Faith & Schizophrenia: Tomas Heligr-Pyke’s Journey with Jesus & Mental Health
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Faith & Schizophrenia: Tomas Heligr-Pyke’s Journey with Jesus & Mental Health
How do you hold onto faith when your mind plays tricks on you? Tomas Heligr-Pyke knows this battle firsthand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, Tomas has wrestled with what's real, what's spiritual, and what’s simply part of his condition.
In this raw and eye-opening conversation on Sunburnt Souls, Dave Quak sits down with Tomas to talk about:
How his faith went from “watered-down” Christianity to full surrender
Navigating schizophrenia and the spiritual realm—where does one end and the other begin?
The tension of experiencing God while battling mental illness
Finding peace, purpose, and identity in Christ despite the struggle
How God uses brokenness for His glory—no one is too far gone
For anyone struggling with mental health and faith, this episode is powerful, honest, and full of hope. Tomas shares his story of isolation, doubt, healing, and learning to trust God in the middle of uncertainty.
Want to hear more from Tomas? Subscribe to Sunburnt Souls, check out his journey, and be encouraged by how God moves in the middle of the mess.
Keep reading to dive deeper into Tomas’s story and discover how faith and mental health can coexist in a life fully surrendered to Jesus.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
I always find it interesting because my faith journey is relatively new. I was born into a Christian family, and that was my whole life, but I’d describe it as watered down. I was in a Christian school with Tuesday morning church services and attended church on Sundays. But then something happened with my parents and the church, so we stopped going. Instead, we'd watch American preachers on YouTube, which kind of isolated me from the church experience.
Later, I started dating someone who was agnostic and atheist, which only distanced me further. I was still a Christian, but I wasn’t practising—no church, no fellowship. It was this weird, watered-down Christianity. Then, when my girlfriend at the time broke up with me, I had no friends and no direction. I thought, "What do I do now?"
So, I decided to try finding church again. That’s when my Christian journey went from zero to sixty real quick. I said, “No, I’m going to follow God now. I’m pushing in.”
Dave Quak
Let’s go! And then you just started cold calling churches, turning up everywhere?
How can you overcome doubt and reconnect with church and faith?
I was hopping from church to church. It’s funny because I remember I was in such a dark place. I’d been in a relationship for seven years, and that had been my whole life. I didn’t really have any friends because the ones I did have were narcissistic and controlling. Then I was at rock bottom, thinking, "Okay, I’ve got no friends, no one to talk to, and this huge darkness over me." I didn’t know what to do.
I knew some people who went to Kings Church on the Gold Coast, so I thought, "I haven’t been to church by myself for a long time, but I need to go, I want to go." So, I decided to turn up.
Dave Quak
I love it. You just jumped in the deep end.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, I did. It was interesting because it was my first time experiencing different doctrines within Christianity. I’d grown up in very Methodist churches, and Kings was Apostolic. People were falling over, and I thought, "Is this person having a seizure, or is this something else?" It was so unfamiliar. I remember when I went on a mission trip to the Solomon Islands when I was 13, people were doing the same thing. I thought, "Maybe it's just the culture here, so I’ll just stand back and watch."
When a Christian is "slain in the Spirit," it is a powerful spiritual experience where the person is overwhelmed by God's presence, often resulting in them falling to the ground. This moment is seen as a deep encounter with the Holy Spirit, where individuals may experience peace, joy, or healing.
It's a time of renewal, transformation, and intimacy with God, as His love and power minister to the heart and soul. Rather than focusing on the physical fall, the experience is about the spiritual breakthrough and the lasting impact it has on one's faith journey.
Dave Quak
Ah, the classic introvert moment! Everyone’s up and about, and you’re thinking, “I’ll just hang back a bit.”
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah! The worst bit of any church I go to is when they say, "Say hello to the person next to you." I’m like, "Oh no, not again!"
Dave Quak
Haha, it’s a running theme on this podcast—everyone hates that part! We’re on a mission to stop it! But what a way to dive into faith—jumping into the deep end.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, it was a bit of a baptism by fire. There were all these things happening that I didn’t even know existed. But it was fun to be thrown into something so new and exciting. I thought, "Why not go to the night service too? That’s where all the young adults are." The church I’d grown up in didn’t have many people my age, so it was cool to find that connection in a new place.
So I thought, I need to go to other churches to find more young adults because that's what I was lacking. So, I went to a night church and I remember sitting right at the back. I didn’t want to go up to the front. I was new, and it was all really uncomfortable. I just sat there, thinking, none of the people I expected to talk to me were saying anything, which made me feel even more alone. Then, suddenly, they started speaking in tongues, and I was like, "What’s going on here?" This was all new to me. By the end of the service, it ran over time, which happens when the Holy Spirit’s moving, I guess.
