eternal torment and mental institutions

[valueallhumanlife2008]

Hello,
I'm curious if any of you know any studies that deal with mental breakdowns due to the doctrine of eternal torment.  Is it something that happens often and mental institutions are filled with people like that or is it a rare thing?  My prayers go out to these people.
Thanks,
Chris

P.S.  To be honest I need to confess that I am not a universalist, nor am I an eternal torment believer.  After a close study of the Bible I believe in annihilation.  But the doctrine of eternal torment still sickens me.

[shawn]

I do not know.  But, I have worked with the mentally ill and those who are inpatients within the psych ward.  I have seen grandiose thinking (ie they are the mother mary or they are a prophet) and many religious themes with the mental illness.  I have yet to meet one obsessed with hell but would assume there are cases.

[jabcat]

I'm a licensed mental health counselor, 26 years in the field - inpatient, outpatient.  I've also seen much delusion and religious preoccupation.  However, little of it has had to do with hell per se.  Guilt, and fear, yes.  But the mental illness I've seen around religious issue have mostly had to do with just more a break from reality, i.e., "I'm Jesus", or "I have [special] powers", etc.  I did know of one patient who said he had demons that tormented him, and they had names.

Gary Amirault is very interested in this particular topic, and I imagine there is some information around the web on it.  

 God bless, James.

http://www.tentmaker.org/forum/index.php?topic=8531.0

[jabcat]

Mod note;  I've removed some posts, including my own that were off-topic.

The body of those posts has been moved to http://www.tentmaker.org/forum/index.php?topic=8531.0

My apologies.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I've seen some patients that were mentally ill, and were "put away" because they told the wrong many people they saw and heard demons. What they needed was deliverance, IMO, before worse happened to them. Never seen anyone there for "hell torment", though. Blessings....

[MacPherson]

Well... I don't know of any case studies. But I myself had a classic nervous/mental breakdown over eternal fiery hell that last a good long time. I wasn't institutionalized, but I'm sure I came close to it. This is my take on it, looking back 2 years later. I was primed for a breakdown. I had been experiencing a great many panic attacks before it happened. I'm convinced that the attacks were do to a malfunction in my brain, the same as epileptic seizures are caused by malfunction in the brain. Just as there are things that can trigger an epileptic seizure, such as a strobing light, something as horrific as eternal torment, which is touted as reality, can cause a nervous breakdown. Especially in those who are predisposed to having one.

What could possibly be more terrifying? I was put on medication and given a lot of counseling (some of it here) and eventually I regained my senses. And I've since learned enough about hell, to be able to write a book on the subject.

[jabcat]

I've been thinking about this.  On one hand, you'd think ET was so horrible, that people really would be going crazy over it.  [I know a few do truly struggle with it, I mean huge amounts of people, absolutely filling up mental health facilities over it, etc.]  However, it seems to me most of the evidence says that's not the case.

So, I thought;  as awful as it is, maybe we as a society have just sort of accepted it; "that's the way it is" (shrug).  Another way to look at it is, when something is so awful, most people generally attempt to put it in the back of their mind, to not deal with it.  The mind just sort of numbs/blocks it out - self-protection.  That was shown to be the case with those old car crash movies they used to show to "scare straight" teen drivers.  I believe the evidence showed it was so terrible, they quickly dismissed it, suppressed the thoughts of it, and then basically went on as usual.  Too much to really process, comprehend, and deal with in the forefront.

The other thought I had was, it's been so much a part of the fabric of society, maybe many have just gotten de-sensitized to it.  In fact, we know many people joke about going to hell.  Write songs about it, laugh about it, treat it as something like "there's nothing we can (or will) do about it, so why worry?".  You know the old saying in scripture;  "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die".  Maybe it's any combination of those things for different people, as well as other reasons I didn't think of.  But as I said earlier, being in the mental health field all these years, it's just not something I've seen much of as far as causing people serious problems.  I just thought of something though too.  Sometimes when we bury things so deeply in our subconscious, it really is bothering us, negatively affecting us - VERY much causing serious problems - we're just not always aware that it is and how much.  Maybe it's like a silent but deadly disease - there, lurking, causing problems in many areas of life - while one has little idea it's there and/or pay it little attention.  Well, anyway,  :2c:.

[shawn]

I think it might be as simple as few people really believe it. 

[thinktank]

I think it might be as simple as few people really believe it. 

That could be true, but I think the main one is that it could be thought of as alienating the rights of religion.

Branding a religious belief as the cause of mental illness is a dangerous move.

So the people would be undiagnosed.

[shawn]

I think it might be as simple as few people really believe it. 

That could be true, but I think the main one is that it could be thought of as alienating the rights of religion.

Branding a religious belief as the cause of mental illness is a dangerous move.

So the people would be undiagnosed.

I never fully accepted ET.  It bothered me since I was a believer.  But, I tried to accept it because I was told that is the only option.  In my heart I knew it made no sense.