Help, I Can’t Stop Thinking Violent or Blasphemous Thoughts! Does This Mean I’m Lost or That I’ve Committed the Unpardonable Sin?

There is a symptom that many people with mental illness get of unwanted violent or highly sexualized or blasphemous thoughts or images popping into their mind. Mainstream psychiatry calls this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OCD can also involve outward compulsions such as handwashing due to a fear of germs, or compulsively touching certain places in the house to stop one’s family from dying, an irrational fear that is common with this condition. But not everyone has the kind that involves the outward compulsions. Some people have only the disturbing intrusive thoughts, and inner compulsions, such as saying a prayer asking for forgiveness every time the violent thought comes into their mind. This is unofficially referred to as “Pure O” by therapists (pure obsessions). And it’s possible and very common for a person to have both compulsive thoughts and outer compulsions, and they often have more than one fear through their years of suffering from this condition. For instance, they may start out with a fear their family will die if they don’t touch certain places in the house, and then 5 years later have hand-washing obsessions instead, and the condition often morphs in this way.

As explained in an earlier article entitled ‘What is Schizophrenia’ mainstream psychiatry groups mental illnesses by their symptoms, not medical testing. For instance, they don’t test you for something like low serotonin, and if you’re found to have low serotonin then they give you a diagnosis of OCD. Instead you meet with a psychiatrist and are evaluated based on an interview, or you fill out a written questionnaire and you’re diagnosed with OCD based on the interview or the questionnaire (an interview is the much more common way diagnoses are given).

Due to the definition of an illness, that of being a condition of known pathology, I don’t believe mental illnesses in the DSM 5, the diagnostic book for the field of psychiatry, fit the definition of being distinct illnesses. Rather they are just symptoms people can get, that are often seen together, and it’s more accurate to call each of them syndromes. For instance, a person may be said to have schizophrenia syndrome, or obsessive compulsive syndrome.

So I will refer to these symptoms of unwanted violent, blasphemous, or sexual images or thoughts as ‘obsessive compulsive symptoms’, or just ‘intrusive thoughts’.

OCD Linked With Low Serotonin and Histamine
While there’s not one biochemical imbalance or pathology that causes obsessive compulsive symptoms, these symptoms have been linked in the medical literature with two well-documented imbalances…low serotonin and high histamine. Low serotonin causing obsessive thoughts and compulsions, is the imbalance that most psychiatrists treat for, and that most therapists know about, and while there is much medical literature about high histamine causing obsessive thoughts and compulsions, high histamine has not really made it’s way into public knowledge yet. Psychiatrists don’t usually treat for it, choosing to give SSRIs as treatment, and it’s not really common knowledge yet that high histamine causes obsessions and compulsions, except among Functional Medicine doctors and natural health communities, where it is becoming more commonly known.

Back when I was being treated for my obsessive thoughts and compulsions, I was put on SSRIs which can make people with mood swings and mania (which I had) worse, and that’s exactly what happened to me. When I complained about my thoughts and compulsions not lessening or going away, doctors wanted to increase my dose of the SSRIs, which made me manic and out-of-control. However, many people do see a reduction in intrusive thoughts with SSRIs. They are usually the people without mania and mood swings.

It wasn’t until I was put on antihistamine medications that I experienced relief from my obsessive and compulsive thoughts (later I switched to antihistamine supplements which are much more healthy for the body). I researched the medical literature and found that it’s well-documented that high histamine is a common cause of obsessions and compulsions, and that antihistamine medications and supplements have shown to be effective at reducing the obsessions and compulsions.

High histamine has actually been known in the Functional Medicine community and treated for quite some time. Dr. Abram Hoffer first treated a condition called undermethylation that involves high histamine from the methylation cycle underperforming. One of the things methylation does is break down and clear histamine, so if it's not functioning properly a build-up will occur. Dr. Hoffer found this condition to be linked to psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, OCD, anxiety, and depression. In Functional Medicine, this condition is treated by taking methyldonors, supplements that get the methylation cycle working again. Later Carl Pfeiffer, Hoffer's successor, would discover cerebral allergy, another cause of conditions like schizophrenia and OCD that involves a build up of histamine.

