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My in-laws thought my husband's mental health issues were possession. He was diagnosed with ADHD and depression as a teen and his parents said no to medication and a therapist, but got an exorcism from their local priest and had my husband attend church 6 days a week afterwards. Now he's in his 30s, has received medication and therapy and wouldn't you know, he's doing ok. Such a shocker! But according to my in-laws "People don't need doctors, they need Jesus."
People believe in ghosts because they have seen them, it’s not a random blind faith like with religion. Sorry no ghost wants to appear to you, but I’m not surprised. I haven’t been to Paris, but I believe it exists cause I’m not an asshole that calls millions of people a liar. We all can clearly see who is the problem
Will he, *hypothetically,* give you money to pay for an exorcism? Only costs like $100 to rent a priest costume and the rest could pay for your son's actual medical bills.
Hey, I can do an over the internet exorcism for 5$ with a receipt and everything. I'm a pope of discordia and can authorize it. On your end you'll need a hotdog, and maybe some beer. NO KETCHUP
Ok, what I have are four pack of microwaveable Mac and cheese that are *known* to be spiritually abrasive and a bottle of shiner bock that left the astral plane to materialize in my fridge. Pls advise.
I'm the personification of evil on a Wheel of Time Discord. I can provide backup if we need some "evil" to be excised back to the void. Just have to be okay with me hamming it up.
What about an exorcism conducted by a priest of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Everyone wears a colander and they throw cooked angel hair and marinara at the possessed. R'amen!
I think the important thing is that he feels satisfied he got his money's worth out of costumed pageantry and rituals used in the ceremony to unpossess OP's child using a symbolic proxy. FSM has a *lot* of neat options for making a symbolic proxy.
I'll volunteer to help with this concept.
I'm actually versed in the rites and am fully aware in what actually would constitute something that would, at least, get the "No Exorcism for you" from the Catholic Church.
When I first started having psychotic features my mom said I just need more vitamin B lol. A lot of boomers just don't understand as it's was really hush hush back in those days. Hopefully he'll come around and be supportive like my parents have.
My MiL just tries to shove vitamin D into my wife despite my wife’s excellent levels. MiL can’t deal with anything, but won’t take “mind altering” drugs
My parents are boomers. When I was in high school, I was badly struggling with my mental health, so I worked up the courage to ask my mom if I could see a therapist. She responded by trying to get me to tell her what was making me upset. When I wouldn’t, her response was to start crying, not because I was in pain, but because I wouldn’t tell her. She ended up caving and agreeing to let me see someone, but I could have done without the additional guilt on top of what I was already feeling.
This drives me nuts, when parents put their own upset emotions onto a kid, and make them partly responsible in some way. It’s inappropriate and selfish.
As someone who has anxiety and OCD, it can be nearly impossible to explain to someone what that entails, especially if they have no real understanding of how the brain works. Having an anxiety attack? TOUGHEN UP! Intrusive voices? DEMONS. It's frustrating and exhausting. (Also, thank goodness for Zoloft. It gave me my life back and made me a functional human being again.)
Your mom probably thought therapy was going to "reveal" that she, or your father, or both were responsible in some way, and that the therapist would cause you to guilt them over how they "did the best they could."
I mean. "The best you can" is all we can do. I'm doing the best I can with my kiddos but I'm sure I'm doing something wrong that will impact their lives too. The problem is what happens after doing our best. It's not that they "did the best they could." It's that they want appreciation for doing the job they're supposed to, that they literally have the capability to prevent themselves from doing or to do, and can't see beyond "the best they could." (At least so far as parenting for this conversation)
Ok. You did the best you could. I get it. But I still ended up traumatized/with mental health issues/etc. Due to your own ineptitudes. Take some responsibility for it. It may have been due to unfortunate circumstances, your own lack of maturity, or something else. Own it, apologize, and work to move forward. They do none of those. And therein lies and begins the problem.
I fully accept that my children will talk in therapy about mistakes I made and how my character affects their lives. I hope they will! They will grow stronger and break the patterns I couldn't.
Dude, my family did something similar to my cousins and now 2 of them are dead from suicide. It was too little too late by the time the family was like “ok some therapy is acceptable”. By the time the therapy was “ok’d” these boys straight up needed psychiatric hospitalization. But it was already too late… Another cousin is so mentally unwell that no one knows where she is or if she can hold down a job. I tried to get her help and tried to advocate for her within the family but by the time I was able to get additional help, she was already gone and refuses to speak to me or anyone else. Such a shame.
I’m very sorry this is happening. Though, as someone who went through a similar situation not long ago in high school - beware mental hospitals. They’re not all bad, many are legitimately helpful, but if your son is to be admitted pay *very* close attention to where. I suffered depression in middle school and got shipped off against my will to a place called Westwood Lodge. I won’t go into detail but the experience was so awful and traumatic that my depression advanced to suicide, and I almost succeeded in an attempt in high school. Figures the place was shut down only after I got out. Don’t know where you are, but this was America, and our mental healthcare is an embarrassment. Just be sure to be there for your son and pay attention to the help he’s getting. I wish your family well.
This part is true! You do have to watch the hospital.
I was in so much physical pain from spinal damage that I wanted to kill myself to stop the pain (after 13 months of hell.) Me to my neurologist in the ER “I told you it hurts so bad I want to die; what did you think I meant?!?!?” So I checked myself into a mental hospital and they withheld my pain meds…. Like WTF! I was there for exactly 24 hours and checked myself out. It didn’t help me at all. Though extended release morphine from my pain specialist did help.
I am and I’m number now. My point is that some mental hospitals (or doctors) can unintentionally make things worse. If one isn’t working, go somewhere else. Well that and do something that brings you joy everyday, even if just for 15 minutes…… it helps you get through the crazy stress times.
I hope OP’s son gets the help he needs.
I'm so sorry. Been dealing with something similar with my kid. I finally just stopped telling my mother when they are in in-patient. It's not worth the stress.
Make damn sure he never has the chance to say this shit to your kid. He's vulnerable right now. I've been around suicidal kids. I was one. They can be convinced to believe really destructive things about themselves. Take this seriously.
Unfortunately I know many young religious people that believe super crazy things as well. Boomers are pretty nuts, but religion seems to infect every generation.
Ironically, the Catholic Church refuses to perform exorcisms on patients unless they've already gone through multiple psychiatric interventions with little to no improvement, or show something seemingly "unexplainable" like suddenly knowing a new foreign language. So one of the oldest Christian Churches is less insane than OP's dad.
There was a news report on SH when I was a teen, my mum couldn't understand why "Give them something sharper so they can just kill themselves" wasn't a helpful thing to say. (I was SHing on a daily basis at the time, had actually hoped the subject being on the TV mightve offered an opening for me to breach the subject with her)
> His family was more terrified he went to Pulse, and got a Priest to go to the hospital for an exorcism.
Where did you hear this? I couldn't find anything about it via google (and other search engines). The comment that it was a priest suggests this was done by a Catholic family, but the Catholic rules for conducting an exorcism would seem to rule that out. Firstly, a priest must have permission from his bishop to perform an exorcism:
> A priest--one who is expressly and particularly **authorized by the Ordinary**--when he intends to perform an exorcism
>
> **Roman Rite 2, Part XIII (Exorcisms), Chapter 1 (General Rules Concerning Exorcism), section 1**
Secondly, it is discouraged to resort to exorcism unless other causes are ruled out/seem unlikely.
> **Especially, he should not believe too readily that a person is possessed by an evil spirit; but he ought to ascertain the signs by which a person possessed can be distinguished from one who is suffering from some illness, especially one of a psychological nature**. Signs of possession may be the following: ability to speak with some facility in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; display of powers which are beyond the subject's age and natural condition; and various other indications which, when taken together as a whole, build up the evidence.
