Sometimes Mental Health is Connected to "Spiritual Health"

           I know that it has been forever since I posted on here, but I wanted to share with everyone something that I witnessed so powerfully in my own life over the course of the past year. For a good portion of 2017, I struggled with a sin struggle, a stronghold in my life. A few months ago, God orchestrated circumstances so that I might be set free from that stronghold. In the months prior to being set free from the stronghold, I struggled a lot with various emotional issues. The tiniest thing would set me off, and the other person would not even be trying to offend me. I didn’t even realize how bad that it was until now—when I don’t experience what I used to experience when I encounter similar situations today. I have heard that the people closest to me (and thus the victims of my awful emotional outbursts) felt like they were walking on eggshells when they were around me. They tried to cater to me and not offend me, but I really was emotionally unstable, not so much in a high/low way, but more in a way that no one knew how I might react to situations. Even I didn’t know how I was going to react to situations until I would just start yelling or crying. It was frustrating to me that I acted like this, yet it felt that I had no control over it. I got so upset at myself whenever I had an emotional outburst, because I just knew that it was driving away the people whom I loved and was destroying the relationships that I had with people. I would vow that the next time I would react differently, but I would still always have another emotional outburst.

            When God finally forced me to give up my stronghold, it took me awhile to finally adjust to the new “normal.” When I finally accepted the new normal and began to embrace the changes that God had made in my life and as I let the Holy Spirit control my life again, I began to be emotionally stable again. Things that used to set me off, no longer did. It would amaze me to walk away from a conversation or situation and think, “Wow, I used to react to something like that by crying. And now, I’m not affected by it the same way.” It has now been 8 weeks since I first started to feel mentally stable again. And I am really just hoping and praying that it was due to the stronghold in my life, due to having bad “spiritual health” that I was having bad mental health. And I am hoping and praying that I may always follow the Lord Jesus and not allow another stronghold to be built in my life. And I am hoping and praying that this is a permanent mental stableness, that this isn’t something that is just going to last for a little bit of time. (I do have maybe 1-2 days a month where I don’t feel “myself.” However, I can often pinpoint more natural causes to these off-days, such as God’s design of the female body and also lack of sleep, to name a couple.) I feel like my house is “swept clean and put in order,” as it says in Luke 11:25. However, I do not want Luke 11:26 to apply to me, which says, “Then [the spirit] goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”

            So, if you can learn anything from my experience, do not allow a stronghold into your life in the first place. If you are experiencing mental health issues and it is something that is rather new in your life, consider the possibility that it might be connected to a spiritual stronghold. It is not always the case, but sometimes mental health is connected with spiritual health. It also never hurts to examine oneself for any sin or sin patterns in one’s life.