You're Spiritually Sick, Not Mentally Ill.

Forget what they told you. The pain isn’t madness — it’s separation from God. And He’s calling you home.

I’m going to share here what I learned in those early years of becoming Catholic when God rescued me from the ravages of sin. I’ll begin by saying that what we call ‘mental illness’ is a lie. It isn’t some random brain slip, a glitch in faulty wiring, or the overflow of unsourced guilt or feelings flooding our consciousness. Nor is it what the medical establishment tells you it is — science-y cutouts conveniently framed to fit official declarations that call symptoms fancy names with pills attached.

No, Mental Illness is fundamentally a spiritual disorder:

‘The mind airs the soul’s dirty laundry.’

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What follows is the first in a series on spiritual victory over mental illness.

This is not theory or speculation, but my witness to what the Lord taught me about sin and its devastating effects (I had them all), its place and meaning in the world and in Salvation, and the power of Jesus Christ to save the soul and restore the sinner. While the gifts of the Holy Spirit are never in short supply to those who seek after them, much of what I received arrived as a sort of accompaniment to my transformation from death to new life in the Catholic faith.

In the spirit of ‘less is more’ here on Substack, I’ve set aside most of the personal narrative to focus on the knowledge and instruction that emerged along the way. Footnotes are included to offer ventilation where needed.

Lastly — if anything here contradicts Catholic teaching, obey the Church.

Godspeed,
Mark

Divine Mercy Sunday, 2025

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MENTAL ILLNESS (MI) is all the rage these days. Have you noticed? It seems everybody has one and isn’t shy to talk about it. In fact, in some camps (overly represented by the young and identity confused) it’s de rigueur to be mentally ill today, excusing as it does personal responsibility for bad choices and just about every moral failing enjoyed by the New Depravity culture, which is itself — insane.

And yet, none of those caught up in this ring of fire have any real idea what’s happening to them or what’s behind it. The answers offered by mental health professionals are not answers at all, but long-promulgated deceptions (the timeline of modern psychology runs parallel to evolutionary theory¹ — did you know?), deeply rooted in the zeitgeist as ‘truth,’ and available to all with little to justify the dangers involved beyond the movement’s self-promoted status (notice, if you will, the similarities here to mass formation psychosis that chased the world into the arms of COVID vaccine uptake during the ‘Pandemic’).

The Mental Illness trap advances the devil’s agenda to erase God from life and bind patients to their suffering and sins without recourse to divine intervention — to Salvation and healing.

Imagine, for a moment, the sheer audacity of building a global enterprise to reframe spiritual maladies — for that is what they are — as clinical disorders.²

Instead of pointing those contaminated by sin toward repentance and healing as Scripture and Jesus Himself do, the state-sanctioned priest (psychiatrist) assigns diagnostic labels and psyche meds to address the symptoms of MI, offering patients numbing stasis in pill form (freezing the client in pharmaceutical amber) in place of a cure, a practice that couldn’t be more diabolical — which it is, and by design.³

For these reasons, and chiefly because of what Christ has done for me, I’m standing up to the brutal assault that is the Mental Illness deception, and to share what Jesus showed me when He saved me from the perils of sin.

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How low can you go?

My escape from the feral banquet of living scabrously (fornicator, drunkard, grifter, ne'er-do-well) started from what I call the basement of ‘rock bottom.’

To illustrate my life at the time, I remember being abroad and looking out the bus window at a garbage eating, emaciated, 3d world, lice infested, street dog and thinking — ‘that mangey mutt has it better than me; at least he’s innocent.’

Preoccupied with appearances as an unnatural inclination to hide my true self from onlookers (this existential fear of being seen, common to sinners, probably helps explain the exploding Beauty Enhancement Industry), my constant effort to satisfy my base appetites left me hollow and bitter, and more unhinged than I am even now comfortable admitting. Inside, I was the opposite of that glossy exterior — an ugly man drowning in neurosis, anxiety, and depression, the standard coin of that realm.

Healer of my shame

Much to my shock and forever awe, when my time of metanoia — or conversion — finally arrived, the Jesus I was emotionally conditioned to fear (and demonically pressured to avoid), was nothing like I had imagined.

In fact, The King of Second Chances⁴ embraced me without hesitation or judgement, and only total love. He then set to work repairing what I had broken, tweezing out the shrapnel from all my self-inflicted wounds and the demonic parasites that had latched-on and patched-in along the way.

Before Christ I was your classic wastrel — sick, starving, and crazy.

Today, I am whole, healthy for the most part, and happily sane.