And then later on down the road Functional Medicine doctors would become aware of another condition that involves a build up of histamines in the body: CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome). CIRS is commonly brought about by mold exposure, but really anything that causes a build up of toxins in the cells can bring on CIRS from Lyme disease to heavy metal toxicity). CIRS causes a huge build up of histamines, and it is linked to psychiatric conditions like schiziophrenia, OCD, high level anxiety, and terrible crushing depression. (Look into the work of Dr. Mary Ackerly for more information.)

My intrusive thoughts were incredibly distressing. At one point I was having intrusive graphic images of violence and murder and sexual acts popping up into my head non-stop. This was also during my psychotic break. Nothing stopped the images except medication, and once on the right medication, the thoughts abated without effort on my part.

PANDAS
In the medical literature, and known to people in the natural health communities, it’s been documented that PANDAS in children has been linked to obsessive thoughts and compulsions. PANDAS is an acronym for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections. It’s a strep infection that goes to the brain and affects the entire nervous system. Mothers have seen improvement in their kids with obsessive thoughts and compulsions when they treat the underlying strep infection, and some of kids are now completely free of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Lyme disease has also been linked with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and so has mold illness.

When there is a systemic infection of any kind, or systemic toxicity from exposure to toxins, and the cells become overloaded, the toxins or infections will get into the blood stream. A person can become septic and die if the body does not fight off the infections and keep them out of the blood stream where they can damage vital organs. So the body has a defense mechanism. That defense mechanism is to rev up a part of the immune system involved in fighting acute infection, and to quickly kill off the infection or neutralize the toxins. To do this the body uses histamine which is an immune modulator and signaler and it’s involved in “zapping” the toxins or infections and killing or neutralizing them.

When histamine is shot out in high amounts, it can bring on psychiatric symptoms in the brain, including obsessive-compulsive symptoms and psychosis (delusions, disjointed thoughts, confusion, auditory and visual hallucinations).

Toxic black mold was the major player in my obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but really any pathogen or toxin can cause a rise in histamine if the infection or toxicity goes systemic and the body needs to neutralize or kill it quickly with histamine as a protective measure.

The Typical Course The Sufferer Takes

When a person begins to really greatly suffer from distressing obsessive thoughts, it’s common that they will go to parents or pastors for help. (It’s common for this condition to begin in adolescence; but some have it as younger children). They will usually say something to the effect of “Help! I keep thinking highly sexual thoughts or very blasphemous thoughts or very violent thoughts, and I need your prayers that God will give me the self-control to stop thinking these things and get the victory over them.

They Suffer For Months or Years Before Seeking Help
They may request to be prayed over or anointed. Usually by the time they come to you for help, they have spent months or even years of obsessively trying to stop thinking the thoughts for several hours or more every day. This isn’t the kind of thing that they want to reach out for help with, as they feel guilty and morally polluted for having these thoughts, and they had hoped to get the victory over the thoughts in their own prayer time, but haven’t been able to get control of the thoughts, and so they are coming to you in a state of desperation, often worried they have either backslidden from God or that they have committed the unpardonable sin. It doesn’t make sense to them that they could have such wicked thoughts on a consistent basis, and still be a Christian, as God calls on us in His Word to take every thought captive, and not being able to do that, they often fear or conclude that they are backslidden or have committed the unpardonable sin.

The Two Typical Responses From Parents and Mentors
When they bring their request for help to a pastor, parent, or mentor, there are two responses that are common. 1. The parent or mentor may pray over them, and encourage them to keep trying to take their thoughts captive, and that Jesus will give them the eventual victory. It’s common for the person to think that this is a young adolescent dealing with some new sexual thoughts and temptations, that they didn’t have as a kid, and they just need encouragement and to be reminded of Christ’s promises in the Word and His faithfulness and sufficiency to give them self-control in this new area of life – sexuality – that they are awakening to. If violent thoughts are mentioned the parent may attribute these to changes in testosterone levels going up during puberty if it’s a son, or hormonal mood swings if it’s a daughter.

Usually the parent doesn’t know their kid has been praying over the thoughts for hours every day for months or even years, and they misjudge how much investment the kid has already put into overcoming these thoughts.

