Dear Elizabeth:

I praise God that you survived all that and have come to be a practicing Catholic.

I would not worry about whether or not you have a mental illness. If you do, so what? People live with mental illness all the time. We all have crosses to bear. We need to learn to live with them, and more, to even find ways to glorify God with them. This is what many people with mental illness learn to do, just as others with any disability learn to do. Lifting up our illness an suffering to God is a great privilege in that by doing so we may help others to be saved.

A demonic element to this can come in a couple of ways:

1) a demon can play with your mind to make you worry about whether or not you are mentally ill. Ignore such thoughts, rebuke the demons behind those thoughts of doubt and worry. In our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, linked below, you will find a Rebuking Particular Spirits prayer. Identify the possible demons by attribute (e.g., spirit of fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, anger, lust, etc).

2) demons love to hitchhike on problems that already exist. This means, for example, that demons can see that you may have mental illness issues and thus they will try to make that worse than it would otherwise be.

Rather than worrying where the line is drawn between a mental illness and a demonic harassment, live the good Catholic life, and offer the spiritual warfare prayer just in case there are any demonic elements.

Take captive every thought that is not godly and give it to Christ. This takes discipline and practice.

There are other prayers I would recommend, such as the Hedge Prayer of Protection and the Prayer to Control Thoughts, and any other prayers that are useful to you.

I would also advise going through the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance, also linked below.

If there are any demonic elements hopefully this will take care of it, but you must remember two things:

1) Spiritual warfare prayers will not cure any underlying mental illness. These prayers will deal with the demonic elements only, if there are any demonic elements.

2) do not become obsessive about this, like what you did before with ignoring your appearance and hygiene and such. There is no reason for panic or obsessive behavior. What is being suggested here is living the normal lifestyle of a devout Catholic, with a few extras concerning spiritual warfare.

You offer the prayers and let the chips fall where they may. Be casual about it, not anxious, desperate, or obsessive. Focus on the part in the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance, that deals with Resignation to the Will of God..

As for predicting what others say: No one knows the future, nor can anyone read minds, not even angels or demons. Only God knows the future, and those to whom He might reveal it, such as to the prophets in the Old Testament. Only God can know your private thoughts.

There are four possibilities that explains this experience:

1) you know the person very well, so well, that you can easily anticipate their thoughts. Couples who have been married a long time do this all the time. There is nothing supernatural or paranormal about it. They just know each other so well.

2) You may have a heighten state of awareness of body language. The combination of what a person is saying perhaps, with subtle body language, if noticed, can give one a good idea of what the person will say. This is also not supernatural or paranormal, it is just an ability to pick up on very subtle cues of body language, tones of voice, etc. So-called psychics and con artist do this all the time. There is nothing supernatural going on, it is just a subtle ability to pick up the cues and well crafted questions that reveals the information about a person.

3) Information can be coming from demons. Now demons also do not know the future, nor can they read minds. Demons, however, are experts at reading the cues of body language, and the know you far better than you know yourself. So, demons do number 1 and 2 above but at a level of expertise that is light-years beyond our ability. They then pass this information on to you.

4) God can give someone a special gift to be aware of the cues of body language. When he does this it is for a reason, like perhaps giving that gift to a counselor. Such a gift is not given arbitrarily.

I advise that you do the following:

1) ask God to take away any such gift as it is confusing you. God does not force gifts upon us. If we ask God to take is away, and it does not go away, then we know that the "gift" is not from God, but rather is sourced in natural human phenomena, a construct of our psychology, or is demonically sourced.

2) Ignore such thought and do not entertain or indulge them. When they come to your mind, let them pop out of your mind.

3) Rebuke the spirit behind this experience. This rebuking must be done each and every time it happens.

As for the visions: It is possible that these visions are caused by damage during the car accident to the areas of your brain that can stimulate visions. Such damage, tumors, etc. can cause this.

If there is no medical source, then the source can be mental illness. If neither of those possibilities are the case, then the source may be either God or the devil.

Again, ask God to take away these visions of they come from Him. Do the three steps above.

Along with this is the other spiritual warfare prayers that I mentioned above and any other prayers in our Catalog that are helpful.

All this is predicated upon first being the best Catholic you know how to be. Attending Mass each Sunday, receiving the Eucharist when you are properly disposed (in a State of Grace), saying your daily prayers and devotions, living a good life of virtue and good works, going to Confession when you sin, etc. This basic Christian living is always the first step.

How to tell?

1) God will never force anything upon you
2) God will never cause fear and anxiety
3) God will never inspire you to do anything contrary to the Faith or the Church
4) God is not arbitrary. If He is doing something in your life it will be for a reason, to build you up in the faith or to help others, or both.
5) God always loves and will never do anything contrary to love

That leaves how to know between mental illness and the demonic. You may never know for sure, but pray the prayers as if there is a demonic element, if that is suspected, and understand that the prayers will not remove mental illness. The mental illness must be dealt with by a mental health professionals, and any demonic issues must be dealt with spiritually through prayer.

If living a good Catholic life and saying prayers helps to alleviate the symptoms, then that may be a clue that the problem was demonic, or at least partially demonic. That is not a absolute indicator, but it is a possible clue. Either way, keep praying like a good Christian, and resign yourself to the arms of God for the rest.

Even if the problems never go away, it becomes an opportunity for you to lift up that suffering to God for the salvation of others. Doing that makes your suffering a privilege and redemptive.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary