"My Christian parents say psychiatry is demonic and I should just rebuke the spirits causing my mental illness."
How it sounds in your head: They keep telling me it's spiritual warfare, not a chemical imbalance. If I see a psychiatrist, they'll be disappointed and think I'm opening myself to demons. Maybe they're right.
"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise."
-- Proverbs 12:15Source: religion - extreme deliverance theology that demonizes mental health professionals and leaves the sick trapped between spiritual abuse and untreated illness.
Your parents' faith is important to you, and they genuinely believe they're protecting you from demonic influence. Their certainty makes you doubt your own need for professional help.
Daniel and his friends were trained in Babylonian literature, language, and wisdom - the secular education of their time. God gave them knowledge and skill in this learning, and they became ten times better than all the pagan magicians and astrologers, showing God USES secular education.
I REFUSE the lie that psychiatry is demonic. IT IS WRITTEN that heeding wise counsel is wisdom, not compromise. God gave Daniel skill in secular learning, and He gives psychiatrists skill in brain chemistry. My mental health struggles are not always spiritual warfare - sometimes they're biology, and God provides doctors for that. IT IS WRITTEN that I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and that includes the blessing of medical professionals who can help me. I honor my parents, but I also honor the mind God gave me to seek help.
Your Father isn't offended by psychiatry - He INVENTED the human brain! He's running toward you with the psychiatrist's number in one hand and His healing touch in the other, desperate for you to get WELL by whatever means works, because your wholeness is His obsession.