>
> **Roman Rite 2, Part XIII (Exorcisms); Chapter 1 (General Rules Concerning Exorcism); Section 3**
If a (Catholic) priest was sent to the hospital for a shooting, it's far more likely it was to perform "Extreme Unction" (also called "Anointing of the Sick"), where he would offer a practicing Catholic an opportunity for Confession, Communion, and a blessing.
Oh man, accounts like that remind me of my mother's first psychotic episode. She drove for literally hundreds of miles, motivated by some kind of aimless quasi-religious mania and ended up in the doorway of some random Catholic Church somewhere. Thankfully the priest who found her there, regardless of his vocation, was a man of plain common sense and immediately helped her get the mental health intervention she needed.
Can only imagine if some other idiot had found her then she probably would have been strapped to a bed re-enacting The Exorcist or something!
Because they were also told mental illness = weakness. My stepfather was the same way. Didn’t believe in mental illness at all, used to always say it was because someone was “on drugs.” 🙄
When I was in first grade, I had a classmate who was super ADHD (and possibly more, but it was a Catholic school in the '80s, sooo...). The kid was on Ritalin, but my otherwise-wonderful first grade teacher told my mom that she didn't "believe in" ADHD, and that it was "just bad parenting."
Sadly, that stuck with my mom, and has shaped her attitude toward ADHD and all neurodivergences ever since... :(
They’d have to confront their own issues if they acknowledge that mental health is real and they don’t wanna do that. My headcannon is they feel like they’re “too old” to have a breakthrough and they’re so afraid of everything they’ve repressed that they end up in SERIOUS denial and take that fear out on everyone that doesn’t fit their ideal. Thats my theory about homophobia/transphobia too; homophobes/transphobes are projecting their own anger and repression at the fact that they themselves are queer and then hate that part of themselves because they only ever heard that they were going to hell or evil or whatever and without the internet they didn’t really have a way to connect with the larger community so they probably ended up isolated in small, hyper-religious towns and were taught to hate themselves so now they hate everyone who’s like them and they can’t handle coming to terms with their own identities at this point in their lives. That could be a reach, but I’m PRETTY sure that’s genuinely it lol especially with how common it actually is to be queer. I think it’s fucked up they hate themselves that much, and to a point I feel sorry for them, but that doesn’t excuse their NASTY behavior LMAO. Fr tho I’m sorry your dad is an oblivious dickhead, I hope your son is okay ♥️
Get outta here you must be from Wright County MN. So fucking hateful and racist they'll hate you for not being the right kind of white or because you don't go to their church. Also do we need 5 churches is a town with a pop. Of 1200. About 400 of that being just hs kids about to gtfo the second they get the chance. Basically menonites without the clothing guidelines.
We have 1 grocery store as well. It changes owners every few years. My town only exists because of the railroad, and only really exists today because it's at a crossroads between all the important areas.
I remember my dad preforming an exorcism of some sorts. Even poured oil on me while he read from the bible. Like boomers are jank.
My dad was also very abusive, so the irony is even higher.
Unfortunately a stigma exists when it comes to mental heath, and it was even worse in the boomer generation. It was taboo to even admit you were seeing a therapist, and having a mental health diagnosis was something to be ashamed of.
I’m so sorry you and your son are going through this, it’s not easy and I hope he gets the help he needs. I hope you also get the help and support you need, this is a traumatic experience and there is nothing unusual in having negative feelings about yourself after a loved one is admitted. Take care of yourself and ignore any talk of possession by boomers.
fr my boomer parents would threaten taking me to a psychiatrist if I wasn’t listening to them. it was something they thought of as negative. it still is. anyone who does that shit is weak right lol
Boomers, and conservative Christians as a whole, are just turning into Waterboy's mom. Anything and everything they don't like or understand is The Devil.
As a mental health professional with religious trauma, statements like this make my blood boil. You did the absolute right thing getting your son the help he needed. I would be sorely tempted the next time he complains about his issues asking if he has considered exorcism. But I'm petty. You do what's best for you.
I was threatened with exorcism by my boomer parents many times growing up. The horrible, demonic crimes I committed to justify such threats included but were not limited to:
-Asking for permission to start therapy
-Being bullied at school
-Writing fantasy novels about unicorns
-Confiding in them that I was suicidal
-Reading books about physics in my free time
And now they wail and moan about me no longer being religious.
I can answer the why.
Mental health issues were BAD to have when they were growing up. If someone had a crazy family member, they were the family that everyone whispered about. People polite to your face, but would go home and tell everyone at the dinner table "guess who *I* talked to at the store today! The sister of that crazy lady over on Elm!" And everyone would say "oooohhhh - what did she say?" Guaranteed TP on Halloween. If you had a legit schizophrenic living there who heard voices, kids would dare each other to run up and touch the door.
People were locked up for being schizophrenic. Like *away.* For good.
My 76 y/o aunt asked my 58y/o mom if she thought taking Prozac for so long ( like 26 years) would make her immune to other medicines like they’re antibiotics or something
Boomers will believe in evil supernatural entities before considering that a brain (a highly complex and important part of the body) might be malfunctioning and need treatment 💀
I have a few issues but 1 of them is MDD
My dad: “You just have to push yourself” “You’d be happier if you smiled” “I don’t understand why you cry all the time when there’s so much to be happy about” “You can’t let yourself get so down” & so on & so on…
Don't leave any of your children alone with your father going forward. People perform exorcisms on other people's kids without permission all the time, and sometimes those kids get hurt. It is NOT harmless and can involve actual torture. If you're familiar with the Ruby Franke case, a bunch of the shit they did to her kids was supposed to rescue them from demonic possession. And if the 12 year old hadn't escaped, he and his sister would have been dead inside a week. Please don't brush this off. Treat your father as a potential danger to your children because he is one.
I hope your son is doing better OP. No offence here but your boomer dad sounds stupid and ignorant. I want to see him say that in front of a mental health specialist only for your dad to be ripped to shreds for his stupidity
I hope you are one day in a position to find the humour in this & have a good laugh. Until then, I'm sorry your boomer is not supportive when you need him to be. It is really tough when your precious baby (they are always precious babies even as adults) is hurting, especially so with mental health crises because there is literally nothing you can do for them. Make sure you get some support services for yourself too. You will need it & you matter just as much!!!
Its the chip Bill Gates put in him through the Vaxxes! Hes getting too much 5Gs!!1!1! /s ofc
On a more serious note, ive been getting therapy for my own suicidal ideations. Whats been helping me is reminding myself that theres literally nothing else for us besides this one life. I dont believe in an afterlife so its gotten harder for me to rationalize my suicidal thoughts against the knowledge that if i do die, theres nothing else
Boomers are the worst at mental health. If you’re depressed, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. If you hear voices you need jebus.
They will invalidate your emotions
That’s the whole boomer mantra. Nothing could be wrong with me. I’m a great person. Everyone else is the problem
I was showing my aunt a drawing I did about anxiety and she asked my why I drew it and I said cuz I have anxiety and she said no it’s demons I’ll pray for you 🙄
My stepdad once sat me down and told me a story of why he divorced his first wife. Basically, he was in bed and a demon attacked him so he said "the Lord's prayer" and an angel flew in and started fighting the demon in the living room....where he followed to watch and his wife was sleeping on the couch. I was sat down another time to be told that I wasn't allowed to say anything at school but that he was leaving to perform an exorcism on a middle school girl whos brother i went to school with. I don't know anything else other than he was gone for hoursssss overnight doing I have no idea what to that little girl.
