From a strictly clinical view, are those who have spiritual gifts actually suffering from mental illnesses?

[squaresummer361]

psychics, mediums, prophets, empaths, indigo, astral travelers, etc...

Are all of these always considered to be signs of mental illness or does the mental health community allow for what cannot be proven?

[steel9maiden]

My doctor is trying to tell me the opposite, but then my doctor is very strange and incompetent.

[[Insert Alias]]

Many are clearly delusional, but some are just con artists.

[deshane2530]

My mom is a psychic and I feel that she has a mental illness as well as that ability. I really do. Good question!

[hope]

While I am not qualified to answer your exact question,
I can say that if you look under the Dissociative Disorders, some of what is documented is in response to "Satanic Ritual Abuse".
....and so, the "spiritual world" is considered to be a source of some psychological illnesses.

[Act D]

it is only a mental illness if it interferes with their ability to lead life in a 'normal and productive' manner. You can see/hear/feel an entire orchestra of experiences and as long as you can function in life you are not clinically mentally ill. (you may be neurochemically, socially, and/or intellectually ill)

it could become a mental illness if the 'Voice of the Great Spaghetti Monster' were so loud and invasive that you could no longer hold down a job, take care of yourself physically, attend to the voice instead of to your physical surroundings.

i would position that many of those claiming to have gifts (ie: psychics, etc) are closer to sociopaths, as they prey upon the ignorant hopeful, leeching both their money and their hope away.

[Shelley C]

I have had "visions" of the future all my life. They have come true 99% of the time. This scared my father so badly that he sent me to psychiatrists and I was diagnosed as severely depressed. Even on meds I still have the visions and still have the abiltiy to see events. So I am not convinced that the mental illness brings on the visions or the visions bring on the illness. The female side of my family is gifted in this way for many generations. Having been put in a position of being outcast for such gifts is a big part of the depression as well as the mental illness passed down by my father. So I do not believe that one is a result of the other but can be closely associated due to pressure because of family and peers.

[NH Baritone]

Mental illness does not occur simply between the ears. It always involves impaired functioning on some level with your daily activities, your social/vocational life, or your general sense of well-being. That's why many cultures have "spiritually gifted" individuals (witchdoctors, shamans, etc.) as a part of their general frame of reference for how the universe works. Many of these are not necessarily mentally ill individuals, but rather people who believe they actual powers not given to every person, and because the culture accepts the idea that such powers exist, there's no mental illness diagnosable (unless there is impaired functioning).

That said, in the west, there are 3 types of people who have claim such powers:

1. Those who believe they have the gifts they claim (just like the witchdoctors, etc.) and who nonetheless continue to function well within society.
2. Those who are mentally ill (obviously deluded individuals who are generally impaired enough to prevent their working or carrying out much of normal life).
3. Charlatans, fakes, and con-artists.

The last category contains almost every psychic, medium, prophet, etc., that accepts money for their services.

If they actually had such powers, do you think they would need to bilk hard working individuals out of the cash needed to put a roof over their head and food on their table? No, they would be earning big bucks playing the market or the casino, finding buried treasure, etc. They wouldn't have to go after the pocket books of newly widowed individuals who desperately want to speak again with their dead spouse.

Even if they don't state the charges, but accept "donations," that's still a charlatan who has discovered how to so convincingly do a "cold reading" that they know they'll make more money pretending to be "free-of-charge" than they would if they actually charged $1000/hour.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

[1024]

Possibly, but I think it's more usual for the reverse to happen (mentally ill have spiritual gifts, once they find their way out of the fog of their illness.)

[Sq∪∈∈g¡∈]

well i belive that god does really give people these gifts.. just like the sense of good and evil that he always gives you when you let him into your life.