 other people.

[00:07:08] Or bizarre behavior can come as a result of a strange pattern of life

[00:07:12] that you simply developed over the years for whatever reasons.

[00:07:17] Or bizarre behavior can come from sinning against your body by pushing it

[00:07:22] beyond the limits that God has given to you by not going to sleep

[00:07:27] and getting sufficient eye rapid movement sleep.

[00:07:32] Two or more, two and a half or three days of significant sleep loss

[00:07:36] can cause every effect of LSD.

[00:07:40] There are dozens, possibly hundreds of ways in which bizarre behavior

[00:07:45] can be accounted for once you find the real roots of it.

[00:07:50] Brain tumors can lead to bizarre behavior.

[00:07:52] All sorts of unusual things can lead to bizarre behavior.

[00:07:57] So what I want to warn you about is using or allowing others to use

[00:08:02] about you or your loved ones or friends or anybody else such words

[00:08:08] as schizophrenia, neurotic, psychoneurotic

[00:08:13] or any of these other kinds of terms that really mean nothing.

[00:08:18] The fact of the matter is that we find that most of the people

[00:08:21] who are diagnosed schizophrenic are just people

[00:08:25] that the psychiatrist didn't know what to do for.

[00:08:28] And a large share of these people are either organically in trouble

[00:08:32] and need some kind of organic help

[00:08:34] or they simply are in that state of result of some sinful living pattern.

[00:08:41] And so the first step to take is not to go to a psychiatrist

[00:08:45] but go to a physician and to check out whether there are any

[00:08:49] physiological causes of this problem.

[00:08:52] And if there are then work with your counselor

[00:08:55] to start uncovering what sorts of things

[00:08:59] in the background of this person and his living, in his life

[00:09:03] and in his living patterns, may be at the root of this difficulty.

[00:09:07] And so I hope that this in some way has enlightened you

[00:09:10] and helped you to understand because the question continually arises

[00:09:15] what is this thing?

[00:09:16] This mysterious, this strange, this dreaded disease called schizophrenia?

[00:09:22] The answer is simply nothing.

[00:09:26] There is no disease called schizophrenia.

[00:09:29] There are some people who have organic problems of one sort or another

[00:09:33] that distorts their chemistry in the body.

[00:09:36] There are other people who have many other kinds of problems

[00:09:39] most of which stem from sinful living behavior patterns.

[00:09:46] So the point about labels is that be very, very careful

[00:09:50] how you use labels.

[00:09:53] They can be used to be uplifting like you're such a smart child.

[00:09:58] You're such a lovely child.

[00:10:00] Those are labels that are very enduring and increase the self-confidence

[00:10:04] to someone who you're addressing those to.

[00:10:08] But they can also be very hurtful.

[00:10:11] Why are you so stupid?

[00:10:12] Why are you so short?

[00:10:13] Hey, Shorty, whatever, those things can be very damaging.

[00:10:18] So there you have it for labels.

[00:10:20] Be very careful and I hope this helps.

[00:10:23] We'll talk to you later.

[00:10:24] Have a great day.