2. The other common response is for a parent to try to balance out the overly-dramatic response their kid is having to the thoughts, to put their fears in perspective, and push back against the excessive blame the kid is placing on themselves, and the out-of-proportion significance the kid is giving to the thoughts. The parent may say something like “Carl, they are just thoughts, don’t let them dominate your life.” Or “Every kid your age has some crazy thoughts with hormonal changes going on and you’ll grow out of this and come into your own soon.” The parent is going for a balancing effect – and honestly it’s very good for the parent to counteract and call into question the faulty reasoning, and conclusions the kid with the condition is making, – but the parent doesn’t realize their kid isn’t having the normal intrusive thoughts everyone experiences. Their kid has a condition, and is being bombarded much more frequently with distressing thoughts and also heavy and false emotions, like false guilt, and cognitive distortions like attributing blame to themselves for the thoughts. While adolescence is difficult for everyone, some people develop mental conditions in adolescence, and have an experience that is pathological and out of the norm for what is healthy and normal, which requires hey intervention and treatment. For kids with mental conditions, they may not naturally stabilize and become a well-balanced adult and left untreated may develop psychosis, or continue to have distressing intrusive thoughts in their adult life that doesn’t abate unless successfully treated. The kid may be battling through hundreds or thousands of these thoughts every day, depending on how severe their condition is. They may be highly graphic images, or very detailed accounts of murder or blasphemy or sexual acts.

The Sufferer Downplays the Distress of the Content Because They are Embarrassed
This is the real reason why the kid is so distressed by them. But usually the kid will not put their situation into such words, and will mention “intrusive thoughts” or “immoral thoughts”, but will not mention the graphic nature of the thoughts or the frequency, due to guilt, and also kids just aren’t very articulate in their teens and it takes time to learn how to bring up sensitive topics like this, and so they may lack the skills and experience to articulate their suffering in a way that allows the parent to see how severe it is. I’ve had obsessive-compulsive thoughts since I was very young (as a young kid my intrusive thoughts were mostly a fear of my family dying and fear of death), and as an adolescent they became sexual, violent, and blasphemous in nature – a new turn that commonly happens – and it took me many years to be able to accurately communicate the severity and level of distress of my intrusive thoughts.

If the kid mentions violent thoughts, the adult in their life may think they are referring to the common temptations to be angry or jealous with siblings, to want to break away from the restraint of their parents, and the need to surrender those fallen desires to God so He can implant His holy desires in them.

If the kid mentions sexual thoughts, the parent may think they are just struggling with the common temptations to lust that kids their age go through, and the parent will encourage them to pray for strength and help from God. Not realizing these are intrusive thoughts are pathological, symptoms of a mental condition.

Unknown to the parent or mentor, the adolescent is not struggling with unholy thoughts. The adolescent is experiencing intrusive involuntary “wild ball” brain signals coming from the unconscious parts of the brain that are distressing in nature. The problem lies in the kid’s inability to tell that what he is experiencing is not in fact a thought, and then using the word ‘thought’ to communicate his struggle.

Both Responses from Mentors Tend to Make Him Feel Hopeless
There is a breakdown in communication due to this, and the teenager feels his distress is dismissed and swept under the rug, or that he is a failure and a hopeless rebel, because he’s sought God in prayer for strength as recommended by mentors, and the thoughts are still as frequent and distressing as before the intense prayer sessions he’s engaged in. He thinks it’s likely he is at odds with God or has committed the unpardonable sin, that there must be some rebellious part of himself that insists on rejecting God, because he can’t seem to get the victory over the thoughts no matter how hard he tries and how committed he is.

Healthy People See Intrusive Thoughts as "Wild-ball" Thoughts
When your typical person without obsessive compulsive symptoms has an intrusive thought, the intrusive thought looks like a “wild ball” to them. In sports a wild ball is when the ball slips from the hands of the person throwing it, and instead of going in the intended direction it misses it’s target by a “mile”, and goes in a completely random direction. It’s so erratic it’s often humorous, and when it happens, everyone knew the player didn’t mean to throw it like that and that the ball slipped.

People without obsessive compulsive syndrome can easily tell the intrusive thought is a “wild ball” thought that is a mental glitch taking place. Everything about the thought, the exaggerated content, the way it forms, how it enters the mind – everything about the nature of the thought – just looks like a complete outlier to them. The same way a series of erratic heart palpitations feel and look like a glitch from the normal steady heart pattern, they can see right away these thoughts are different.

This awareness is why they don’t give the thought significance or take blame for the thought.

The Sufferer Can't See Their Intrusive Thoughts as Wild Ball Thoughts Due to Their Brain Making Errors in Self-Referential Processing
But those with obsessive compulsive syndrome have compromised mental processing in the area of something self-referential processing. This causes them to lose that awareness that the intrusive thought is a “wild ball thought” coming from an unconscious part of their mind – a different part of their mind than thoughts they choose to think come from – and they see it as no different in nature from our normal thoughts. They lack this perception the way someone with autism might lack the ability to read emotions from looking at someone’s facial expression. They have a very real deficit in this area, and can’t see the thought is coming erratically from left field, and that it’s clearly an involuntary glitch.

Self-referential processing errors also occur in conditions like schizophrenia where the person may lose the ability to tell that their thoughts are coming from their own brain, and may believe a parent or a demon is inserting thoughts into their brain. This is a common symptom of psychosis called thought insertion.

Another common error in self-referential processing is when a person in psychosis believes people can see inside their mind and read their thoughts. They lose the ability to tell their thoughts are private and known by them alone and that another person’s consciousness isn’t involved in reading what goes on in their head.

These two examples are more extreme than what is seen in obsessive compulsive syndrome, but I listed them to give an idea of what self-referential processing is, and how errors in it can cause guilt or fear based on an altered sense of one’s self and their agency over their self and thoughts.

So, because the person with intrusive thoughts loses that awareness that the intrusive thought isn’t coming from their conscious brain, they group the intrusive thought in with their consciously chosen thoughts, desires, and motives, and blame themselves for the thought and identify with it as their own, rather than the brain glitch that it is.

Educate About Self-Referential Processing and How it is Impaired in OCD
Education can help! Once the person comes to realize they’ve lost accurate perception when it comes to self-referential processing, they’ve lost the perception that the thought is coming out of the blue from the unconscious, involuntary parts of the brain, that the thought is a wild thought, just knowing this truth, will help them recognize what is actually going on, and a brand new pathway in the brain will form, that they then have the option of strengthening by repetition. It’s when we don’t know something that we can’t train our brain to see around the deficit, because we don’t even know there’s a deficit, but once we know the truth, we can then begin working that new pathway, and coming more and more out of the false perception that all our thoughts are the same and they are all chosen, and begin to identify the “wild ball” thoughts more clearly.

Then they won’t experience as much guilt, when this fact can be clearly seen.

The human brain is neuroplastic, meaning we can form new brain pathways, and train our brain to learn new skills and perceptions in areas where there has been a deficit.

Of course, false guilt isn’t the only concern here; it’s also important they get help at the biochemical level to balance their brain and reduce inflammation, and I will talk more about that at the end of the article.

What is Going on Neurologically Speaking in the Mind of Someone With OCD?
As far as what is going on in the brain of someone with this condition, brain scans show similar neural circuitry to schizophrenia, although not as pronounced or severe. And some people with obsessive compulsive symptoms do go on to develop full schizophrenia (and the medical literature shows the same biochemical imbalances can cause everything from anxiety disorders, to depression, to intrusive thoughts, to schizophrenia), but it’s not everyone, so having intrusive thoughts doesn’t automatically mean you’ll go on to develop hallucinations or delusions as are seen in schizophrenia syndrome. But in some people it does happen, so it’s important to be aware of the risk, and to take action to manage symptoms in the early stages.

But people with this condition of intrusive thoughts have dialed down prefrontal cortex as a whole – the part of the brain where judgment and reason take place – and the emotional centers of the brain are highly activated. This causes them to be in a dreamlike state where images and thoughts pop up involuntarily into their consciousness out of their control, and since the frontal lobe is dialed down, they do not have moral judgment and the thoughts are not being screened for their moral content. They also don’t have the ability to be logical, so the thoughts that pop up will be nonsensical, violent, or sexual thoughts, as well as some benign, morally neutral thoughts – content without moral discretion and without a filter – the intrusive thoughts are not processed by the frontal lobe and thus are not evaluated based on morals. They just flow in and out involuntarily. The person will often not respond to the morally neutral thoughts and fail to really notice them, and it’s just the immoral ones that get their attention because they find them disturbing.

Then on top of this, certain parts of the prefrontal cortex are over-active. The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) which is linked to error detection and threat evaluation, Overactivity here fuels the sense that something is wrong, driving obsessions and compulsive checking. the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) Responsible for executive control, working memory, and thought suppression. In OCD, it may become overactive as the brain tries to manage or suppress intrusive thoughts, often leading to mental fatigue and rigidity, Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex (VLPFC) Plays a role in response inhibition and emotional regulation. Dysfunction here can make it harder to resist compulsive urges and disengage from obsessive thinking, Caudate Nucleus (part of the basal ganglia) Filters and processes intrusive thoughts. Dysfunction here impairs the brain’s ability to “let go” of irrelevant or distressing thoughts, causing them to loop, Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) Involved in conflict monitoring and emotional regulation. Hyperactivity contributes to feelings of internal tension and the urge to resolve perceived errors.