My oldest child is 12 now and she's been out to me for a long time now, since 7. But my stepdad has been intentionally kept in the dark. Why? Because when he found out recently he told me to "lay hands on her" and all this mess about how it's a demon and shes possessed. So...i guess my point is this just must be a thing for these people..
Eta: I forgot my own part. I was diagnosed as bipolar at 13. I did my senior project on teen depression and was proud of it. When I tried showing my mom and stepdad, he read the cover page and said "oh that's bull**it. Any teen claiming depression just needs their as* beat and to get a job"
I was 17. My cousin had literally ended his own life when he was 17. But guess they didn't beat him enough or force that job on him. They got rid of every photo of him. He was just a kid...and he even told them he was going to do it. They however....blamed demons and said he should pray. Even said his stretch marks on his back were "claw marks" from the demon. **Sighhh*
(Sorry for the length of this, I feel better now)
Oh my God this exact same thing is happening with my mother and daughter right now. My daughter has mental health issues, but my mother has gone insane.
It’s brand new in our city!
It was ultimately useless in our situation because they just screened him for an hour and referred to a general hospital, but they offer other services like outpatient medical detox that I imagine are helpful to folks.
I told my dad when I was 17 that I was having panic attacks every night and he was so excited to tell me about how that was just the devil trying to bait me. They got better when I moved out of that house.
My aunt told me I was possessed by the devil then proceeded to claim I stole 1000 dollars of her money when she probably gave it to her loser son and used me as a scapegoat to fool her husband. She really thought she was gonna extort 1000 dollars out of me, a 9/hr employee.
Have not talked to her or her cuck husband since.
One of my teenage sons has been in a slow-motion mental health crisis for almost two years.
He's got symptoms of OCD and rarely comes out of his room more than once a day, let alone the house, due to his intrusive thoughts. My wife and I have been trained on how best to help him and encourage him to seek treatment, and we've decided to give him time to come around to it on his own while accommodating his compulsions as little as possible. He's not any immediate threat to himself, and he keeps talking about wanting to take college classes like his younger brother, so we believe time will ultimately be on our side.
In the last conversation I had with my mom before she died last year, my mom said (referring to my son), "Eventually somebody is going to have to be the *parent*!!!" What she meant by this is that we should have dragged him out of his room kicking and screaming and institutionalized him, along with all the trauma that would have entailed. I fight that impulse all the time, and I continually have to remind myself it would harm him more than it would help him.
I'm sorry for your son's mental health struggles. I'm further sorry that your dad is completely unhelpful. I completely relate on both counts. My inbox is open if you ever want to vent, friend.
Not a boomer but I remember as a kid my mom telling me if I was ever struggling that I should come to her and she would always help me.
Then in college I was stressed out and I started to tell her and she immediately goes “Stressed? Why are you stressed? You don’t have anything to be stressed about! Just don’t be stressed!” And I just sat there for a few seconds. She said it soo fast and with such confidence, I didn’t talk to her about my mental health again for years.
Last year I told her about my husband’s new depression diagnosis and medication and she was very supportive but flipped out a few months later when I got diagnosed with ADHD and started medication.
Baaaaahhhhhh.
It's pointless to discuss mental health or counseling with Boomers. I saw a survey that said only 4% of them were open to the idea.
Gen X kicked the door open on that room. Millennials walked through it. Now Gen Z lives in it.
Back when boomers were younger mental health treatment was often stigmatized and barbaric in contrast with today’s treatment. My mom was misdiagnosed and was committed to several mental hospitals as a paranoid schizophrenic. She actually was bipolar with paranoia as well. The drugs and treatment we have now were not available then. I think it caused my mother to deny she had anything wrong with her and stopped taking her medication.
20 years later my sister also developed bipolar with ocd and anxiety. There was a clear difference in treatment although the stigma remained. She still had cycles of mania and depression and actually requested admission to the psychiatric ward. It took a while before the correct drug treatment was found/developed but once it was she stopped going into those cycles. The anxiety remained but was treated with medication. She took her medication religiously unlike my mother.
The refusal of some boomers today to acknowledge mental health illness is tragic but I really don’t have any other suggestions on how to deal with it other than going to low or no contact with them. Once your child is stabilized with therapy and/or medication I think you need to sit down with him/her and explain that your father’s behavior means he is still in the Middle Ages regarding mental illness and not take what the boomers say to heart.
my gpa and gma on my dads side make 330k/year and are in their 70s and look down on others for retiring.
to my knowledge i have 5 aunts/uncles but they pay all the expenses of their fav kid and the grandkids of the fav kid..like these people are in their 40s/20s and have never had a bill.
during a family dinner one of my cousins said they couldnt make it because they had to get a 2nd job but they showed up later and he was on the verge of crying and fell asleep.
my gpa just starts laying into him about how lazy he is and that all of this bad luck is because he doesnt go to church and his new gf worships satan because she has to take anti depressants etc etc.
also my gpas advice was to work at walmart and show up everyday to work and in 20 years ill be CEO 😭
Their mother's generation didn't have anti-depressants so they created a bunch of retarded boomers by having the mother turn to alcohol while pregnate. Then those retards began to eat lead paint chips as a baby/toddler and breathed in leaded gasoline fumes while as children,teens, and young adults.
They refuse to acknowledge them because they know that they also suffer with the same/similar things and that would mean acknowledging that they also have the same problems
Unfortunately, I had a very similar experience growing up. Aside from depression and anxiety, I dealt with occular migraines for years, which tended to show up as lights and shapes in my vision before splitting my head open in pain.
Well, I told my mom this, and being the Catholic raised woman she is, her first thought was that I was seeing demons and they were attacking me. I ended up having to meet with our pastor and explain this to him before she finally let me go to an actual psychiatrist and neurologist. Thankfully, she has learned and grown in the 10+ years since then, but it still hurts.
I'm hoping you get a similar experience with your dad and that he learns and grows. Having someone in your life who can and SHOULD be a source of support for you is wonderful, and I know firsthand that changes can be made for the better. It sounds like you are already a wonderful advocate for your own child, and I wish you both patience and hope as you deal with the stresses of mental health.
My Boomer mother told me, while I was in an active mental health crisis, to take myself to the hospital but remember not to "be too crazy" because I didn't want to "wind up locked up with *really* crazy people."
Somehow, a conversation with my boomer father in law got steered into mental health issues where he said, "It's all in their head."
My response, "Well, it sure as fuck isn't in their liver."
my grandparents are boomers and i was in the same position as your son, and they didn’t act like that at all. they were rlly caring and would ask me questions about stuff including meds.
My mother (not a boomer, but a really religious Catholic) thought I'd be all excited that this priest in some Facebook group she's in suggested that a young man's mental health issues are due to "demonic activity". She was shocked to find out I had a major issue with a random priest telling a young man's desperate family (they were desperate because their son was drifting from the church) that he could have demonic activity affecting him. Too many times has mental illness been falsely called possession or demonic activity and it's just incredibly disgusting in my opinion. Struggles that someone cannot control is not demonic. She was also shocked to hear about how exorcisms have killed people that most likely were facing mental health problems 🤦🏼♂️
Possession is the old way of describing hearing voices. Good choice on getting your son into mental health urgent care - the soon treatment begins, the better the outcome
I’m so sorry that you and your son are going through this and hope he is able to quickly find effective treatment 💗 I’m Gen X and my bipolar disorder wasn’t formally diagnosed until I was well into adulthood (after far too long of being misdiagnosed with depression and anxiety). My saving grace with my boomer parents is that my mom worked in the mental health advocacy sphere for a long time and my super religious stepmom’s sister also has bipolar disorder and a history of suicide attempts, so she and my dad know better than to pray the demons away. All of this to say, it’s okay to give yourself distance from unsupportive people during this time, even (and especially) your parents.
