The Elect Cannot Be Deceived

A lot of psychology is inspired and fueled by Christians, eminating the Word of God as best as they understand it. But the Word is covered up by so many other names, like "psychology," and it's subsequent departments, organizations, and clinics. And when the Name above all names is never mentioned... I was just about to write: ...then a Christian might be duped by the plethora of information coming at them and manipulating them. But that's impossible! The elect cannot be deceived. I have been mandated to do this counseling and receive whatever labels they have come up with for me. As one of the elect, I choose to respond in a way that professes my faith, stands against what I know to be incorrect information, and unite with my brothers and sisters who are going through a similar persecution under Society's various names.

In accordance with loving my neighbor as myself, every individual I speak to should be treated as an individual, like myself, not as a drone replicated by the system. He or she is a person with a soul and conscience, regardless of the rhetoric they may dispense. However, the System, in all of its names, is an entity that cannot possibly know God. It is the sum total of human thought and spirit, neither of which can know God unless God intervenes for us - which He does so well, that He not only divides us from fellow earthlings as individuals (and unites us with Himself and other believers), but He even divides the soul from the spirit. (Hebrews 4:12)

The Axes and the Term "Disorder"

Allpsych.com has a good explanation of the axes used in the DSM, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, where the diagnoses come from. These axes seem to identify various aspects where something could go wrong, and hence earm the term "disorder."

I want to know what's wrong with me so I never physically hurt my wife again. But I really want to know what God thinks, not so much than what the State thinks (or any part of the system or any name that tries to help others). And He shows us His Word, even through other systems. He also gives us our brothers and sisters to love within other systems and names.

My Histrionic Features

Dr. Mark Dombeck at Mentalhelp.net suggests the following symptoms for histrionic features of personality disorders, which seem to be true for me:

• Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
  For over a decade I used to dream so much about sex that I would hunt down possible flirtations to have something to dream about. Now it's hard to stop looking and not initiate something. It really became a source of enjoyment to the expense of real relationships.
  
• Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
  I don't have a shallow expression - I'm rather demonstrative - but I shift rapidly as I alternate between priorities, spiritual outlooks, interpersonal understandings, and other facets of life that could all come into play in any situation.
• has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
  I get like this when I'm especially angry and don't care to work it out anymore.
• shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion
  I'm like this usually under three conditions - 1) angry and uncaring, as described above, 2) with my children, to try to communicate in a way they understand, and 3) when I really feel the urge to act, but then I always explain to others that I'm acting.
• considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are
  I tend and try to see more intimacy in my marriage than my wife does, and I have been hurt by my subjective opinion of her insensitivity. I'm not ready to see this as inapproriate, because a person has to has to have faith in the great oneness that God gave us with Himself and with others and try to realize that in their lives. If someone else doesn't see it, though, in love it can't be forced upon them, only encouraged in smaller bits they can understand.
  

Labels, Help Networks, Interpersonal Interactions, and True Healing

Frankly, I'm embarrassed about the labels. And to read self-help websites about this makes it sound like a rare sickness. It's easy for a "healthy" person to see the same material and think, "I'm glad I don't have that." The frustration is that one person gets the label, but each of us has issues of varying degrees. Another complication in this thinking arises when two people get together, whether or not they have accepted a label for their problem, and negatively affect each other. Each one can be embarrassed about their own faults, thinking they've lost all their progress, when it was the nuance of the other person at some particular moment that should be to blame. So there can be no maturation and healing without doing it God's way. A treatment program cannot be successful without God's Word and Sacraments because the treatments we typically use only try to replicate part of God's Word, and never give Him credit.

Spiritually, this self-help process is a way of saying to one's own social network (in all its various forms of professionalism, indifference, objectivity, comprised of doctors, psychologists, friends, strangers, books, magazines, etc.) that the person is m sorry for their wayward tendencies and are open to help. As the Lord has said in His word, "confess your sins one to another and pray for each other that you may be healed." James 5:16 So my treatment program will not be successful unless by God's grace, He blesses me with a network of Christians and time in His Word and Sacraments. In Christ, I would be able to interact with others, labeled sick or healthy, as the Great Counselor guides, and things could really and truly get better, instead of more confusing.