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The Catholic Imperative

I get asked why I became Catholic.

It all started with my infant baptism in our local parish at the time — Holy Spirit Catholic Church — in what was then Agincourt, Ontario, which my parents attended every Sunday until they quit going altogether,⁵ when I was around five.⁶

Decades later, but before my conversion began in earnest, I knew my escape route from the bowels of sin would require a true map, a straight path, and sturdy ladder (saving my soul and life was paramount; I was done and dusted, and couldn’t delay) … a pilgrimage I was absolutely certain began and ended in the Catholic faith. I was also given to understand that the forgiveness and healing I needed was going to take all of Christ … Who waited for me in fullness in the Catholic Church.

In a real if mystical sense, it was as though my return flight back to God had been scheduled long in advance⁷ (I sometimes wonder if this isn’t true for all of us?).

And so, a Roman Catholic I became.

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Some words about Conversion⁸

I won’t kid you. The actual experience of moving to Christ from a life of sinful folly can be rugged at times. My own journey was fraught with obstacles and blowback mainly targeting my free will, which was badly damaged and weakened from years of surrendering to temptation. Because of this, many at this time will face spiritual attacks⁹ meant to block us from crossing over. These aggressions are stressful and require prayer, but they will pass. It helps to know this ahead of time, to prepare ourselves, to do battle, and to conquer.¹⁰

Thankfully, for those of you contemplating the road of return, you can expect divine help¹¹ to get you over the bumps and fissures and safely home, buoyed by a new hope that I liken to the first rays of sunshine on the horizon, recognizable in shape if not yet in detail.

But there is a great difference between seeing the light and living in it.

Having run that race, I’ll cut to the chase: the fulfillment of that dawning promise awaits you in the Holy Roman Catholic Church — founded by Christ and His apostles — where all are invited to the wedding feast of the Liturgy and the Holy Eucharist (His Body and Blood). There, through the Sacraments and with the help of a surfeit of additional blessings and graces, we receive the love, strength, healing, wisdom, and sustenance we are born to find and never go without (the God hole in every soul is filled here).

Looking back, I can also remember how in the early days of becoming Catholic some of the old wounds would flash every now and then, tender and sore — though not as before. I hadn’t yet grasped the meaning of the thorn in St. Paul’s side¹² or how some remnants of the former self may take longer to vacate than others (think of barn dust trailing the cloak of an escaping horse rider).

Like all things turned to good for those who believe¹³ these echoes serve as important reminders to us to remain humble, grateful, and close to the Lord, so that we don’t take our miracle for granted and stumble back into the grave.

Let There Be Light

Making sense of Mental Illness requires a return visit to the Bible where the drama of sin and its devastating effects — and our need for a Savior — originate.

It’s there, in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, that we encounter two foundational events:

First, The Creation Story most are familiar with, culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve, who lived for a time in splendid harmony with their Heavenly Father in the Garden of Eden.

Second, is the event known as ‘The Fall’¹⁴ — centering on Adam and Eve’s forced expulsion from Eden as punishment for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God specifically FORBADE THEM NOT TO EAT upon penalty of death.

It’s here that ORIGINAL SIN¹⁵ entered the human genus, and why our first parents found themselves cast out from Paradise and into this world of Exile — bringing with them suffering, disorder, death … and the Evil One.

Genesis 2:16–17 (RSV-CE):

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

As the story unfolds in the wake of God’s explicit warning to the couple, a curious Eve finds herself before the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, where she encounters the serpent — the former cherub Lucifer (later revealed in this world as the Devil: Satan) — waiting to entice her with alluring visions of god-like grandeur (echoes of his own fallen aspirations), which the now-limbless creature wickedly insinuates God is unwilling to share.

Consider for the moment: Eve had everything handed to her on a golden platter. Forever secure in the presence of her loving God and Creator; her doting husband by her side. She lived in complete abundance — without exception.

And it wasn’t enough.

Instead, Eve craved what she didn’t have.

Unwilling to resist the serpent’s lies — and in an act of defiance that would shake the very foundations of Creation — Eve took the fruit and ate.

Instantly, her eyes were opened to a world she was never meant to know.

Grasping the full gravity of her offense, it’s striking that Eve’s first instinct was not to run to God and beg His forgiveness, but to draw Adam into her guilt — coaxing him to eat the fruit also, hoping to share the blame and shield herself in the process.

Original Sin is so momentous, we can’t heal the rift on our own

So it is that every soul descended from our common ancestors enters the world marked by the curse of that seminal betrayal in the Garden of Eden. Through this wound — passed down the ages in flesh, blood, and spirit, each of us inherits a nature dimmed in understanding, weakened in will, inclined toward sin, and separated from God.

