Mental Illness Options

I'm beginning to wonder about different mental illnesses.

Night before last I had to look after a friend of mine who hasn't had her schizophrenia medication in over a week because she has nobody to pay for it anymore (moving out of parent's place complications)... and basically, I managed to remove her voices four times (each time they came back a bit angrier than the last, which has got me a little worried), make her forget that she even experienced voices three times (although it was creepy afterwards having the EXACT same conversation three times over, which always wound up with me reminding her about the voices) and banish her most feared apparition once.

Just from that it experience it seemed more like they were... not "medical" in origin. Any thoughts?

Great care is needed when treating mental illness with magic or without magic for that matter. Even people who are great physical healers may find it impossible to heal conditions of the mentality and emotions. That kind of healing is very much a gift unto itself. If you haven't felt that gift yet, then there's virtually no chance that you'll get it. As a friend all you can really do is offer love, support and a kind ear, which seems to be what you've been doing.

I'm hesitant to offer advice to people I've never met but... I'm not sure if it's medically proven (it may be, and it would be interesting to see this done if it hasn't) but learning meditation and doing it on a daily basis is helpful to many mentally ill people. A good meditation is the well known practices of Bardon, it takes from 25-30 minutes per session. Sit down in a chair (preferably straight backed), eyes closed or open. Start with ten minutes of thinking about just one thing. Spend the next ten minutes thinking of nothing. Use the final 5 to 10 minutes attempting to listen to what you're really thinking. Don't be tense and make sure to breathe into the stomach, definitely not shallow chest breathing. Do this once a day or twice.

Of course this all depends on the mentally ill person, and that's really the crux of it, outside of encountering a powerfully benevolent force the only person that can really help her is herself.

I will tell you that I know of a great way of protecting those who are very sensitve from the chaotic world that we now inhabit. It will cost money, somewhere in 10-40 dollar range but it's rather simple. If it interests you go ahead and PM sometime and I'll get back to you.