re: Sunday AMA: SECdragonmaster

quote:

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Have you ever encountered demonic possession or claimed demonic possession in any patients?

Do you, from a psychiatric standpoint, believe in demonic possession?

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Yes I do believe in spiritual warfare. I have encountered it once. I was leading an inpatient group of 7 adults that were all narcotic dependent and we had a new member admitted the night before. She was previously living in St. Louis but was riding the bus and went into withdrawal and was admitted for detox and treatment. She did not speak at all for the first 30 mins and would just sit there shaking and laughing in a muffled tone.

One of the members finally yelled at her to stop disrupting the group and a few others asked her to leave. Before I could stop them from ganging up on her - she stood up and started pointing her finger at 3 people in the group.

She screamed and said “you had 2 abortions”, “you molested a little girl”, and “you cheated on you husband with his best friend”. Then laughed and fell on the ground and started writhing around.

I was in my third year of residency and had no idea what to do. The only reason I remember it was that each of the 3 people later said what she specifically accused them of was true.

I have never seen anything like it before or since. But I learned 2 important things:

1. Demons are real.
2. People in Missouri are not like the rest of us.