The preacher kept saying, "There’s someone here who feels very alone and needs to come to the front for prayer." Everything they said felt like it related to me. I was thinking, “God, I know you want me to go up, but I really don’t want to.” And for about ten minutes, they kept repeating it. I thought, “Okay, God, I’m doing it.” So, I went up to the front, and as soon as I did, I got slain in the Spirit.
Dave Quak
Wow, what was that like?
How can Christians navigate faith and schizophrenia while balancing spiritual and medical care?
It was intense. At that time, I really hated feeling out of control because of my struggles with schizophrenia. I didn’t want to lose control again, especially after all the medication and the memory loss that came with it.
But there I was, completely out of control, lying on the floor, unable to move, feeling peace but also completely overwhelmed, just thinking, “What is happening here?” After the service, it felt like God was showing me He was with me, and then I got a call from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in five years, inviting me to come to church. That’s when I started making friends at New Life Church.
Dave Quak
That’s amazing. Man, I honestly don’t know much about schizophrenia. I guess I’ve never had close friends who have that condition, and with all my own stuff, I just don’t think about it much. But you mentioned that feeling of being out of control. Is that one of the biggest risks with schizophrenia?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, when I was really bad, it felt like I was constantly losing control. I had an early onset of schizophrenia, which made me wonder, “Is it really schizophrenia, or is it something spiritual? Is God using this to teach me something?” I still struggle to wrap my head around it. I was really young when it started—most people don’t get it until around my age now, 24. I had it at 16, which is incredibly early. I remember seeing things when I was just eight years old. I was out in the backyard looking for my bike helmet, and I saw the devil standing in the cubby house. I just freaked out and ran away.
Dave Quak
That’s heavy.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, it was terrifying. I started seeing shadow figures all over the house, hearing things move, and even hearing stuff at night. It was horrible, especially as a kid. It really messed with my head, and I started to feel like nothing was real—like people were just robots. That alienated me from everyone. I wasn’t thinking straight. It got worse in high school, and I began spiralling into delusions, thinking the world was going to end, seeing numbers everywhere, and believing everything had a deeper meaning, even though it didn’t.
Dave Quak
That sounds incredibly isolating. I can’t even imagine. You mentioned not trusting your own mind—how did you manage that?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It was tough, especially when you can’t trust what you see or hear. There were times when I’d wonder if it had some deeper meaning or if it was just my illness. And then, with Christianity, you have to wrestle with the idea that we live in a spiritual world. It’s hard to figure out what’s real and what’s just part of the illness.
Dave Quak
Yeah, I get that. Trying to navigate both the spiritual side and the mental health side must have been like walking a tightrope. It makes me realise how hard it is for someone to deal with something like that on their own.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, it was definitely challenging. It felt like I was constantly questioning myself and what was going on. It wasn’t until I started getting help and getting closer to God that I could start to make sense of it all.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, the Holy Spirit's here, and God uses heaps of stuff like prophecy and uses people in all sorts of ways that are beyond our comprehension.
Dave Quak
Yeah.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
How does that fit into what we experience day to day? It's like that extra layer on top of, oh, you’ve got schizophrenia and you're seeing stuff, but also you're having prophecy as well. How do you deal with that? There was a thing that happened to me once over the past year where I remember praying to God. I was like, “I really need to talk to this person because something bad is going to happen to them.” But they were a third-degree connection.
I knew their friend, and I felt like I needed to talk to them, so I did. A week later, something bad happened to their friend. It was pretty wild. How does that connect with what I'm experiencing now? Because I know it was God, but how does that relate to my schizophrenia?
Dave Quak
Man, that would be hard. I’ve been thinking about how no one’s really written a book that I know of on the relationship between mental illness and spiritual gifts. There’s this crazy overlap, like, it’s something no one really explores.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
And that’s where I’m at now. When I first did the original sermon, I was like, “This is how I can see God using this in my life, doing all this stuff.” But now, I can see God doing that and also realising that God can use broken people to do great things. He does that all the time in the Bible. Every major prophet was broken.
Dave Quak
It is. And what Tomas is referring to is a testimony he gave at Village Church, which is awesome. I’ll put it in the show notes. It’s good that you’re speaking about it, man, because even though you’re still wrestling with it, I feel like there are a lot of people out there still wrestling through it who can’t yet speak about it or have conversations with others who are in the same place.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Oh yeah, it’s really weird because I’m quite introverted, so it’s odd for me to speak about it. But I feel so confident doing so now. I guess that’s because I’ve been talking to a lot of people about it for a long time, and a lot of people know my journey at different points, so it’s made me more comfortable.
I’ve also had these experiences where I’ve talked to people about it, and then they just disappear. It’s like, yeah, the stigma is still there, even though I want to believe it’s not. It depends on who you talk to. You can’t just walk up to someone and drop it on them straight away, which I used to do a lot because I felt like I had to.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
And I know who I am. If I say something weird, I know that the way I think is very lateral and very quick. Even in my fields, I might say something, and people will be like, “What are you on about?” and I’ll be like, “Well, this is what it means.” It's very interesting.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Sorry, I went on a tangent and lost my train of thought.