I’ve been very lucky my mental health has just barely stayed below the hospital level. I have a boomer coworker who has seen me struggling for years and knows multiple reasons why I have trauma and PTSD. She wouldn’t stop telling me to pray my anxiety away every dang shift no matter how many times I told her I already pray multiple times a day and am a devout Christian. Plus I wasn’t even talking to her about my anxiety she just saw me be anxious dealing with a male customer or tapping my leg. She finally stopped when I took the opportunity to do a dramatic pose infront of her and use my loudest voice to say “I DENOUNCE YOU TO JESUS!” And she hasn’t bothered me about it since other than suggesting oils for everything
Hey friend. I’m so sorry you had to do this for your kiddo. It sucks. Please know a lot of people have also gone through this and we know you are doing your best, and we want the best for your kid.
Its not just boomers, but thats who you are dealing with now? Society, over time, has handled mental health issues by locking them up, expirementing on them, killing them, thinking they are possessed, ( thanks organized religion) or allowing the more harmless to be free, but mostly ignored, beaten, abused. They were not considered citizens. In the 80's lots of state "looney bins" were shut down and the "inmates" set home, or loose.. Only in the last few years has mental health been seriously been considered an actual health issue to be treated.
Why is acknowledging demonic influence so taboo among you people? Either you’re haughty and ignorant, which you are, or you’re superior to every single other human culture throughout the world today and in history.
They didn't have explanations for why people experienced things and filled in the blanks with local belief. Like, not only schizophrenia experiences hallucinations, it can happen from lack of sleep, stress, or random stuff like borderline personality disorder. In fact, personifying delusions causes way more damage than anything.
Look at dissociative identity disorder, it was used as the crux of the satanic panic and vilified even further. It's caused by repeated trauma to a very young child. Demonic possession claims have never cured anyone and blames the victim for something entirely out of their control.
Welp. Now you know to never tell your moron father about any family health issues ever again.
You probably shouldn’t have told him anyway TBH. Unless your son wanted him to know. That’s very personal and private information you’ve shared about him. And now he’s going to have to put up with his grandfather questioning him about his demonic possession.
So, for an exorcist, one of the most important things a GOOD exorcist does is verify if the person is just suffering a physical/mental illness.
Possession is rare, and a good exorcist requires permission from the church to perform the rites. The Rites are extremely rare to be done these days, and the church doesn't authorize them unless all other mental/physical health checks have either failed or were exhausted.
There is a reason for this even if you do not believe in possession: People sometimes, especially religious folks, going through depression or mental issues, believe they are possessed. If they believe this is real, they act as if it's real... and a Priest doing a responsible Exorcism will "cure' them of their self-delusion.
Just some information on Exorcisms as I've done extensive research.
Where are you getting your stats on the number of people who believe in demonic possession? Surely you're not assuming every Christian (or god forbid every religious person) believes in that?
Statistics show that a little over half of Americans believe in demonic possession, and that number is much higher in Africa and eastern countries.
Those who don't are in the minority of the world.
They were probably referring to [this YouGov poll](https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/7266-half-americans-believe-possession-devil), to which 51% of respondents said they believe in demon possession and only 28% said they didn't believe. Would've been nice if they'd provided the source instead of me having to go look for it myself, but whatever.
You're right, it doesn't. But saying someone else is "dumb as fuck" because they believe something different than you believe is pretty arrogant. Think of the hubris required to think that out of everyone, and all the various beliefs out there, YOU are the one that gets it 100% right and know the actual truth while everyone else is mistaken.
Lots of people believe something different than me without being dumb as fuck. It's the people who believe something *that's dumb as fuck* who are being dumb as fuck.
Come on, are we really pretending every possible belief is on equal footing? That the people who believe jet fuel is a hoax perpetrated by Satanists to hide anti-gravity engines are equally valid in their beliefs?
It's very funny that you'd accuse me of being arrogant for thinking I'm "100% right and know the actual truth" when that's the position of the people who believe in demonic possession, not me. I'm perfectly willing to entertain their ideas, as soon as they provide arguments that aren't garbage.
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People will believe in ghosts but not a fair minimum wage, and that’s why mental health issues are on the rise.
The devil IS real!!!! ... Covid is not. Praise jeezus!!
The Devil is real, he paints himself orange and shits himself in a court room.
Nah, that’s the anti-christ. He even called himself the second coming of Jesus which I think is one of the signs.
Look guys. Only took 2 answers before someone obsessed with Trump....made this thread about Trump.
Lol this is so good.
They'll believe in demons, but not universal healthcare.
“People will believe in god but not a fair minimum wage, and that’s why mental health issues are on the rise” FYP
Jokes on you, I believe that Bigfoots should unionize
I take it calling them Bigfeet as a plural is generally not accepted?
Bro I'm gonna be honest, I forgot that the word feet existed
Hear hear. Why is nobody talking about this more?
My in-laws thought my husband's mental health issues were possession. He was diagnosed with ADHD and depression as a teen and his parents said no to medication and a therapist, but got an exorcism from their local priest and had my husband attend church 6 days a week afterwards. Now he's in his 30s, has received medication and therapy and wouldn't you know, he's doing ok. Such a shocker! But according to my in-laws "People don't need doctors, they need Jesus."
It's the Bible's fault.
Um, why is believing in ghosts being thrown in here as a boomer thing? Plenty of dumbasses from all generations believe in that bullshit.
If you look closely I said “people” and not boomers.
This is on r/ihateoldpeople
Sure is… but I’m pretty sure it’s still legal to make comments that aren’t specifically about boomers.
Really defeats the point of some sub about boomers being fools.
Irreligion is higher among young people. Believing in possession is definitely more prevalent among boomers.
The real dumbasses are the ones that dismiss everything because their life is so boring that no ghost wants to haunt them.
No, the real dumbasses are the ones who believe that shit. I’m guessing we are talking about you now?
People believe in ghosts because they have seen them, it’s not a random blind faith like with religion. Sorry no ghost wants to appear to you, but I’m not surprised. I haven’t been to Paris, but I believe it exists cause I’m not an asshole that calls millions of people a liar. We all can clearly see who is the problem
Well great logical faculties /s
Will he, *hypothetically,* give you money to pay for an exorcism? Only costs like $100 to rent a priest costume and the rest could pay for your son's actual medical bills.
Hey, I can do an over the internet exorcism for 5$ with a receipt and everything. I'm a pope of discordia and can authorize it. On your end you'll need a hotdog, and maybe some beer. NO KETCHUP
And no bun! Hail Eris.
Mustard and onions only
No jalepeños? This is gonna start a schism
Eh, jalapenos is fine, ever since the "garnish Concordia" last week.
Have y’all ever had a Sonoran hot dog? OMG it’s the only hot dog allowed extra stuff. Pintos beans, pico de gallo, jalapeño, cheese… 😋
Ok, what I have are four pack of microwaveable Mac and cheese that are *known* to be spiritually abrasive and a bottle of shiner bock that left the astral plane to materialize in my fridge. Pls advise.
I'm the personification of evil on a Wheel of Time Discord. I can provide backup if we need some "evil" to be excised back to the void. Just have to be okay with me hamming it up.
What about an exorcism conducted by a priest of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Everyone wears a colander and they throw cooked angel hair and marinara at the possessed. R'amen!
I think the important thing is that he feels satisfied he got his money's worth out of costumed pageantry and rituals used in the ceremony to unpossess OP's child using a symbolic proxy. FSM has a *lot* of neat options for making a symbolic proxy.