Each of these regions is part of the Cortico-Striato-Thalamo-Cortical (CSTC) loop, the core neural circuit disrupted in OCD. The imbalance in this loop leads to the hallmark symptoms: obsessions, compulsions, and difficulty shifting attention away from distressing thoughts.

The caudate nucleus acts like a mental gatekeeper, helping the brain filter out irrelevant or intrusive thoughts. In OCD, this gate malfunctions—allowing unwanted thoughts to persist and loop.

The Default Mode Network
There is an interconnected part of the brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is active when a person is daydreaming and not in a fully alert state. In normal people without mental conditions, the DMN shuts off when they get engaged in active tasks, such as writing a paper, planning, talking actively with friends, etc. But in people with obsessive compulsive syndrome the DMN does not shut off when engaged in active tasks. There’s still much “clutter” and involuntary “talk” from the DMN going on at the same time.

A person with this condition may have the DMN insert say an image of a man raping a woman into their brain – the person then responds in alarm with “That was sickening; how could I have thought that?!” The intrusive image of the man raping the woman was the unconscious thought, and the alarmed and disgusted response was the conscious part of the brain – the frontal lobe. Or the DMN may wander around and settle on the thought “I’m going to sell my soul to the devil soon”, and then the person in alarm prays “Lord, I can’t believe I thought of doing that, please forgive me.”

They have the DMN and the conscious parts of the brain going on at the same time, but they can’t see the stark difference in nature from the involuntary thought that is just a brain glitch and random signal, and their consciously chosen thought.

The medical literature also shows a link between distressing intrusive thoughts and brain inflammation. Histamine is a neurotransmitter and immune modulatory involved in pain. If it’s high you feel pain more keenly. It’s also involved in the fight-or-flight distress signaling of the body. If it’s too high the body will feel like it’s in a state of fight or flight. It’s also involved in wakefulness and contributes to insomnia. It also plays a role in paranoia and in anger. When we get angry with someone, and shout at them, or harbor thoughts of anger, there is a histamine dump that takes place in our brain.

If histamine is chronically too high in the brain thoughts will turn dark in nature, violent, in keeping with the fight or flight response, paranoid, and things of the like. While a Christian can control their conscious thoughts, even when in a state of chronic brain inflammation, and choose not to yell angrily at someone or throw something just because they feel pain and stress in their head and emotions, the unconscious thoughts that take place in the Default Mode Network are not under their control, and these thoughts will change due to the excess histamine and become darker in nature and more violent. The same way that a person with high histamine will have nightmares in their sleep that can be very violent or scary, the person with obsessive compulsive syndrome will have violent involuntary day-time “dreaming” coming from the DMN.

Likewise, high dopamine has been linked in the medical literature with an increase in sexualized thoughts. Once again, the Christian will be able to control their conscious sexual thoughts (though not perfectly as we’re still sinners this side of heaven; through Christ they can do a very good job of this), however they will find themselves unable to control the involuntary roaming of the DMN which will settle on very sexualized thinking if dopamine is too high.

Add violent thoughts and sexual thoughts together without the frontal lobe to do moral judgment and sifting, and you can end up with some pretty distressing and disturbing “clutter” thoughts from the DMN, that are in no way the fault of the adolescent suffering from them.

Help Them Reality-Check
A pastor or mentor can help the young person reality-check, by asking them a series of questions and pointing out the reality that the young person can’t see – the deficit in their self-referential processing.

For instance, you can ask them…”Ok tell me the next time you think one of these thoughts.” And the young person may go to tell them, but find that they have already thought the thought before they can even say “I’m thinking one of those thoughts again”. You could then point out that the quick speed of the thought reveals it’s not a consciously chosen thought. If one is experiencing a temptation to think a violent thought, there’s always a period of Satan tempting you with it before you give in. The thought kind of knocks on the door of your heart and asks to be let in and chosen and cherished; it doesn’t barge in without your consent.

This is how temptation works according to the Bible. We have a chance to resist the devil, and he will flee from us if we resist him.

