SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : General Topics : Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

Print Thread (PDF)

PosterThread
rainydaygirl
Member



Joined: 2008/10/27
Posts: 742


 Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

Looking for some help or thoughts?? I have a younger brother who struggles with an issue, he can't control laughing at certain times. When he gets very nervous, or when he feels awkward and uncomfortable he will begin to laugh. This has happened to him at really bad times, there have been times when there is sad news or something difficult happening and he will feel unable to deal with it and begin to laugh.He said he feels so guilty because he is not trying to laugh or hurt others but he just struggles with it. He can stop himself but he said it is noticeable to others and its a real struggle for him. He said as long has he can remember he as been this way, even when he was a little kid and he got in trouble there were times when he would laugh even though he did not want to. He prays about this continually and wants to bring his emotions under Christ. I am not sure if there are any teaching or maybe even if he should fast about this situation??

Any thoughts? anyone have this issue that they struggle with?

rdg

 2012/4/17 14:33Profile
elias7291
Member



Joined: 2011/12/7
Posts: 73
Los Angeles

 Re: Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

Beloved sister,

That's a very interesting thing that occurs in your younger brother. I don't have any real insight into what It could be but I can tell you that durin the mid 90s there was a so called "laughing revival" in north America where people would burst into unconrollable laughter and attribute that to the Holy Spirit. However scripture condemns it as a lying spirit. Brother carter conlon has a sermon entitled "a gospel of slaughter" that speaks of this.

I hope that this could help. As always pray pray pray and ask the Lord for guidance.

All the blessings,

Eli


_________________
Elias

 2012/4/17 14:59Profile









 Re: Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

Hi rdg. What you need to do is get him Journaling his deepest and truest feelings. Not to show anyone but to just get real with himself. Actually, this is a wise practice for all of us. We're not 'feeling' what we're showing to others. We find out just how much of the true self we hide from others when we Journal our thoughts to The LORD and not hold back our true feelings and thoughts, in whatever words they come out as. He hears our thoughts anyway, so no need to cover-up when it's written instead of just thought.
You both have been through a lot and this is more than likely just his way of expressing the anxieties that he's had for a long time. There's names for it - if you want to go the psychological route, but that won't help him be healed of it all. Basically, they'd first describe it as "inappropriate laughter' and next “Involuntary Emotional Expression Disorder” and next - GOD only knows but they can go to bi-polar/manic, you name it and prescribe meds - when all he needs to realize [and you as well] that you've both been through some Stuff and you both "express" it differently and GOD can 'heal' him. The Drs will only make him all the more 'self' conscious and being self-focused is not what HE prescribes for any of us. So, getting his inner feelings & thoughts into a Journal and reckoning himself in GOD's trustworthy hands for healing and by prayer and The Word, is the way to go.

Hope this helps and you know that folks are praying with you.

 2012/4/17 17:28









 Re:

Hi again, rdg. I didn't have much time to post when I posted above, though there was more that I felt to explain.
Don't fear the 'label' that I mentioned above, because they are meaningless to a Born-Again Christian. There's a diagnosis category for everything under the sun. Gambling, bitterness, bad tempers, those with no conscience towards others, kleptomania, conduct disorders, you name it, there's a "disorder" name for every negative behavior known to man. The list is so long, I wouldn't post it, as it's also growing steadily as well and even if I posted the list - each 'disorder' has differing types of each disorder under that category. Things that we'd just call, plain ol' sin, is now 'a disorder'. If you can label [diagnose] any behavior as a 'disorder', than you can prescribe meds - bottomline and keep the Docs & quacks in business, as well as the big pharmaceutical companies. And though these labels weren't around say, 40 yrs ago - the shrinks found that people love having their own special label. It's their excuse for how they behave and they can now say, "I can't help it; I have ______ disorder." So now the Drs and the drug co.s are happy and the people are happy too. MaMaMia! Many receiving Social Security before retirement age because of their 'label', as Dr William Glasser derogatorally calls these unhealthy behaviorial choice titles. He would say, 'the line between sanity and insanity is in how a person Chooses To Cope.' That's worth remembering.

And just one more thing about Journaling - it's best to always start each entry with - "Dear Lord, ........ " - Talking to Him -- otherwise we're just talking to ourselves, which ain't too fruitful :)

GOD Bless you & yours with His Faith, Hope and Joy!

 2012/4/17 22:51









 Re: Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

I feel sure that if this 'little' brother were to understand the process which triggers and strengthens his inclination, and then need to laugh, in the context you have referred too, he would find victory over his problem.

If this has been happening since he was a child then it is likely that he will have two 'things' he needs to know. The first is how it started. The second is how it is able to continue on.

When you are a child doing something which gets you into trouble, you initially view the problem without any lasting fear. However, after a few times of getting into trouble you may begin to worry about it. Little children cannot reasonably judge themselves. They need representation of their conduct through the eyes of their parents. Just so a child eventually finds it possible to question their own conduct in a meaningful way. What often goes wrong for a little child is personal to them in such a way, that right from the start they begin to have strong feelings about what they are doing. I mean parental anger disproportionate to the reality.

Physically this produces a release of chemicals in the brain, which make the child either fearful or proud. The fear is adrenaline coursing through the veins and giving rise to that 'sick in the stomach feeling'. Ordinarily if a child can control themselves they will quickly settle down emotionally and will even forget about it. If the fear seems too real, even in their bodies, then they will become angry and, in their childish way, fight back.

