Mental "disorders" & Biblical counseling

Recently I was asked:

Based on your experience, in the area of Christian counseling, is it possible that some folks actually have medical conditions that lead to various mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, obssesive compulsive, etc. and it is not due to a sin problem?

My response:

There are legitimate organic causes which can and do contribute to people’s problems. For example, someone might have a real physiological problem with their pituitary gland and that might be a contributing factor in their behavior. So yes, there are organic causes which must be considered when evaluating and counseling people. The problem is that secular diagnosis will NEVER address the whole problem because it will not address the whole of man (physical as well as metaphysical (spiritual)).

With that in mind, it should be obvious that many diagnoses in “clinical psychology” today are merely attempts at classification of behaviors. If you really think about it, it is ironic that the medical community exults (and generally excels) in cold and hard physical facts and the interpretation of them (or “science”) yet they cannot avoid in diagnosis the reality of something unseen and metaphysical like emotions. Such psychiatric diagnoses as manic depression and bipolar disorder are merely observations and classifications of behavior that cannot be tested for and verified by scientific means. For example, there is not a test you can run on the blood of an anxious person in order to verify anxiety as a medical (physical) condition. You might, however, if you tested hundreds of patients experiencing anxiety, find a pattern or “chemical signature” that was common to the majority. The question then becomes: what EXACTLY is the first cause? Was there something seen or unseen that originally caused the chemical “imbalance”, resulting in the observed behavior? Or was the original cause of the observed behavior a physiological fluctuation in the chemicals within the individual?

I hope you can see that these questions are not solvable merely by science, and it is because they are founded upon fallacious presuppositions. The system that begins with only that which can be seen is doomed from the outset.

The true Christian counselor takes both the physiological and the spiritual into consideration when counseling. That is why a Christian counselor might work with a doctor in a case where an individual suffering from anxiety might use medication to assist in overcoming anxiety in the short term. The overarching principle that would apply in every case, though, is that the individual is RESPONSIBLE for their behavior – EVEN WHEN THERE IS A PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTOR. The Bible says that we are responsible for our behavior - PERIOD.

When closely examined, the labels used in diagnostic “clinical psychology” usually end up being nothing more than excuses to justify sinful behavior.