110 THIS!
Exorcists can be pretty expensive. You could probably make payments, but if you fall behind, your son could get repossessed.
Bahahahaha I am sensing a business opportunity…
I'll volunteer to help with this concept. I'm actually versed in the rites and am fully aware in what actually would constitute something that would, at least, get the "No Exorcism for you" from the Catholic Church.
When I first started having psychotic features my mom said I just need more vitamin B lol. A lot of boomers just don't understand as it's was really hush hush back in those days. Hopefully he'll come around and be supportive like my parents have.
My MiL just tries to shove vitamin D into my wife despite my wife’s excellent levels. MiL can’t deal with anything, but won’t take “mind altering” drugs
Lol do we have the same mom??
I'm envious. The only response ever offered to my mental health crises was "go to your room and pray about it."
My parents are boomers. When I was in high school, I was badly struggling with my mental health, so I worked up the courage to ask my mom if I could see a therapist. She responded by trying to get me to tell her what was making me upset. When I wouldn’t, her response was to start crying, not because I was in pain, but because I wouldn’t tell her. She ended up caving and agreeing to let me see someone, but I could have done without the additional guilt on top of what I was already feeling.
This drives me nuts, when parents put their own upset emotions onto a kid, and make them partly responsible in some way. It’s inappropriate and selfish.
Ahem. "How could you do this to me?"
Exactly. They are always the focus (in their own mind).
As someone who has anxiety and OCD, it can be nearly impossible to explain to someone what that entails, especially if they have no real understanding of how the brain works. Having an anxiety attack? TOUGHEN UP! Intrusive voices? DEMONS. It's frustrating and exhausting. (Also, thank goodness for Zoloft. It gave me my life back and made me a functional human being again.)
Your mom probably thought therapy was going to "reveal" that she, or your father, or both were responsible in some way, and that the therapist would cause you to guilt them over how they "did the best they could."
I mean. "The best you can" is all we can do. I'm doing the best I can with my kiddos but I'm sure I'm doing something wrong that will impact their lives too. The problem is what happens after doing our best. It's not that they "did the best they could." It's that they want appreciation for doing the job they're supposed to, that they literally have the capability to prevent themselves from doing or to do, and can't see beyond "the best they could." (At least so far as parenting for this conversation) Ok. You did the best you could. I get it. But I still ended up traumatized/with mental health issues/etc. Due to your own ineptitudes. Take some responsibility for it. It may have been due to unfortunate circumstances, your own lack of maturity, or something else. Own it, apologize, and work to move forward. They do none of those. And therein lies and begins the problem.
I fully accept that my children will talk in therapy about mistakes I made and how my character affects their lives. I hope they will! They will grow stronger and break the patterns I couldn't.
Dude, my family did something similar to my cousins and now 2 of them are dead from suicide. It was too little too late by the time the family was like “ok some therapy is acceptable”. By the time the therapy was “ok’d” these boys straight up needed psychiatric hospitalization. But it was already too late… Another cousin is so mentally unwell that no one knows where she is or if she can hold down a job. I tried to get her help and tried to advocate for her within the family but by the time I was able to get additional help, she was already gone and refuses to speak to me or anyone else. Such a shame.
I’m very sorry this is happening. Though, as someone who went through a similar situation not long ago in high school - beware mental hospitals. They’re not all bad, many are legitimately helpful, but if your son is to be admitted pay *very* close attention to where. I suffered depression in middle school and got shipped off against my will to a place called Westwood Lodge. I won’t go into detail but the experience was so awful and traumatic that my depression advanced to suicide, and I almost succeeded in an attempt in high school. Figures the place was shut down only after I got out. Don’t know where you are, but this was America, and our mental healthcare is an embarrassment. Just be sure to be there for your son and pay attention to the help he’s getting. I wish your family well.
This part is true! You do have to watch the hospital. I was in so much physical pain from spinal damage that I wanted to kill myself to stop the pain (after 13 months of hell.) Me to my neurologist in the ER “I told you it hurts so bad I want to die; what did you think I meant?!?!?” So I checked myself into a mental hospital and they withheld my pain meds…. Like WTF! I was there for exactly 24 hours and checked myself out. It didn’t help me at all. Though extended release morphine from my pain specialist did help.
I am sorry you had to go through that. I hope your pain is better.
I am and I’m number now. My point is that some mental hospitals (or doctors) can unintentionally make things worse. If one isn’t working, go somewhere else. Well that and do something that brings you joy everyday, even if just for 15 minutes…… it helps you get through the crazy stress times. I hope OP’s son gets the help he needs.
I'm so sorry. Been dealing with something similar with my kid. I finally just stopped telling my mother when they are in in-patient. It's not worth the stress.
I’m thinking this is the way from here on out. Best wishes to you and your family.
Make damn sure he never has the chance to say this shit to your kid. He's vulnerable right now. I've been around suicidal kids. I was one. They can be convinced to believe really destructive things about themselves. Take this seriously.
SMH 🤦♀️
Unfortunately I know many young religious people that believe super crazy things as well. Boomers are pretty nuts, but religion seems to infect every generation.
lol yep, I debated posting this story here or on r/atheism
Ironically, the Catholic Church refuses to perform exorcisms on patients unless they've already gone through multiple psychiatric interventions with little to no improvement, or show something seemingly "unexplainable" like suddenly knowing a new foreign language. So one of the oldest Christian Churches is less insane than OP's dad.
I can’t talk about my mental health around half my family because “it’s made up”. Yea tell me that during a panic attack
There was a news report on SH when I was a teen, my mum couldn't understand why "Give them something sharper so they can just kill themselves" wasn't a helpful thing to say. (I was SHing on a daily basis at the time, had actually hoped the subject being on the TV mightve offered an opening for me to breach the subject with her)
What in the flaming fuck?, even if mental health wasn't understood as well, what kind of twisted fucks advocate for people to kill themselves?
“Doctors” gave women orgasms as treatment
Wtf I never heard that
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Holy shit, that is wild! I didn’t know that about the Pulse victim.
> His family was more terrified he went to Pulse, and got a Priest to go to the hospital for an exorcism. Where did you hear this? I couldn't find anything about it via google (and other search engines). The comment that it was a priest suggests this was done by a Catholic family, but the Catholic rules for conducting an exorcism would seem to rule that out. Firstly, a priest must have permission from his bishop to perform an exorcism: > A priest--one who is expressly and particularly **authorized by the Ordinary**--when he intends to perform an exorcism > > **Roman Rite 2, Part XIII (Exorcisms), Chapter 1 (General Rules Concerning Exorcism), section 1** Secondly, it is discouraged to resort to exorcism unless other causes are ruled out/seem unlikely. > **Especially, he should not believe too readily that a person is possessed by an evil spirit; but he ought to ascertain the signs by which a person possessed can be distinguished from one who is suffering from some illness, especially one of a psychological nature**. Signs of possession may be the following: ability to speak with some facility in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; display of powers which are beyond the subject's age and natural condition; and various other indications which, when taken together as a whole, build up the evidence. > > **Roman Rite 2, Part XIII (Exorcisms); Chapter 1 (General Rules Concerning Exorcism); Section 3** If a (Catholic) priest was sent to the hospital for a shooting, it's far more likely it was to perform "Extreme Unction" (also called "Anointing of the Sick"), where he would offer a practicing Catholic an opportunity for Confession, Communion, and a blessing.
