The patient is a 22 year old single woman. She has been under the care of a very competent mental health provider and is taking five psychotropic medications for presumed Bipolar Disorder. She is on Abilify 20 mg, Risperdal 1 mg, (both are antipsychotics), Lexapro 40 mg (antidepressant), Trazodone 75 mg and Vistaril 100 mg (for sleep). She has gained 130 pounds in the past three years, going from 130 to 260.
She began having difficult at age 16, with trouble concentrating, racing thoughts. She also was drinking too much and angry much of the time. She was prescribed Adderall for the presumed Attention Deficit Disorder. This resulted in increased racing thoughts, too much energy, not sleeping, acting out, i.e. sexual promiscuity, excess drinking. The diagnosis was changes to Bippolar Disorder, although there have not been any more of the hyper episodes (presumed hypomania.)
At 19 she began binge eating, without purging. At 20 she began to experience a relationship with a man named Saul (name changed for privacy reasons). She soon learned that she was the only one who could see him. This led to a psychiatric hospitalization and the introduction of anti-psychotic medications. She continued to see and hear Saul, who at first was friendly and intimate but not sexual with her, but then began berating her for being fat, lazy, etc. The medications reduced these experiences but did not eliminate them. The patient entered a prolonged period of depression. She had low energy, still has trouble focusing and concentrating, sleeps too much, failed at college and began to see no future for herself.
She was brought to me by her father who was convinced that there must be a better way to deal with the catastrophic changes in his daughter.
After this initial evaluation we began doing some inner exploring, asking the patient to become mindful of inner physical sensations. She identified herself as feeling anxious, but the physical sensation was heaviness in the chest. There was not the usual tingling, jittery feeling I would expect with anxiety. By dialoguing with the heavy place in the chest we found a Suffering Being (what some would call an earthbound spirit). He was a man who had died in 1920, having been murdered in a fight with his cousin. He cleared very easily into the World of Light.
Heaviness in the chest: GONE
Next we asked to speak to Saul, the "hallucinated" man. He appeared reluctantly and said he wanted me to stop doing what I was doing. Upon further interview, being constrained by the Archangel Michael and commanded to speak the truth in the presence of the Archangels, he admitted he was not human, but what we would call a demon. He said his purpose was to try to make the patient come over to the dark side. He admitted to creating havoc in her mind and causing her to binge eat. He said he came into her when she was 19 years old. Recognizing that he was now in "trouble" with those who directed his actions, by virtue of having been found out, he was willing to go into the Light also, to a place specially designated for rehabilitating beings like himself.
No more Saul.
Next we called in the patient's True Self (what some would call the High Self). She said that the problems began at the patient's age of 15 when she became angry about parental conflicts and started drinking and behaving badly. Her True Self then was forced to leave and tend to other soul parts of the patient (not explored in this first session). She agreed to remain and guide and protect the patient now that we had done this healing work.
As one might imagine, the patient was somewhat surprised by the session, but in a good way. She was no longer anxious, no longer had the heaviness in the chest. I told her that we had accomplished a great deal in the first session and that it had gone rather easily. I expected there to be more work, but that things would be considerably better for her now.
We then began a gradual process of dosage reduction in her medications, which were demonstrably not working anyway.
I will continue to follow her closely over the next few weeks.
I have to conclude that this was not a case of Bipolar Disorder at all. This "psychosis" consisting of a single hallucinated being, was in fact a case of spirit possession. Using anti-psychotic medication for situations like this, which is the current standard of care by good practitioners, has very little if any effect on the spirit being. It just makes it harder for the patient to know what he is doing!
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