But with involuntary thoughts they do barge in without consent. And you could point out the difference. You can also educate them about the Default Mode Network and how the thoughts that come from there don’t involve the desires and the will. They don’t involve higher thinking where moral judgment takes place. They are just random impulses dictated by mood and neurotransmitters, not by moral judgment.

Help the young person to change the terminology to be more accurate. Have them start calling the thoughts, “brain glitches” or something similar.

Take them through situations in their life where God has helped them control their conscious thoughts, say for instance they were tempted to be jealous of their brother because he got a new bicycle and they didn’t get one, or he’s doing better in school than they are. Take them through how they were tempted to be jealous, but then they surrendered to God and resisted the temptation to be jealous, choosing to be grateful for the things God had done in their life instead, knowing He loves them personally and gave His own life for them. They chose to be happy for their brother’s school success, and to ask God to help them do their best, not out of a desire to outperform their brother, but just out of a desire to give things their all out of a desire to please God.

Take them through how God did help them, and took their jealousy away, and gave them new desires. Remind them of how the process of taking every thought captive, and surrendering sinful motives and desires works according to the Bible. Take them through this process step-by-step.

Help them see that when it comes to conscious thoughts, God always gives us the victory. But He doesn’t always stop “brain glitches” aka intrusive thoughts because these are a health condition, and there’s no promise in the Bible that God won’t allow a person to suffer from a health condition.

Explain how the Bible doctrine is different for overcoming sin and for recovering from a health condition. Jesus’ perfect life and death in this world – and the fact that He is God – gave Himself the authority to forgive all sin, and to provide Christians with moral power to overcome sin and to live holy, self-controlled lives. They won’t be perfect of course, until the sanctification process is complete, but they will exhibit real self-control and genuine godliness that will be distinctly different from people of the world who do not believe in and follow God. Victory and fruits of obedience are promised and guaranteed to the Christian.

But good mental and physical health is not a guarantee. God may permit mental conditions to bear sway in your life. There’s many different reasons why He may do this. One big reason is often to test our faith, another is to teach us to have a deeper reliance on God, and not on self. When you have faulty mental processing and cognitive distortions, it really hits directly at pride and self-sufficiency. You learn you can ve wrong – very wrong – about things. That your mind is finite, fallible, and human. That you need a God who is infinite, infallible, and divine to steer the course of your life and make the decisions reserved for God alone.

One of the big benefits I’ve seen in my own mental health journey has been gaining knowledge. If I had not had distressing obsessions and compulsions I wouldn’t have done thorough research into the condition, wouldn’t understand the brain at the level I do now, which is a huge blessing as we are made in the image of God so studying the brain allows us to see the handiwork of God in His most important creation, I wouldn’t have helpful information to share with others who suffer from the condition. It’s hard to be committed to a deep and thorough of something that isn’t personal. It’s when it’s personal that you hunger and thirst for the answers, and God promises that those who seek shall find, and those who ask moral questions and hunger and thirst after righteousness shall not only have their questions answers, but they shall be filled with His righteousness.

I have certainly found the answers in the Bible and in neuroscience involving the important questions intrusive thoughts raise, to be answered in a very satisfying way, showing God to be just and good, even when we lack important brain perceptions and really do think we are guilty, God will never hold someone guilty for something they didn’t do and that is an illness. He always does right by us, always, even when we can’t understand what is going on and are limited due to our finite human nature and the symptoms of an illness that distorts our perception.

God and His truth is not limited by our malfunction. Truth exists outside of us and beyond us, and is eternal. Truth is not under threat when we’re experiencing delusions or lacking important perceptions. Jesus defended truth by His perfect life and death in this world, defeating lies, and lawlessness and evil. Truth and goodness are held up by the very arms of God Himself, the very life of God Almighty. So even when our perception distorts the picture and we fear terrifying things like that we have committed the unpardonable sin, God is outside of our opinions, perception, and self, and His truth is indestructible, always perfect and right. This is one of the important lessons that going through mental conditions like obsessive-compulsive syndrome and psychosis have taught me.

There is a requirement for Christians to take the best care of their health that they possibly can, out of appreciation for Christ who bought them back with His own life.

It’s important to help the sufferer improve their health in any way they can, such as eating a healthier diet, starting supplements that have been proven to help with lowering histamine and thus lowering intrusive thoughts, and if they have the funds for it, encourage them to see a Functional Medicine doctor and be tested and treated for their condition, or try medication if absolutely needed with a mainstream doctor.

