Conservatives on Mental Illness: Demons or Denial

Conservatives on Mental Illness: Demons or Denial
Why do religious conservatives have such a difficult time admitting mental illness exists? This question mystified me for a long time, until I asked my wife. Now, I get it. It goes back to demons. Conservatives generally support religion, while they tend to reject science. Poll how many conservatives believe in evolution and how many liberals believe in evolution. You get my gist. Some conservative still believe the earth is the center of the universe, but I doubt a single liberal does. Psychology is a science, and for that, I can see how it would alienate conservatives. Differently, religion and history go hand in hand. In religion, demons cause mental illness. Consequently, a brain that gravitates toward religion, specifically Christianity, will often explain mental illness through demons, rather than using the modern lingo.
Unfortunately, this has consequences. By neglecting the modern lingo, conservatives often neglect modern treatment for mental illness. It is as if the very idea of a psychiatrist is downright spooky to many conservatives. That is a shame because it results in denial of mental illnesses, especially untreated depression or bipolar.
Right away I’m sure many conservatives just wrote me off. I wrote bipolar, and for many conservatives, bipolar doesn’t exist. Perhaps, this is a result of failure of modern psychology. It got too complicated for the patient and families of the mentally ill to understand. Not everyone is capable being an expert on bipolar for sure. Not everyone needs to read a book on their illness to find out what is wrong. However, this is a minor error. The far greater error is to outright deny mental illness exists.
That is, I don’t care if you believe bipolar exists, but I do care if you believe mental illness is possible, specifically mental illness other than depression. This is because I care whether or not you are willing to step out of denial and treat a mental illness, not over some trifling words such as ADD, anxiety, or bipolar. No, I don’t believe that they are demons. I believe that these things are physiological problems that come from messed up metabolic pathways, and neurotransmitter function. That is, if you are mentally ill, then you need to go to your doctor and get and take your pills though not every doctor is a good one. Work with your doctor, and not against him or her, as they probably have a lot of education and you might even find that they actually do know what they are talking about.
The problem with mental illnesses is that some of them have stigma. Bipolar certainly does. Schizophrenia does. However, if you say you have some attention problems, then probably nobody will look at you funny. Yet, they may look at you funny if you say that you have ADHD. When you do have mental illness, then you are forced into trying to be politically correct about everything. Strangely, bipolar people rarely want anything to do with being politically correct. I know I don’t. That’s why I speak my mind in my blog. I no longer worry about people saying, I heard about you. I just go all out. I’ll tell anybody. I don’t care. It’s better than being paranoid that your past is coming to haunt you.
Maybe, with this attitude we see why conservatives don’t like words like bipolar. They say, is there such a thing as hyper-religiosity? Likewise, a common one is, isn’t hyper-religiosity a good thing? Then, the depression hits! All because the conservative could not recognize that hyper-religiosity is in fact a real problem! The doctor wasn’t listened to. Somebody in the family thought he or she knew best! This denial works until your loved one commits suicide, as bipolar depressions can often be prevented if the mania is prevented. You might wonder, as I do, how this sort of denial can help any family.