And that, beloved, is why we need a Saviour.

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The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

Life is the testing ground for each soul born into Exile separated from God by Original Sin (that’s all of us). It is here, in space and time, that the knowledge of good and evil collides again and again within the continuum of our earthly existence — through the temptations we face and choices we make — all centered on the gift of free will.¹⁶

From the moment life begins, we weave through time yearning to be reunited with God,¹⁷ and to overcome the burden of our mortal captivity — a struggle waged against the ceaseless efforts of the tempter¹⁸ (now prince of this world), armed with powerful tools and legions of acolytes, to lead us astray and drag us to Hell, if he can.

And yet more than this — above all, imbuing all, and surrounding all — Creation resounds with the signature and symphony of its Uncreated Master, who offers forgiveness for sins and escape from judgement in and through His Son, Jesus Christ — Jesus, Who alone is given the power by the Father to exonerate the guilty, raise the dead, and rewrite destinies.

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The wages of sin — paid by Christ

When Jesus Christ saves a soul from Original Sin (the tainted fount from which all other sins¹⁹ flow), He delivers or rescues the person from both the eternal consequences of their sins²⁰ and the oppressive overhang of evil that haunts the life of every sinner — the ‘fruit’ of sin (see, The Pledge²¹).

Each one saved by their belief in Jesus as Lord & Saviour is divinely conveyed from death in their transgressions, to new life in the Holy Spirit by a miracle of sufficient grace unique to each of us according to our needs, and made uniformly possible by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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The problem of unchecked sin

Like sharp talons piercing the soul, the powers and principalities of evil²² — on mission²³ with their father, the Devil, to trouble us in Exile — do not manifest simply as dead weight.

No — these agents of calamity are very much alive, commissioned as they are to aid and abet the soul’s spiral into the outer-courts of perdition, according to our wilful compulsions, and the role assigned them in the Divine Mystery.²⁴

It's here in the hothouse of our iniquity,²⁵ and absent saving grace (the drudgery of conviction sinners inhabit before receiving Christ as Lord), that these miners of the underworld begin their insidious work of tunneling into our subconscious, seizing territory, expanding their influence, and growing bolder over time.

What begins as the subtle temptation to satisfy illicit desires — always disguised as freedom — is easily succumbed to, especially in a completely hedonistic and permissive culture like ours, where sinful pleasures sold as leisure pastimes are placed on permanent blast.

Indulging these appetites over the protests of our conscience can feel liberating — even empowering — for a time. But beneath those fleeting rewards, the roots of pride, vanity, and self-delusion take hold, feeding on our rebellion. If left unchecked, they will grow into gnarled vines thick enough to eventually smother God’s light — the beacon of origin and return also joined to each of us at conception.²⁶

Unlike the Lord Who must be invited in wholly and consciously of our own free will, our ‘yes’ to sin gives tacit permission for evil to enter our lives.

This is how those who believe in their feelings as the sole arbiter of ‘truth’ are swept down the waterslide of least resistance and into the raging waters of preternatural oppression.

Over time, those early, guilt-free enticements give rise to accusations and condemnation as the infernal spirits advance our decay, and emerge from cover to attack our thoughts directly.

What most don’t realize is that it’s our free-willed consent to sin that gives demons permission to climb aboard in the first place, squirrel behind our defenses, and wreak havoc, transmitting payment for our sins via the anguish and emotional terrors that will later be mis-identified as mental illness.

Hence: ‘The mind airs the soul’s dirty laundry.’

Such is the way these well-coordinated hellions drive the reckless sinner from light into darkness, from hope to hopelessness, and from despair into madness — a burden that grows heavier and more unbearable the longer the unquenched fires of sin are left burning.²⁷

Our free-will acquiescence to sin attracts and nourishes the demonic realm, strengthening Satan’s grip on each of us and hastening our decay and collapse into spiritual slavery and ruin.

It’s here, in the lower depths of that descent, where the tormented soul — still blind in most cases to the link between sin and spiritual consequence, and ignorant of the saving grace Christ freely offers — seeks desperate relief from the pain associated with our spiritual bondage and affliction through drugs and alcohol, pharmaceutical sedation, and ultimately and tragically for those robbed of all hope, by suicide.

So it is, unless and until Jesus intervenes on behalf of the sinner — canceling our sin debt, shattering the Devil’s hold, and releasing us from the pledge and penalty of death — that those of us sinking in our decrepitude find ourselves dying, even though we live.

