GoodNews

(BUFXBZ#MWE 4VJUF #PZOUPO#FBDI'- In January 2015, the HuffPost ran an article by Carolyn Gregoire, “Feelings Of Guilt During Childhood Linked To Mental Illness.” To quote: “Excess guilt is a known symptom of adult de- pression, but a new study finds that such feelings in childhood can predict future mental illness, including de- pression, anxiety, obsessive- compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder. The link seems to center around the anterior insula - a brain re- gion involved in the regula- tion of perception, emotion and self-awareness that has also been linked to mood dis- orders, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia According to the researchers, children who displayed signs of pathologi- cal guilt had anterior insula of less volume, which is associ- ated with depression.” Could there be a corre- lation between the amount of guilt in a person’s life and mental illness? This is not to say all mental illness is caused by guilt. But perhaps a large amount of mental ill- ness could be eliminated by teaching people how to properly remove guilt from their life. Casestudy-KingSaul An ancient king of the nation of Israel, King Saul, would serve as a classic ex- ample of just such a prob- lem. He was given an assignment by God to totally wipe out theAmalekite nation and their king in 1 Samuel 15 and 16. He only partially obeyed the assignment. This was not the first time he ma- nipulated things to exalt his will above God’s. God had enough of the games and sent the prophet Samuel to confront Saul. He was to tell Saul the kingdom had been stripped from him and given to another and why. Samuel delivered the message. Saul’s response is an il- lustration of a common re- sponse to guilt when people don’t want to own their wrongs. He blamed others and tried spiritualizing his answer. None of it flew with God. God told him point blank, “To obey is better than sacrifice” – an iconic line. When all the manipula- tion failed, Saul even tried saying the right words, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the command- ment of the Lord.” This sounded like a correct re- sponse, but Saul’s later ac- tions would prove his heart was not sincere. In thinking we can manip- ulate God or others, we only hurt ourselves. Once Samuel departed from Saul to never see or speak to him again, the guilt set in. The Bible says it this way: “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” Studying the words harmful and tormented reveal the idea of a person tormented by sadness, grief, anger, depression, fear and anxiety. This mental condition stayed with him throughout his life and only got worse. It made him paranoid and irra- tional in his thinking and de- cision making. The only thing that seemed to help him at all was music therapy played by David, the future king who would replace him. The fail- ure of Saul to properly deal Is Guilt And Mental Illness Linked? Dr. John Hawkins, Sr. Gateway Counseling Center Palm Beach County