Schizophrenia is a severe disease of the brain. It can be managed with medication but does require lifelong medication management and can be debilitating. It is extremely important that people with schizophrenia remain on their medication. The National Institute of Mental Health advises, “Patients should not stop taking a medication without a doctor’s help. Stopping medication suddenly can be dangerous, and it can make the symptoms of schizophrenia worse.” If you or someone you care about has this disease it can be a heavy burden (to say the least). Prayer can help ease that burden.
As I have a loved one who has schizophrenia I did a web search for “schizophrenia prayer”. What I found was appalling and not at all comforting. I wanted to offer a sample prayer that was in line with what schizophrenia really is while embracing the Christian faith (if you have a different kind of faith feel free to alter the prayers for your own faith). Instead of having a specific name in the prayers I use “loved one”, “her” or “she”. Feel free to substitute your loved one’s name and change the gender as appropriate.
How do we pray for someone with schizophrenia? There’s no right or wrong way. Pour out your heart to God. He longs to hear from you. These prayers are for the afflicted, for the care partners and for the extended family and friends of people with schizophrenia.
I offer these prayers to help you pray specifically for the challenges that schizophrenia can present and for those that find uttering more than a “Lord, please help my loved one” prayer difficult. The first prayer is a general prayer for someone with any type of schizophrenia. The second is more specifically for someone with the paranoid type of schizophrenia. You don’t have to pray the whole entire prayer; you can pray the parts that speak to you or a sentence here and there. Use the prayers in whatever manner you prefer. Whatever you choose, I hope these prayers are a blessing and a comfort to you.
General Prayer for Someone with Schizophrenia
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are the great healer, the only living God, ruler of the universe. We are humbled by your love for us as fragile humans. Lord, we don’t understand why our loved one suffers from schizophrenia; it’s so hard to understand. But we come to you asking for your healing hand upon our loved one. Please heal her brain. If there are latent viruses please demolish them. If there are mutated genes, please fix them. Please heal every cell in her body.
If it’s not in your will to heal her completely at this time, please help her to take her medicine as prescribed, today and every day for the rest of her time here on earth. We know that it is very hard, especially for people afflicted with schizophrenia, to stay on their medicine for life, but as this disease is incurable except through a miracle from Your hand, it is so very necessary. Help her to see how much better and safer her life and the lives of those that live and interact with her are when she is on her medicine. Help her want to take it and feel good about taking it.
Help her to be free of the disease created voices in her head. If that’s not possible, help her to distinguish real voices from imaginary schizophrenia produced voices. Help her to be grounded in reality and to more easily tell the difference between what is going on in real life and any hallucinations or delusions put into her brain by the illness. Please help her to organize her thoughts, pay attention to real life, and remember that we love her deeply and want only the best for her. Please help her to communicate rationally and calmly. Please help her to manage her day in a productive way.
Please let her to feel your loving arms around her right now. Please give her peace and contentment. If she does not already know you as her personal Savior, please help her to establish that relationship today. Let her feel your healing presence. Please encourage her heart and mind. Please give strength and wisdom to her care partners and those who live with her. May they feel strengthened and encouraged today. May your loving presence be upon them today as well. We lift up our loved one to you in prayer, Lord. We ask all this according to Your holy will, in Christ Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer for Someone with Paranoid Schizophrenia
In addition to the above prayer, you might pray something like this:
Please help her to see that we love her. Please erase the paranoid thoughts and replace them with loving thoughts. Please clear her mind and help her to realize that no one is plotting against her, no one wants to hurt her and that she is safe. Please help her to be calm and help her to control her mannerisms and keep her voice volume reasonable and restrain herself from hitting, pushing, punching, or otherwise lashing out physically.
Please give her peace. Please fill her mind and spirit with Your love so that instead of feeling persecuted, suspicious and tense, she feels calm, peaceful and relaxed. We know all things are possible for you, Lord. Please heal our loved one. Amen.
Sources:
Medline Plus, Schizophrenia, http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?v:project=medlineplus&query;=schizophrenia&x;=0&y;=0
Medline Plus, Schizphrenia, paranoid type, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000936.htm
National Institute of Mental Health, Schizophrenia, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia-easy-to-read/schizophrenia-easy-to-read.shtml