Only the infinite love of Heaven can extinguish the ultimate hatred of H3ll

Possessing cosmic attributes beyond our capacity to defeat him on our own, the Devil is nonetheless a created being — mercifully limited in scope within the economy of salvation, and utterly subject to Christ’s infinite saving power.

It is Christ alone Who restores the union between Adam and Eve’s offspring and our Heavenly Father,²⁸ torn asunder by Original Sin. It is He who overcomes the tyranny and effects of evil in the lives of believers — turning dead sinners in Exile into children of God once again — through the free gift of unmerited grace we know as Salvation.

But forgiveness does not restore us to Paradise.

We remain in Exile for the remainder of our days, buffeted by life’s trials, but now with the saving faith to guide our steps, lift us above the pining flesh, and walk with God in the fringes of heaven here on earth²⁹.

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Mental Illness redux

Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons. He gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, restored lepers, and expelled legions of devils.

Nowhere in Scripture is there mention of mental illness as we understand it today.

I would argue (and do) that the modern concept of MI creates a new category of infirmity in order to take the sufferer hostage (similar to what the Temple Pharisees³⁰ did to the Jews in Jesus’ time), repackaging spiritual affliction as medicine-dependent chemical malfunction.

What the industry offers is not healing by any stretch, but the Devil’s interception of God’s plan of redemption, fostered by a demonic system designed to obscure God and His Gospel promises almost entirely³¹. It’s no coincidence that mental illness diagnosis and treatment dovetail perfectly with the heavily promoted cultural imperatives of prevailing sin that lead the lost and undiscerning into this charnel house of spiritual squalor and no-return — a one-two punch meant to cancel the Cross and Resurrection, substituting clinical management for Divine Mercy.

But Jesus did not die for us to settle on a torpor of ills inside a prison managed by ‘experts,’ beloved — He came to set the captives free³².

Those who believe otherwise are either still clinging to their sin, content to live inside the fog of damning compromise, or are chained by circumstances beyond the reach of the Good News.

This can and must change for all the reasons stated.

I’ll end with a simple heuristic on the nature of sin and salvation that helps to bring it all full-circle …

Sanity is nearness to God
Insanity, distance from God
Sin separates us from God
And Jesus brings us back

Mental Illness is fundamentally a spiritual disorder.

JMDA

.30.

1. Both evolutionary theory and Freudian psychology owe their existence to the intellectual climate shaped by the Enlightenment with particular with emphasis on:

• Human reason as the supreme authority

• Skepticism of religious/metaphysical explanations

• A materialist view of reality (i.e., what can be observed, measured, and explained without recourse to the supernatural)

• The shift from a theocentric (God-centered) to an anthropocentric (man-centered) worldview

This foundational shift opened the door for systems of thought that attempted to explain everything — including life and the soul — without God.

2. Who would go to such an extent to deprive those most in need of their basic right to know God? I think you know.

3. We’ll cover this topic in due course. For now, check out the following:

Tardive Dysphoria is a term used to describe a condition in which long-term use of antidepressant medications—particularly SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors)—is believed to induce or worsen chronic depressive symptoms, rather than alleviate them. The term is still somewhat controversial and not officially recognized in major diagnostic manuals like the DSM-5, but it has gained attention in psychiatric literature and among clinicians concerned with iatrogenic (medically caused) harm.

4. Clarification: There is no limit to the amount of times Jesus forgives the contrite sinner.

5. Years later, when quizzed, Dad said they left the Church over contraception. My parents would remain outside of the Church well into their late 60s, when Jesus (through the pastoral ministrations the late, great Bishop Pearse Lacey, Fr. Ben St Croix, and yours truly), brought them back home.

6. I couldn’t know the meaning of baptism as a child, of course, but I remember being aware very early on of deep stirrings in my spirit which never left me, even in the wilderness years.

7. Had I not been crowned by the mantle of baptism, I doubt I would have made it back, or survived.

8. As noted, I’ve set aside personal details to keep the focus where it belongs — on the saving power of Christ, Who rescues even the most hardened sinner. But where a personal note may serve the message, I’ll share it.

9. The Evil One’s chief weapon at this time is to strike terror in the hearts of those straining to break free from sin and choose Christ. The spiritual stress can feel overwhelming at times — but it’s only a feeling. DON’T QUIT!! It gets better, I promise.

10. We will explore the road of return in more detail to follow.

11. ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.’ —Romans 5:20

12. ‘And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’
— 2 Corinthians 12:7–9

13. ‘We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.’ — Romans 8:28

14. The Fall refers to the fall from grace as the consequence of Original Sin that cast our first parents from God’s presence and Eden’s glory into the rack and ruin of planetary exile.