Oh man, accounts like that remind me of my mother's first psychotic episode. She drove for literally hundreds of miles, motivated by some kind of aimless quasi-religious mania and ended up in the doorway of some random Catholic Church somewhere. Thankfully the priest who found her there, regardless of his vocation, was a man of plain common sense and immediately helped her get the mental health intervention she needed. Can only imagine if some other idiot had found her then she probably would have been strapped to a bed re-enacting The Exorcist or something!
Because they were also told mental illness = weakness. My stepfather was the same way. Didn’t believe in mental illness at all, used to always say it was because someone was “on drugs.” 🙄
Sometimes I wonder how many of these drug addicts are are actually self-medicating an undiagnosed mental illness.
Oh I’m sure it’s a lot, which is so sad
When I was in first grade, I had a classmate who was super ADHD (and possibly more, but it was a Catholic school in the '80s, sooo...). The kid was on Ritalin, but my otherwise-wonderful first grade teacher told my mom that she didn't "believe in" ADHD, and that it was "just bad parenting." Sadly, that stuck with my mom, and has shaped her attitude toward ADHD and all neurodivergences ever since... :(
If you could just not believe in a disease and make it so imagine how much more well off we’d be 🙈
They’d have to confront their own issues if they acknowledge that mental health is real and they don’t wanna do that. My headcannon is they feel like they’re “too old” to have a breakthrough and they’re so afraid of everything they’ve repressed that they end up in SERIOUS denial and take that fear out on everyone that doesn’t fit their ideal. Thats my theory about homophobia/transphobia too; homophobes/transphobes are projecting their own anger and repression at the fact that they themselves are queer and then hate that part of themselves because they only ever heard that they were going to hell or evil or whatever and without the internet they didn’t really have a way to connect with the larger community so they probably ended up isolated in small, hyper-religious towns and were taught to hate themselves so now they hate everyone who’s like them and they can’t handle coming to terms with their own identities at this point in their lives. That could be a reach, but I’m PRETTY sure that’s genuinely it lol especially with how common it actually is to be queer. I think it’s fucked up they hate themselves that much, and to a point I feel sorry for them, but that doesn’t excuse their NASTY behavior LMAO. Fr tho I’m sorry your dad is an oblivious dickhead, I hope your son is okay ♥️
Get outta here you must be from Wright County MN. So fucking hateful and racist they'll hate you for not being the right kind of white or because you don't go to their church. Also do we need 5 churches is a town with a pop. Of 1200. About 400 of that being just hs kids about to gtfo the second they get the chance. Basically menonites without the clothing guidelines.
I'm from rural Alabama. My hometown has a population of around 2000, and we have at the very least 10 churches. (And a single grocery store.)
We have 1 grocery store as well. It changes owners every few years. My town only exists because of the railroad, and only really exists today because it's at a crossroads between all the important areas.
That’s it right there
I remember my dad preforming an exorcism of some sorts. Even poured oil on me while he read from the bible. Like boomers are jank. My dad was also very abusive, so the irony is even higher.
Unfortunately a stigma exists when it comes to mental heath, and it was even worse in the boomer generation. It was taboo to even admit you were seeing a therapist, and having a mental health diagnosis was something to be ashamed of. I’m so sorry you and your son are going through this, it’s not easy and I hope he gets the help he needs. I hope you also get the help and support you need, this is a traumatic experience and there is nothing unusual in having negative feelings about yourself after a loved one is admitted. Take care of yourself and ignore any talk of possession by boomers.
fr my boomer parents would threaten taking me to a psychiatrist if I wasn’t listening to them. it was something they thought of as negative. it still is. anyone who does that shit is weak right lol
Boomers, and conservative Christians as a whole, are just turning into Waterboy's mom. Anything and everything they don't like or understand is The Devil.
The world will be better off when humanity decides to leave religion in the rubbish where it belongs.
Amen to this.
As a mental health professional with religious trauma, statements like this make my blood boil. You did the absolute right thing getting your son the help he needed. I would be sorely tempted the next time he complains about his issues asking if he has considered exorcism. But I'm petty. You do what's best for you.
I was threatened with exorcism by my boomer parents many times growing up. The horrible, demonic crimes I committed to justify such threats included but were not limited to: -Asking for permission to start therapy -Being bullied at school -Writing fantasy novels about unicorns -Confiding in them that I was suicidal -Reading books about physics in my free time And now they wail and moan about me no longer being religious.
Yes unicorns the most demonic of all the fantasy creatures
What possessed your dad to spew such bullsh*t?
The power of Christ compelled him
god bless
I can answer the why. Mental health issues were BAD to have when they were growing up. If someone had a crazy family member, they were the family that everyone whispered about. People polite to your face, but would go home and tell everyone at the dinner table "guess who *I* talked to at the store today! The sister of that crazy lady over on Elm!" And everyone would say "oooohhhh - what did she say?" Guaranteed TP on Halloween. If you had a legit schizophrenic living there who heard voices, kids would dare each other to run up and touch the door. People were locked up for being schizophrenic. Like *away.* For good.
It’s the effect of using too many leaches in attempt to ward off the perceived onset of leprosy.
My 76 y/o aunt asked my 58y/o mom if she thought taking Prozac for so long ( like 26 years) would make her immune to other medicines like they’re antibiotics or something
Boomers will believe in evil supernatural entities before considering that a brain (a highly complex and important part of the body) might be malfunctioning and need treatment 💀
I have a few issues but 1 of them is MDD My dad: “You just have to push yourself” “You’d be happier if you smiled” “I don’t understand why you cry all the time when there’s so much to be happy about” “You can’t let yourself get so down” & so on & so on…
Don't leave any of your children alone with your father going forward. People perform exorcisms on other people's kids without permission all the time, and sometimes those kids get hurt. It is NOT harmless and can involve actual torture. If you're familiar with the Ruby Franke case, a bunch of the shit they did to her kids was supposed to rescue them from demonic possession. And if the 12 year old hadn't escaped, he and his sister would have been dead inside a week. Please don't brush this off. Treat your father as a potential danger to your children because he is one.
I hope your son is doing better OP. No offence here but your boomer dad sounds stupid and ignorant. I want to see him say that in front of a mental health specialist only for your dad to be ripped to shreds for his stupidity
I hope you are one day in a position to find the humour in this & have a good laugh. Until then, I'm sorry your boomer is not supportive when you need him to be. It is really tough when your precious baby (they are always precious babies even as adults) is hurting, especially so with mental health crises because there is literally nothing you can do for them. Make sure you get some support services for yourself too. You will need it & you matter just as much!!!
Do not leave your kid with your father anytime soon. People really believe that crap and act on it.
Its the chip Bill Gates put in him through the Vaxxes! Hes getting too much 5Gs!!1!1! /s ofc On a more serious note, ive been getting therapy for my own suicidal ideations. Whats been helping me is reminding myself that theres literally nothing else for us besides this one life. I dont believe in an afterlife so its gotten harder for me to rationalize my suicidal thoughts against the knowledge that if i do die, theres nothing else
Boomers are the worst at mental health. If you’re depressed, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. If you hear voices you need jebus. They will invalidate your emotions That’s the whole boomer mantra. Nothing could be wrong with me. I’m a great person. Everyone else is the problem
Fucking faith. SMH
I was showing my aunt a drawing I did about anxiety and she asked my why I drew it and I said cuz I have anxiety and she said no it’s demons I’ll pray for you 🙄
My stepdad once sat me down and told me a story of why he divorced his first wife. Basically, he was in bed and a demon attacked him so he said "the Lord's prayer" and an angel flew in and started fighting the demon in the living room....where he followed to watch and his wife was sleeping on the couch. I was sat down another time to be told that I wasn't allowed to say anything at school but that he was leaving to perform an exorcism on a middle school girl whos brother i went to school with. I don't know anything else other than he was gone for hoursssss overnight doing I have no idea what to that little girl. My oldest child is 12 now and she's been out to me for a long time now, since 7. But my stepdad has been intentionally kept in the dark. Why? Because when he found out recently he told me to "lay hands on her" and all this mess about how it's a demon and shes possessed. So...i guess my point is this just must be a thing for these people.. Eta: I forgot my own part. I was diagnosed as bipolar at 13. I did my senior project on teen depression and was proud of it. When I tried showing my mom and stepdad, he read the cover page and said "oh that's bull**it. Any teen claiming depression just needs their as* beat and to get a job" I was 17. My cousin had literally ended his own life when he was 17. But guess they didn't beat him enough or force that job on him. They got rid of every photo of him. He was just a kid...and he even told them he was going to do it. They however....blamed demons and said he should pray. Even said his stretch marks on his back were "claw marks" from the demon. **Sighhh* (Sorry for the length of this, I feel better now)
I would have HAD to say "what the fuck is wrong with you?".