This young man needs to ask himself how he first reacted when this 'laughing' started. The Lord will help him to remember. Once he knows something of the answer he can begin to exercise his own will to 'think past' the outcome or consequence of laughing when he shouldn't, and focus instead on what's actually real to him at that moment. Is it something which is funny (he knows that it is not) or is he feeling physical stimulations which simply make him laugh. Another way to think about this can be:-

Anything which begins in small childhood can be deep rooted not just for possible spiritual reasons, but because fear or pride produce physically, emotional responses. After a few years the mind itself will 'learn' how to react, and the central nervous system will sympathetically produce all kinds of physical sensations in the body. These either make a young person angry or else they produce fear. Anger almost always leads to pride, and fear almost always leads to more fear.

These kind of feelings are not real feelings which are produced when we are told off for the first time. Little children always fear being told off until they learn how to either resist the telling off, or else shrink back from it. The feelings which I have described in the above paragraph are not real. They are not produced by a rebuke, but rather than by bodily sensations together with the thoughts which you described this young man as having and feelings when he laughs. Adrenaline is only released normally when we are confronted by a real threat. Such as the first time a small child is told off. They really do feel afraid. Whether that experience develops into anger or deeper fear and less self control, will almost certainly come from the way a parent deals with the issue. Anger will produce anger; and it may produce deep fear.

If this lad has a spiritual problem, which settled with him from his early childhood then that has to do with evil spirits. This possibility can only be discerned, it cannot be thought out. But what these two options have in common is the physical body and the mind. Spirit's can only really influence a person to the extent that the person themselves has consented. Fear is sufficient consent to an evil spirit. Fear initially has to do with the mind responding to a telling off, but it can quickly become a 'sympathetic' reaction which produces adrenaline; which in turn produces bodily reactions, and now we are afraid. Even as though we were really in trouble. Fear produces a physical response, but the physical response in the end produces greater fear. Its like saying 'it seems all the more real'. Evil spirit's make use of this condition of 'sin' and use it against us. But only if we allow them too. They cant force us to do something against our will. But they can make use of our fearfulness to effect our minds to believe we are in trouble, when we may not actually be in trouble.

Every man, both male and female, are subject to their bodies. It is called the 'body of sin' and it has recognizable traits. The mind, in a similar way is 'fleshy' and although this kind of sinning may not be physical, it still counts as though it were. Your young friend needs to ask himself the questions which will release him from his own physical responses. Laughing is physical; body and mind. If the issue really is a 'spiritual' one; needing deliverance, then how will the Lord not show him if he seeks the Lord's face. Learning or deliverance.





 2012/4/18 18:08









 Re:

Quote:
Anything which begins in small childhood can be deep rooted not just for possible spiritual reasons, but because fear or pride produce physically, emotional responses. After a few years the mind itself will 'learn' how to react, and the central nervous system will sympathetically produce all kinds of physical sensations in the body. These either make a young person angry or else they produce fear. Anger almost always leads to pride, and fear almost always leads to more fear.



Appreciated this. What you term as fear, I use the term anxiety - same thing in essense.
I appreciated this because something happened in the church over 30 yrs ago. Two faulty extremes. One was psychology in place of Biblical Counseling and the other was Biblically faulty demonology. I remember reading the statistics, that there were more pentecostals in institutions at that time than any other denomination because of these two currents that led away from purely Scriptural counseling of the troubled.
Getting a history on someone's life does not have to be considered as psychology in and of itself. It is important.
Many times, the demon-busters don't even bother going there - they just immediately start with demons first. Imagine a child that comes from a troubled home and their anxiety expresses itself through laughing rather than to admit to themselves that they're afraid and someone accusing them of having a demon in them? GOD have mercy - I've seen this happen and I've seen these people institutionalized because of it - with more fear now, than they had prior to being "delivered". The world heads straight for the drugs and these spiritists head first and foremost to demons.
You've got to have a history on anyone that's going to be counseled. If they're a kid that's hurting animals or other children and laughing at actions such as that, or an adult laughing at seeing someone getting killed - well, that's a totally different scenario than a basically nice kid that expresses anxiety by inappropriately timed laughter because he doesn't want to show remorse or fear in front of adults that may be the very source of his fears to begin with.

GOD can heal! Of that I'm 100% sure of and sure that rdg will find her answers, knowing him best.

Blessings!


 2012/4/18 21:00
Trekker
Member



Joined: 2011/7/29
Posts: 683
northern USA

 Re: Looking for some help for younger brother in Christ

His laughter is completely normal. I had the same thing happen to me as a child. I laughed hysterically at my first funeral when i was 8 yrs old. I had no control and could not stop, and i had just walked up to the casket of my maternal grandfather, so it was VERY embarrassing. Your friend should not feel guilty. The laughter occurs because his nerves cause his diaphragm to move etc. I also used to laugh whenever nervous or in shock. It is a perfectly normal and common reaction. I also laughed hysterically and uncontrollably at the site of a large pool of my own blood after in-office surgery was performed on me. Hearing myself laugh just makes me laugh harder. I really laughed my butt off. And actually it feels good...i think it is the body's natural attempt to relax itself. Everyone reacts differently to shock and nerves. I havent had it happen since i was around 19 but i am much older now and it takes more to shock me or make me that nervous. He will probably grow out of it just as i have.

 2012/4/20 5:33Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy