What About Demon Possession Today?<\/a><\/p>\nPeople commonly look for mystical, spiritual answers for matters they can’t explain. Perhaps they are right at times but too often they overlook the simple explanations. You have been involved in drugs and alcohol. The reason drugs are illegal is that they are known to damage the brain and cause various forms of mental illness. Sadly, rather than running from the drugs too many people try to use them to escape the craziness that those same drugs cause and they spiral out of control. They never stay sober long enough for their brains to heal.<\/p>\n
The “voices” in your head are you “overhearing” the communication going on between various parts of your mind due to short-circuits caused by your drug usage. They are particularly disturbing because these are your thoughts so it is hard to separate out what is real and what is coming from a miscommunication.<\/p>\n
Prayer and listening to familiar and calming music help because they are directing your mind back to God’s truths and helping you focus on what is real. However, be careful not to make them into rituals. A ritual becomes a “lucky charm,” much like having a lucky hat to wear at a baseball game. A ritual doesn’t solve the problem. Listening to music will calm your mind, but you will still have to deal with sorting out your thoughts from the pop-up thoughts.<\/p>\n
Just realize that a thought that you don’t like doesn’t mean you are a bad person. You are being tempted and we deal with temptation by overcoming them. You know which thoughts are wrong, so leave them in the discard pile of useless thoughts. Don’t go digging through the trash to scold yourself for ever having the thought in the first place.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you, Jeffrey,<\/p>\nI truly appreciate your biblical and thoughtful responses. You have been a blessing to me.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Questions: Hello, I was flipping through the pages of a small book filled with handwritten verses loved ones made for me when I was in the psychiatric hospital. I still read through it from time to time, and tonight I found a small piece of paper tucked in a hard-to-notice spot. It’s in my mom’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[685,508,235],"class_list":["post-21242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-demons","tag-mental-illness","tag-satan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-answer-some-questions-about-satan-and-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":0},"title":"Can you answer some questions about Satan and Hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As I understand it, Satan was an angel who was cast out of heaven into the depths of hell. Did God create hell? Does Satan rule hell? Is hell a place? Is Satan just one person, or being, or are there many who help him? If Satan was cast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31276,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-go-to-church-when-i-have-a-schizoaffective-disorder\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":1},"title":"How can I go to church when I have a schizoaffective disorder?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found your website recently and have been uplifted by your responses to the questions under the mental health topic. So I decided to ask you one too. I have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. I've had severe symptoms for over ten years, starting at the age of 40.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2376,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/marijuana-and-mental-illness\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":2},"title":"Marijuana and Mental Illness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Source:\u00a0Alex Berenson, \"Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence,\" Imprimis, vol. 48, no. 1, Jan 2019 \"They've told you marijuana has many different medical uses. In reality marijuana and THC, its active ingredient, have been shown to work only in a few narrow conditions. They are most commonly prescribed for pain relief.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32583,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-god-speak-in-a-still-small-voice-today-if-he-wanted-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":3},"title":"Could God speak in a still small voice today if He wanted to?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was baptized for the remission of sins about a year ago and became part of the church of Christ.\u00a0 I wanted to know if it was still possible to hear God's voice audibly or as a small inner voice speaking gently.\u00a0 I know that we no longer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39879,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-married-a-girl-with-a-mental-illness-would-my-children-inherit-her-problems\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":4},"title":"If I married a girl with a mental illness, would my children inherit her problems?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here is my question to you about my ex. She behaves like a child sometimes when she gets happy, stressed, angry, etc. During this phase, her behavior changes. She makes me play with her and makes an imaginary world around her like birds flying and acting like rabbits. She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81895,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-mental-illness-a-spiritual-or-physical-condition\/","url_meta":{"origin":21242,"position":5},"title":"Is mental illness a spiritual or physical condition?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! I am very grateful to God for having found your site, and I have been learning a lot. What I like most is that your answers are teachings from the Bible and not just your own opinion. May God continually bless you,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}