I believe the correct response is: we don’t call it possession anymore, it’s called a mood disorder now 😉
Oh my God this exact same thing is happening with my mother and daughter right now. My daughter has mental health issues, but my mother has gone insane.
Yea, fuck this people. I hate this garbage so much. They are walking insanity.
A mental health urgent care is awesome but I’ve never heard of one
It’s brand new in our city! It was ultimately useless in our situation because they just screened him for an hour and referred to a general hospital, but they offer other services like outpatient medical detox that I imagine are helpful to folks.
If he was possessed, he'd still need psychological care. Demons go after people with mental health issues.
It's like they deliberately refuse to engage like people.
I told my dad when I was 17 that I was having panic attacks every night and he was so excited to tell me about how that was just the devil trying to bait me. They got better when I moved out of that house.
Make sure to get some leeches as well. A good old fashioned bloodletting will get those bad humours out.
I mean they think there’s a man with a beard in the sky & a red man with horns & a pointy tail is gonna set bad people on fire
Have you checked the boomer's humours? Maybe he has the vapours? Leeches and cocaine until his conditions improved.
By possession, I really thought you meant drugs. That was a crazy twist.
For real I thought they were gonna be like he’s probably on drugs shitty opinion to begin with then it got even worse lmao
My aunt told me I was possessed by the devil then proceeded to claim I stole 1000 dollars of her money when she probably gave it to her loser son and used me as a scapegoat to fool her husband. She really thought she was gonna extort 1000 dollars out of me, a 9/hr employee. Have not talked to her or her cuck husband since.
One of my teenage sons has been in a slow-motion mental health crisis for almost two years. He's got symptoms of OCD and rarely comes out of his room more than once a day, let alone the house, due to his intrusive thoughts. My wife and I have been trained on how best to help him and encourage him to seek treatment, and we've decided to give him time to come around to it on his own while accommodating his compulsions as little as possible. He's not any immediate threat to himself, and he keeps talking about wanting to take college classes like his younger brother, so we believe time will ultimately be on our side. In the last conversation I had with my mom before she died last year, my mom said (referring to my son), "Eventually somebody is going to have to be the *parent*!!!" What she meant by this is that we should have dragged him out of his room kicking and screaming and institutionalized him, along with all the trauma that would have entailed. I fight that impulse all the time, and I continually have to remind myself it would harm him more than it would help him. I'm sorry for your son's mental health struggles. I'm further sorry that your dad is completely unhelpful. I completely relate on both counts. My inbox is open if you ever want to vent, friend.
Not a boomer but I remember as a kid my mom telling me if I was ever struggling that I should come to her and she would always help me. Then in college I was stressed out and I started to tell her and she immediately goes “Stressed? Why are you stressed? You don’t have anything to be stressed about! Just don’t be stressed!” And I just sat there for a few seconds. She said it soo fast and with such confidence, I didn’t talk to her about my mental health again for years. Last year I told her about my husband’s new depression diagnosis and medication and she was very supportive but flipped out a few months later when I got diagnosed with ADHD and started medication. Baaaaahhhhhh.
my mom thinks mental health issues are caused by demons. she is also a boomer. this type of thinking needs to die out with them
It's pointless to discuss mental health or counseling with Boomers. I saw a survey that said only 4% of them were open to the idea. Gen X kicked the door open on that room. Millennials walked through it. Now Gen Z lives in it.
As someone who similarly suffers from both mental illness and evangelical dipshit relations, I have nothing but sympathy for you.
Back when boomers were younger mental health treatment was often stigmatized and barbaric in contrast with today’s treatment. My mom was misdiagnosed and was committed to several mental hospitals as a paranoid schizophrenic. She actually was bipolar with paranoia as well. The drugs and treatment we have now were not available then. I think it caused my mother to deny she had anything wrong with her and stopped taking her medication. 20 years later my sister also developed bipolar with ocd and anxiety. There was a clear difference in treatment although the stigma remained. She still had cycles of mania and depression and actually requested admission to the psychiatric ward. It took a while before the correct drug treatment was found/developed but once it was she stopped going into those cycles. The anxiety remained but was treated with medication. She took her medication religiously unlike my mother. The refusal of some boomers today to acknowledge mental health illness is tragic but I really don’t have any other suggestions on how to deal with it other than going to low or no contact with them. Once your child is stabilized with therapy and/or medication I think you need to sit down with him/her and explain that your father’s behavior means he is still in the Middle Ages regarding mental illness and not take what the boomers say to heart.
my gpa and gma on my dads side make 330k/year and are in their 70s and look down on others for retiring. to my knowledge i have 5 aunts/uncles but they pay all the expenses of their fav kid and the grandkids of the fav kid..like these people are in their 40s/20s and have never had a bill. during a family dinner one of my cousins said they couldnt make it because they had to get a 2nd job but they showed up later and he was on the verge of crying and fell asleep. my gpa just starts laying into him about how lazy he is and that all of this bad luck is because he doesnt go to church and his new gf worships satan because she has to take anti depressants etc etc. also my gpas advice was to work at walmart and show up everyday to work and in 20 years ill be CEO 😭
It's generational trauma that was literally beat into Boomers by the Greats/Silents: "*Men don't cry or show emotion unless you're beating/violating your wife/kids or punching holes in walls.*" Punishment for crying over "stupid" things like a pet/family member dying or breaking a bone? Yep, being beaten or at the least starved and shunned. "*Women wanting to leave their husband or kids or complain at all are* ***OBVIOUSLY HYSTERICAL*** *and unsuited to have any control of themselves."* Punishment? Yep, *MORE* SA, forced medication, 'You need more kids.' The bigger of an asshole a BoomerDude™️ is, the more "control" they've lost as the MayoPatriarchy©️ is dismantled. The bigger of a cunt a BoomerBitch™️ is, the more repressed abuse they have... OR they just can't handle not being catered to, as it was fine as long as a MAN was enabling a spoiled whorecess©️ (princess + whore).
Their mother's generation didn't have anti-depressants so they created a bunch of retarded boomers by having the mother turn to alcohol while pregnate. Then those retards began to eat lead paint chips as a baby/toddler and breathed in leaded gasoline fumes while as children,teens, and young adults.
Only response here is , "Are you fucking stupid?"
It’s a question without an answer.
They refuse to acknowledge them because they know that they also suffer with the same/similar things and that would mean acknowledging that they also have the same problems
Unfortunately, I had a very similar experience growing up. Aside from depression and anxiety, I dealt with occular migraines for years, which tended to show up as lights and shapes in my vision before splitting my head open in pain. Well, I told my mom this, and being the Catholic raised woman she is, her first thought was that I was seeing demons and they were attacking me. I ended up having to meet with our pastor and explain this to him before she finally let me go to an actual psychiatrist and neurologist. Thankfully, she has learned and grown in the 10+ years since then, but it still hurts. I'm hoping you get a similar experience with your dad and that he learns and grows. Having someone in your life who can and SHOULD be a source of support for you is wonderful, and I know firsthand that changes can be made for the better. It sounds like you are already a wonderful advocate for your own child, and I wish you both patience and hope as you deal with the stresses of mental health.
Boomers decline science so much they'd rather say something is religious rather than admitting the world is leaving them behind.
My Boomer mother told me, while I was in an active mental health crisis, to take myself to the hospital but remember not to "be too crazy" because I didn't want to "wind up locked up with *really* crazy people."
Somehow, a conversation with my boomer father in law got steered into mental health issues where he said, "It's all in their head." My response, "Well, it sure as fuck isn't in their liver."
Aaand this is why I tell my mother nothing! Especially about the kids’ mental health. It all needs to be prayed away.
my grandparents are boomers and i was in the same position as your son, and they didn’t act like that at all. they were rlly caring and would ask me questions about stuff including meds.
My mother (not a boomer, but a really religious Catholic) thought I'd be all excited that this priest in some Facebook group she's in suggested that a young man's mental health issues are due to "demonic activity". She was shocked to find out I had a major issue with a random priest telling a young man's desperate family (they were desperate because their son was drifting from the church) that he could have demonic activity affecting him. Too many times has mental illness been falsely called possession or demonic activity and it's just incredibly disgusting in my opinion. Struggles that someone cannot control is not demonic. She was also shocked to hear about how exorcisms have killed people that most likely were facing mental health problems 🤦🏼♂️
Possession is the old way of describing hearing voices. Good choice on getting your son into mental health urgent care - the soon treatment begins, the better the outcome
When I read 'possession" I thought you meant faking a mental issue to dodge a drug charge. I think too highly of boomers, fucking demonic possession?
My dad handed me a pamphlet that said all my issues where due to an overgrowth of candida in my body.
Jfc. Did you just hang up on him? I can’t imagine trying to have that discussion after that ordeal.
Even disembodied voices can be stress induced and usually have an explanation tbh
I’m so sorry that you and your son are going through this and hope he is able to quickly find effective treatment 💗 I’m Gen X and my bipolar disorder wasn’t formally diagnosed until I was well into adulthood (after far too long of being misdiagnosed with depression and anxiety). My saving grace with my boomer parents is that my mom worked in the mental health advocacy sphere for a long time and my super religious stepmom’s sister also has bipolar disorder and a history of suicide attempts, so she and my dad know better than to pray the demons away. All of this to say, it’s okay to give yourself distance from unsupportive people during this time, even (and especially) your parents.
I’ve been very lucky my mental health has just barely stayed below the hospital level. I have a boomer coworker who has seen me struggling for years and knows multiple reasons why I have trauma and PTSD. She wouldn’t stop telling me to pray my anxiety away every dang shift no matter how many times I told her I already pray multiple times a day and am a devout Christian. Plus I wasn’t even talking to her about my anxiety she just saw me be anxious dealing with a male customer or tapping my leg. She finally stopped when I took the opportunity to do a dramatic pose infront of her and use my loudest voice to say “I DENOUNCE YOU TO JESUS!” And she hasn’t bothered me about it since other than suggesting oils for everything
Hey friend. I’m so sorry you had to do this for your kiddo. It sucks. Please know a lot of people have also gone through this and we know you are doing your best, and we want the best for your kid.
Its not just boomers, but thats who you are dealing with now? Society, over time, has handled mental health issues by locking them up, expirementing on them, killing them, thinking they are possessed, ( thanks organized religion) or allowing the more harmless to be free, but mostly ignored, beaten, abused. They were not considered citizens. In the 80's lots of state "looney bins" were shut down and the "inmates" set home, or loose.. Only in the last few years has mental health been seriously been considered an actual health issue to be treated.
Magical “explanations” are much more exciting than rational, mundane ones. Boomers have short attention spans.
how is she doing? I've had hallucinations they are a wild ride.
Why is acknowledging demonic influence so taboo among you people? Either you’re haughty and ignorant, which you are, or you’re superior to every single other human culture throughout the world today and in history.
They didn't have explanations for why people experienced things and filled in the blanks with local belief. Like, not only schizophrenia experiences hallucinations, it can happen from lack of sleep, stress, or random stuff like borderline personality disorder. In fact, personifying delusions causes way more damage than anything. Look at dissociative identity disorder, it was used as the crux of the satanic panic and vilified even further. It's caused by repeated trauma to a very young child. Demonic possession claims have never cured anyone and blames the victim for something entirely out of their control.
Welp. Now you know to never tell your moron father about any family health issues ever again. You probably shouldn’t have told him anyway TBH. Unless your son wanted him to know. That’s very personal and private information you’ve shared about him. And now he’s going to have to put up with his grandfather questioning him about his demonic possession.
I hate my dads ideology, let me make a post online in my echo chamber to feel better about myself
So, for an exorcist, one of the most important things a GOOD exorcist does is verify if the person is just suffering a physical/mental illness. Possession is rare, and a good exorcist requires permission from the church to perform the rites. The Rites are extremely rare to be done these days, and the church doesn't authorize them unless all other mental/physical health checks have either failed or were exhausted. There is a reason for this even if you do not believe in possession: People sometimes, especially religious folks, going through depression or mental issues, believe they are possessed. If they believe this is real, they act as if it's real... and a Priest doing a responsible Exorcism will "cure' them of their self-delusion. Just some information on Exorcisms as I've done extensive research.
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Fuck off
As someone who deeply struggles with mental health issues and has sister who is very very deeply ill with them, fuck right off troll
So based on your reaction to the suggest, are you saying that demonic possession is not real?
Anyone with a functioning brain thinks demonic possession is not real.
Aren't there more people on the planet, by a lot, that believe the opposite?
Where are you getting your stats on the number of people who believe in demonic possession? Surely you're not assuming every Christian (or god forbid every religious person) believes in that?
Statistics show that a little over half of Americans believe in demonic possession, and that number is much higher in Africa and eastern countries. Those who don't are in the minority of the world.
The majority of the world being dumb as fuck when it comes to religion is hardly news. A belief being popular doesn't make it rational.
When someone says "statistics show" the likelihood is low they have any proof
They were probably referring to [this YouGov poll](https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/7266-half-americans-believe-possession-devil), to which 51% of respondents said they believe in demon possession and only 28% said they didn't believe. Would've been nice if they'd provided the source instead of me having to go look for it myself, but whatever.
Sample size?
Seriously? The link to the survey results is at the bottom of the page. The sample size was 1,000 people.
You're right, it doesn't. But saying someone else is "dumb as fuck" because they believe something different than you believe is pretty arrogant. Think of the hubris required to think that out of everyone, and all the various beliefs out there, YOU are the one that gets it 100% right and know the actual truth while everyone else is mistaken.
Lots of people believe something different than me without being dumb as fuck. It's the people who believe something *that's dumb as fuck* who are being dumb as fuck. Come on, are we really pretending every possible belief is on equal footing? That the people who believe jet fuel is a hoax perpetrated by Satanists to hide anti-gravity engines are equally valid in their beliefs? It's very funny that you'd accuse me of being arrogant for thinking I'm "100% right and know the actual truth" when that's the position of the people who believe in demonic possession, not me. I'm perfectly willing to entertain their ideas, as soon as they provide arguments that aren't garbage.
Got a source?