americathegreat1492 said:
To answer the question regarding Christianity, I think there is certainly a "death wish" like element to longing for the age to come. It implies a dissatisfaction with one's current state. I think the current models of disorder are important to consider in trying to answer the leash question. What I am about to say may seem controversial at first pass, but it is not. Thinking of death is not problematic in and of itself. Disorder criteria incorporates the 4 D's into the discussion (where relevant).
Deviance
Dysfunction
Distress
Danger
Only when the intensity of some behavior, thought, or emotion reaches a point where it is characteristic of high levels of danger, distress, or dysfunction is it considered a disorder. One could argue that symptoms become problematic before they reach disorder levels, and that's understandable.
I think that in the case of Christians longing for the life after death, it is not usually problematic. We aren't called to live dysfunctional, distressing, or dangerous lives with respect to that symptom per se. Having said that, there is a place where the disorder model breaks down. Religious behavior can manifest itself in dangerous, distressing, or dysfunctional ways, especially when people go out proselytizing in places where they aren't welcome. I think this is where we can discard the disorder model, because where clinicians answer only to the world's sense of ethics or values, we answer to God, the ultimate arbiter of all values.
Great post. There is definitely a continuum of emotions ranging from "I will do everything in my power to stay alive" to "I will do everything in my power to kill myself". We tend to see everything on one side as normal and everything on the other as a disorder, but it isn't always that easy.
Extreme stress/grief and hospice are 2 times this comes up for me on a near daily basis. People in extreme stress will often passively hope for an end to their life for a short time. For instance, if your spouse of 50 years passes away you may hope that you will soon follow. Or if you lose your job, end up homeless, are abused or trafficked or addicted you may wish for the burden of your life to be lifted from you. Hopefully this is temporary and fixes itself as the situation improves. This can be a normal reaction to overwhelming circumstances.
If you have a terminal illness and accept the fact you could die at any time, then you will naturally not be distressed at the thought. The idea that you might not be alive tomorrow is no big deal, and if you're in a ton a pain you may wish the end would come sooner. I see Christianity in a similar light. Christians shouldn't have a drastic existential fear of death, and we shouldn't be distressed by the thought of our mortality. Under the right amounts of stress or hardship we may even wish to "go be with Jesus" sooner rather than later. Again, this is normal.
Sometimes the line of normal to disorder gets blurry, and the quoted post is a great way to help separate out the difference
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