Just in the past few months, after reading your book and some others that are similar  (one being John Ankerberg's booklet -- The Facts On Self-Esteem, Psychology, and the Recovery Movement), with great difficulty, I RENOUNCED the world system of psychology… I HAD to renounce it as it was totally wrecking my life, and I never knew what was wrong with me until I read Ankerberg's booklet and then the more thorough study in your book.

Then God told me to read the entire Bible ASAP. Yes, I've read it clear through before, and I study it with the use of… Bible study booklets each day, but God told me to read the entire Bible, ASAP. So, on my 2 week Christmas vacation from my teaching job, I read ALL of the New Testament and then started at Psalm 106 and made it through Lamentations. Since then, I've finished through Malachi and this past week I read Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and have nearly finished Job, then I'll finish through Psalm 105 and go back to Genesis and read through the Chronicles before reading the New Testament again. Through all of this GOD has brought complete healing of my life, turned it upside down, and 180 degrees in the opposite direction, all in less than a month. All of the mental illness stuff has GONE, and I'm FREE for the first time in my life! This has all just happened since I started my Bible reading around Dec. 18th! I'm a totally different person.

For most of my life I was in deep depression, mental difficulties, and often suicidal. I was hospitalized for this stuff twice. I've been diagnosed everything you can imagine, including schizophrenia (NOT true!), bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, and had many characteristics of multiple personality disorder.

What happened to me -- much of it is due to starting reading psychology at age 11 or 12 and from there getting into the occult stuff that psychology naturally leads into, which I renounced when I became a Christian. But I seemed to develop one mental disorder after another as I studied psychology. I wanted to become a child psychologist as I'm very good with children.

My interest in psychology was probably due to all the turmoil in our family as I would read about this stuff in psychology, and at least that helped explain to me what was going on in our family and it helped me know why I felt suicidal and darkly depressed at such a young age. Psychology was my comfort. Somehow it led briefly into occultic stuff, nothing overly deep -- just stuff like ESP, trying to contact spirit guides, reading witchcraft books, etc. And all this stuff comforted me and kept me out of the fray of all the fighting in our home. I basically just lived in my own little world in my room, becoming a total social recluse…

BUT, reading the psychology actually worsened [the situation] because it made me focus on this stuff, and I probably became a psychological hypochondriac, imagining I had every mental "disease" they talked about. I also learned to use this to get love and attention from others, the stuff I was not getting from my family as they were too busy fighting and my Mom was too busy constantly belittling me.

At age 25… I had a mental breakdown. I took on a lot of the characteristics of illnesses I read about in the psychology books -- and this is where great harm came to me from psychology… I ended up being hospitalized on 2 different occasions when I was 25 years old. I was forcibly drugged and diagnosed schizophrenic. I wasn't -- I was faking it! I was also acting like a very young child -- partly faking and partly fearing growing up and being on my own after leading such an isolated, sheltered, over-protected life. I have been drugged with more than I could remember, including thorazine, mellaril, halidol, loxitane, and probably a whole slew more. Halidol was the worst. It's physical effects are just pure torture. I was suicidal constantly and in deep, deep, dark depressions and my thoughts were what psychology would call psychotic.

As far as klonopin, I was put on that by a psychiatrist… when I was diagnosed bipolar. But after 16 1/2 years on it (and about 8 tries to get off of it!), my body just could no longer handle it. I was 52 years old at the time, and the klonopin was causing all kinds of physical effects on me, such as problems with my heartbeat, migraine headaches, leg pains, muscle weakness, etc. I didn't know the klonopin was the culprit until I managed to get loose from it. I probably would have died if I had continued on that drug. But God led me to get off of it, and this time I was successful.

The story of the withdrawal is just horrendous. I went totally crazy and I have several pages of withdrawal effects -- including depersonalization (feeling people aren't real), derealization (lack of connection to reality), electric shocks in my brain (was very severe!), muscle spasms, loss of memory, loss of concentration, insomnia (so severe at first -- I was awake entire nights!), panic attacks, feeling that my voice was 2 feet in front of me when speaking, severe feelings of pressure on my head, feelings of shaking inside and out, feelings of worms under my scalp (very severe), obsessions with certain people (this was terrible and destructive!), and a whole lot more. You get the idea. It's horrible to withdraw from a benzodizepine, and most people are UNABLE to do this… It was God that got me off this horrendous drug! It took me a full 2 years to completely get over the withdrawal effects of klonopin. I've now been off of it for 2 1/2 years.

Having majored in psychology, gotten all that graduate training, and also having been through the mental health system, with some Christian counselors and some not, I AGREE with your book entirely. It is the truth. And psychology hurts people. It bound me so tight I would not have gotten loose without Ankerberg's booklet, then YOURS, and the BIBLE!

It's been a long struggle with some very severe emotional behavior, panic attacks, reverting into a little girl, suicide threats, etc. All the things the world labels bipolar or even psychotic at times. BUT, praise the LORD, reading the Bible for the past month has brought an incredible healing and turnaround in my life.

I RENOUNCED psychology as I could see all the harm it brought to me -- through the labels it put on me. That was the major harm. AND, I also made the CHOICE (decison) to LET GO of all the labels psychology had put on me and I had put on myself, all the behavior I had put on myself from reading psychology, and I made a decision to BE WELL! Jesus told the paralytic to take up his bed and walk. I DID. I got up out of the mental sick bed, and I WALKED -- with the LORD! And this is what I meant by my new walk with the Lord, not that I just became a Christian. I have been a Christian since about 1969 or thereabouts. But, I am now WALKING in a new mental HEALTH, and the Lord is fighting the battle for me…

Once I came out of the psychology bondage, I NO LONGER felt guilty and worthless. God gave me an identity in Jesus Christ -- a good one. I do not feel cheated. I feel He will use this experience to help others as I get stronger.

Yes, the Bible says that in that last days, men will be lovers of them SELVES! This is very profound -- that is totally opposite of what a Christian should be like, and yes, psychology and psychotherapy have made it creep into the church and it seems to be acceptable in every church I've attended. I don't know what happened to good old-fashioned repentance for sin and dying to self, taking up one's cross, and following Jesus. Any more it seems to be all about improving SELF, rather than forgetting self and serving others. I am struggling a lot with this, having been so steeped in psychology. I know that the mark of a Christian is letting go of self so that God can work in one's life to serve Him and others, not to serve self and feel good. Serving God won't feel good all the time as there are battles to fight and there is persecution. But, as God shows me and helps me, this is what I know is right and good and best in the long run, even though feeling good may feel better in the short run. But, since I'm 54 and have not seen any good thing come out of serving self and trying to feel good, I am renouncing all that and following Jesus and His Words to me in the Bible. I am reading the Bible 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day. My goal is to read the Bible 3 to 5 times this year.

I think the church needs to do as much as possible for people in mental distress, and it is so unfortunate that they are, for the most part, condemning. I'm not even sure why this is, as the Bible is full of people that were a total mess, and God had the answer every single time! So, why isn't the church helping people? I think they are afraid if they are not a professional counselor that they can't do it. But all it takes is people who know the Word of God, who have the sincere heart to help and even mentor someone if necessary…, and it doesn't even take up that much of their time. And how much better than for people to go to counselors and therapists who put labels on them and actually INCREASE their problems by doing this and getting them focusing on self instead of the Lord. And what I needed was just someone who cares and was undaunted by the problems I presented.

I am really glad that you and Lisa are trying to get the word out about psychology and its extreme harm to Christian people. People honestly don't get this at all. I sure do, just like you two. I absolutely get it, and I want no part of psychology and its self-worship in my life! After listening to your CD, I did some research on Carl Jung -- ugh -- really bad stuff to be basing entire personality tests on. Yes, I've taken the Meyers-Briggs tests numerous times in various churches, and I come out DIFFERENT every time, depending on how I feel that day. It's sad that people base their lives on this kind of thing or even take it seriously. On a more serious note, I've taken the MMPI 4 or 5 times, AND I come out differently on that one every time too and the built in lie scale shows I did not lie any of the times! So, what's the deal here! It just means one does not base their lives on this stuff at all.

I didn't realize how closely tied to the occult that personality theories and tests were. I renounced my involvement in occult stuff when I became a Christian -- or so I thought. I had no idea much of psychology was the same thing! It makes my skin crawl to think about it. And it bound me just the same, even though I was unaware of why I was so bound and could not overcome all of my mental problems. But praise God, I've been free for nearly a month now.

I really appreciate the work you two are doing. You are right on target, and I know this from personal experience! The next step -- how to get churches to respond to the threat from psychology which creates self-worship and start mentoring people and helping people Biblically, which is just the opposite. I agree -- Christian help should be FREE. But, I do not condemn professional Christian counselors… who make a living doing it. It's not a perfect world. In the ideal, all Christian help should be free. But since the churches aren't doing it, at least there are some good Biblical counselors out there…, and yes they do charge. But, unlike other therapists, [they] lead you away from self and towards Jesus and denying self. 

Bottom line -- this psychology stuff is part of the last days when men are lovers of themselves! That's my take on it. And thank God, He has rescued me out of it!

I just wanted to tell you what a GREAT impact your book, Psychology Debunked, has been on my life. It has been a part of setting me free!

NK, Internet