The Mindfulness Response: Pray Away the Schizophrenia & Stigma

Pray Away the Schizophrenia

            People with mental illness face societal and cultural stigmas where they have been told God is punishing them for having a disease. Sometimes they believed that God cursed them or that God had abandoned them. Their level of pain and suffering returns each day, and their depression, anxiety, and psychosis symptoms remind them of the negative thoughts regularly.

            Sometimes people with recurrent serious mental illness are told to pray and their thoughts will get better. Although people might have good intentions of helping someone, they may not understand the severity of the disease.

            A group member talked to the others about praying constantly to stay healthy and stable, but it caused so much trouble and interruptions in their daily life that they had to stop. The prayer got in the way of other daily chores and overtook the simple acts that needed to get done each day. The participant said, “I tried to pray all day to get the symptoms to go down, but it caused a lot of trouble.”

            Prayer can be calming, quiet, and a form of meditation, but it will not likely take away a disease or serious mental illness. Prayer can help make a person feel calmer, but just as people have diabetes, heart disease, or kidney disease, prayer is not the ultimate cure. Serious mental illnesses are diseases that are in the physical body, similar to diabetes, leukemia, or a heart condition. Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia exhibit physical changes in the body and are detected by neurochemical changes in the blood. Some medications and doctors help people stabilize their conditions, just as someone takes medications for heart disease each day. Medications for mental illness are taken every day and people need to watch their health, just as someone would who has diabetes.

Biological Needs

            Humans have an innate biological need to belong and be with others. This can be for safety and security, loneliness, and identity. Relationships are connections for friendship, growth, and connections, can be crucial for survival.

            Developing relationships improves personal well-being, which decreases anxiety and depression, which can become more serious mental illnesses. Finding support from others with similar interests and problems is beneficial for personal growth and change. The biological needs of relationships are found within the fabric of society. There are societal rules for forming relationships with norms, social structures, experiences, and environment (Pospíšil & Macháčková 2021).

            There are biological connections in the brain to be with others and feeling a sense of identity helps a person feel part of a larger reality. This connects the past to the present and allows people to dream about the future. The human brain strives to keep the body safe, healthy, and balanced. Indigenous people hold values that include their ancestors from the past and relate the past to the present and the future. These philosophical and cultural beliefs are not considered by other dominant cultures (Pospíšil & Macháčková 2021).

Identify Discrimination and Exclusion

            When the group discusses stigma, they talk about feeling excluded. Discrimination and exclusion create fear, and distrust and bring about hopelessness and despair. The group explained how they had to seek out resources to help them continue with college or take leaves from work. Participants talked about federal laws that protect people with disabilities at work or college. New policies are being adopted to educate the public about how damaging discrimination and exclusion can be to a society (Pospíšil & Macháčková 2021).

            A participant discussed the importance of returning to college to complete a degree. Acceptance of those with a disability helps society grow and expand in ways that weren’t previously imagined.

            The group discussed different races and how there were cultural values held in Native American, Hispanic, or Asian cultures that affected their perceptions of mental illness. The group listened to participants describe wonderful ideas held by those from different cultures and felt inspired. The group discussed societal values and beliefs and how they believed that society could become stronger by acknowledging the richness of diversity and the inspirational ideas it can present. Once this is found, the entire society benefits and grows (Blackstock 2011).

            One participant talked about how a sense of belonging is important for everyone. It helps build a community. When a society has calm and peace, business can be done, kids can go to school, and people go about their lives in daily routines.

            The group discussed anxiety levels with discrimination and acceptance. When participants felt accepted, they were open in their expressions. Creative opportunities can grow from communications between different groups. It benefits both when each group learns to listen to the other people’s values, norms, beliefs, and practices.

            This intersection of ideas is where minority and dominant cultures need more conversation. The discussion about the difference of viewpoints is opening, but the understanding is complex and needs more time to explore theories and realities to build understanding (Blackstock 2011).

            Self-compassion and the Mindfulness Response recognize the point of opportunity in a new idea. This point is where transformation and creativity exist. Within this portion of the mind.