But The Fall also describes a deeper, ongoing reality: the fallen condition of humanity, marked by a persistent tendency to sin — to glorify the self above God, choosing darkness over light. As we learn from the Gospel of John 3:19:

‘And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’

Thus, the Fall is both historical and existential — a past event and a present reality that sets the stage for future judgement, unless and until we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

15. Original Sin refers to the first sin (act of rebellion) committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (cf. Genesis 3). As a result, all people are born marked by Original Sin and separated from God — a state only Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the Cross and victory over death (the Resurrection) can heal.

16. Just as the actions of Free will resulted in Original Sin and The Fall, choosing Christ as an act of our own free will is essential for the forgiveness of our sins, and Salvation.

17. Until we accept Salvation, many experience this yearning of return as something they can’t quite put their finger on but can’t shake either (see The Pledge, 22). It takes the Gospel to fill in the gap and give life meaning: ‘So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.’ — Romans 10:17

18. Properly understood, Satan rules in such a way as to drive all of us back to God.

19. ‘Sin’ as originally described in the Greek New Testament:

1. Hamartia (ἁμαρτία) – Sin: literally “to miss the mark” — failure to live according to God’s will.
   Example: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

2. Anomia (ἀνομία) – Lawlessness: contempt for God’s law, a rejection of divine order.
   Example: “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23)

3. Paraptōma (παράπτωμα) – Trespass, offense: often denotes unintentional sin or stumbling.
   Example: “Forgive us our trespasses...” (Matthew 6:12)

4. Adikia (ἀδικία) – Unrighteousness or injustice: actions contrary to the righteousness of God.
   Example: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful... to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

5. Ponēria (πονηρία) – Wickedness, moral corruption: sin expressed in depraved or malicious ways.
   Example: “Deliver us from evil...” (lit. ‘the evil one’) (Matthew 6:13)

20. ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ — Romans 6:23 The scripture outlines how living and dying in sin returns a similar judgement of eternal separation from God in the next.

21. The Pledge is a term I use to describe our real-time standing before God — an interior witness of His presence, if you will, that speaks to the sinner (and the saved) even despite our best efforts not to listen. It is a spiritual mechanism of pre-judgment mercifully installed to reveal to us at every moment the trajectory of our soul (Heaven or Hell?), should we die then and there as we are. These inner lights are present as prescient warnings or affirmations (regards, the faithful) urging us to repent or remain steadfast as the case may be. They are subtle acts of divine love reaching into the soul to persuade us to get off the road that leads to H3ll and onto the path of eternal life. Hence, because of this, no one who stands condemned for their sins at judgement can say, ‘I didn’t know.’

22. ‘For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ — Ephesians 6:12

23. ‘And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.’ — Rev 12:3-4

The ‘stars’ are widely believed to be the fallen angels who are reconfigured as demonic ‘powers and principalities’ of Ephesians 6:12 — demons.

24. Evil has no origin in God, nor any rightful place in His perfect will — but in His permissive will, God allows evil for the sake of accomplishing the greater good. That greater good is the full unveiling of His mercy, justice, love, and redemptive power.

25. To be clear, sin isn’t limited to our illicit escapes or moral failures. Some of the most devastating sins are those committed against us — abuse, neglect, and the many forms of trauma that sear the soul and leave behind a wake of spiritual wreckage. These are not merely psychological scars; they are often diabolically inflicted wounds — frequently targeting the innocent — that transplant incendiary demons from the corruptor to the corrupted. Like a spiritual virus, this transference can consume the infiltrated host and lead to the continuation of such evil legacies.

What I call the Sinscape — including victimization by preternatural affliction — requires its own sober reckoning. To follow.

26. We carry in us both Original Sin and the God light — or, imago Dei — the image of God as innate to every human soul from its origin.

According to St. Augustine, the soul is stamped with the image of God at its creation — a divine imprint that anchors our very being. Though darkened by sin, this indelible presence draws the soul inward toward its Maker, who is ‘more inward than my inmost self’ and ‘who waits, not afar, but within.'

27. As long as we do the keeping — they do the burning. God does not condemn us to a living hell, we do that to ourselves.

28. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ — John 3:16

29. ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’
— James 4:

30. ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.’ — Mathew 23:13

31. Yes, there are Christian counsellors, psychiatrists and psychologists, but they are Christian within the construct of Mental Health.

32. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
— Luke 4:18–19, quoting Isaiah 61