They will gain a sense of responsibility and of agency in learning it’s their job to take care of their health, both of which are healing and tend to balance the mind. People need purpose. They need to know God created them for a deeply significant purpose and that learning to care for their body is a core part of that purpose we have as Christians in living for the glory of God.

When they see the supplements and treatments helping, they will start to feel a sense of agency, and relief, knowing they have tools that can tip their thoughts in healthy directions and take control of the turbulent intrusive thoughts and mental clutter and mood swings (if present) going on in their brain. They have weapons to help them win the brain inflammation battle and tip things in their favor.

And of course, it’s crucial you go over what sin is from the Bible. (For a Biblical break-down of this topic see my article titled "What Is Sin and Why Does Having an Accurate Understanding of it Matter in Mental Health Conditions?") The mental condition has caused imbalanced thinking and cognitive distortions, and so they may have lost basic Bible knowledge such as how the Bible defines sin and what it is. The Bible doesn’t call everything sin.

Once people know they have OCD, they often delve into psychology articles and Youtube videos, but I have not found these to be the most helpful. While there is certainly nothing wrong with getting informed in this way and it can be a good starting point, it's not enough for the person to really grasp what is going on in their brain, and really doesn't explain the neurological basis of the illness. I recommend delving into neurology and neuropsychiatry journals, articles and studies.

They will find that the body has a sexual system, and that this sexual system is very linked with the neurotransmitters dopamine and histamine, and that when these are having signaling issues or are too high or too low, that the sexual system can malfunction. Not just in the body, but also in the brain. Causing symptoms like hypersexuality, intrusive sexual thoughts, and other sexually graphic brain content, even when the person is not engaging in sexual activity or watching pornographic content.

They will also learn that many sexual responses originate and are handled by the unconscious brain processes. Much of the sexual response involves unconscious sexual readiness and all that goes into being ready to sexually engage with another person, and these processes get turned on by the body at inappropriate times due to dopamine issues.

They will learn how low serotonin and high histamine are linked in the medical literature with intrusive violent thoughts, and how the fight-or-flight response involves themes of violence coming from the unconscious parts of the brain, for the purpose of amping up a person physically and mentally to fight off an aggressor and escape danger. If being amped up to fight for your life were merely a part of our psychology and we had to consciously work ourselves into such a state of mind, it wouldn't work. It would be too slow, the impulses would be too forced, and not organic and biological enough to respond quickly to the threat. Only unconscious thoughts and programming is effective.

The Christian with this condition, who desires to obey God and live a pure life, will find they have much control over their conscious thoughts. They won’t engage in much sexual fantasy when it comes to chosen thoughts. They won’t dehumanize people and see them as sex objects. They will treat people with dignity and value them. They will have concern and care in their motives and expression when they talk with people, their experience in having a mental illness often increases compassion and love in them. But when it comes to unconscious thoughts and impulses, these may be very out-of-control with lots of intrusive sexual or violent thoughts. Because they have a mental condition.

The Question Our Illness Keeps Us From Asking

After writing this chapter I ran this question by someone I know “If you started getting intrusive violent or blasphemous thoughts, as someone with sound reasoning, what would your reaction be?” I wanted to know what a normal reaction would be for someone who doesn’t have a mental illness and who is thinking clearly, if this happened to them. And she responded “I’d be asking what’s wrong with my brain?” She went on to explain that she’d be very worried her brain was damaged and she’d developed a mental condition, and that her next step would be seeing a doctor and asking them what could be wrong with her.

This answer hit me hard. Wow, how unfortunate it is that those of us with these conditions have our reasoning and our awareness hijacked by the illness so that we can’t ask the simple question “what’s wrong with my brain?” and be concerned about our health. The illness traps us in our room for months and months trying to control the violent and blasphemous thoughts, feeling intense guilt, never addressing the real issue, that hey maybe there’s something wrong with my brain’s hardware – maybe I’m ill – and maybe I need to see a psychiatrist or Functional Medicine doctor and be treated. It is unfortunate that so many times mental illnesses hijack our cognitive function and impair our perception so we can’t see our problems for what they really are and problem solve effectively and get help sooner than we usually do. It often takes an intervention on the part of family to get the person to a doctor.

This is a short chapter so add in other involuntary and unconscious conditions and symptoms. That whole article.