4671
Dave Quak
That's okay. So, when was it? Four, six, seven, one?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, okay. So when you get fixated on a number, do you look for it in things like newspapers, or what happens when it grips you?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It’s literally like when you want to buy a car, and you’re thinking of a specific car, like a yellow Peugeot or something, and then you start seeing that car everywhere. Your mind’s focused on that specific car, but you’ve seen it everywhere already, you just never paid attention to it. It's the same with the numbers. You start seeing the numbers and think, “Oh, that has some significant meaning.”
You keep finding it, like you might see it on a telephone pole or in some serial numbers, and you start making connections. I might think, “If I add nine, subtract this, it equals this number, which means this.” And it just starts going down the rabbit hole, making sense of it because you’re hyper-fixating on it.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It’s like I’d see that number, 4671, and I’d find it everywhere. Or there’d be something like a countdown to a meteorite hitting, and it was 4671 days away. That’s pretty freaky. But in the end, it didn’t mean anything. It’s just that I kept finding it. It’s how your brain fixates on that stuff. At least in my case, I’d get fixated on it, and the number would start to have meaning, even though it didn’t.
Dave Quak
Yeah, so what’s it called when you have a manic episode? Is that what you mean by being in a fixated place? I’m wondering if “episode” is a good name for it.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
That’s a good question. With me, I’ve definitely had times where I’ve gotten worse and then gotten better. I remember having a really bad psychotic break once, when I was home alone. I’d call it a psychotic break because I started hallucinating a lot. I began seeing things—there was this shadow person with a white skull mask standing outside my door. I ended up just being in a ball, crying. It was overwhelming and horrible.
Dave Quak
Yeah, that sounds really scary.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, it was. When I go into a really bad phase, it always gets really bad, then kind of tapers off but still leaves me with some of those things. So, yeah, it does feel like it’s episodes.
Dave Quak
Right. So, when you're in an episode, do you know you’re in it, or is it something you realise later?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
I think it’s more of a retrospective thing.
Dave Quak
Gee, that would be hard, man.
Is schizophrenia a spiritual or biological issue, or can it be both?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It is both. I’ve gotten much better at it. What I started doing is when I see a hallucination, I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. That’s been helping me a lot. Recently, I was driving and I saw a headless, naked lady running across the road in front of me. She just disappeared before she got to the other side. I rebuked it in the name of Jesus, and it gave me peace. It’s been a huge help.
Dave Quak
Oh man, that would be so complicated. And, you know, you’ve just opened up a really important topic—the whole thing about what’s medical, what’s biological, what’s spiritual. It’s so complex.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It really is. That’s why it’s so difficult. I remember at one point, I was feeling really spiritually attacked because everything seemed to crescendo. God was showing me all these things—like, this is what tongues are, this is how this works. It was pushing my boundaries of belief. By the end of last year, everything kind of came to a head, and then I got prayer, and it was really powerful.
But I could feel the devil didn’t like that and was trying to pull me away from it. I started seeing things much more clearly, like this weird bird figure that was appearing everywhere. It was insane. I had friends praying for me through all of it, which helped. But it was intense.
Dave Quak
Wow, that’s incredible. So, when you’re getting close to God, things start ramping up. How do you tell whether it’s spiritual, or just you hallucinating and losing it?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, it’s a real struggle. Sometimes it’s hard to know. I had an experience where my friends and I went up to Beechmont. We were stargasing and everything, and I saw a shadowy figure by one of the public toilets. I didn’t say anything at first, but when I mentioned it, my friend, who’s really discerning, said, “I don’t usually feel uncomfortable, but something about that place feels off.” It was funny because she could feel something, but I didn’t. I was like, “Yeah, I saw something, but I feel fine.” She felt a bit rattled, but I was just like, “It’s okay, I’m good.”
Dave Quak
That’s crazy. She’s got some strong discernment, hey?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, exactly. It was so interesting because she’s usually very calm, but in that moment, she was really shaken by it. It was like we both picked up on something at the same time, but from different perspectives.
Dave Quak:
It’s pretty good that God’s drawing you together, because, you know, you get married down the track, and then she’s got a discerning gift that’s going to help you with your life as well. She’ll be a great helper.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Oh, she or he is. Yeah.
Dave Quak:
Yeah. You’ve mentioned your fiancé a couple of times. What’s her name?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Caitlyn.
Dave Quak:
Caitlyn, big shout out to Caitlyn. Thanks so much for dating Tom. He’s amazing. Alright, so with all that then, bro, you’ve got your spiritual, physical, and biological sides sorted. What are you doing in regard to medicine? Do you take any medication?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
No, I don’t. Which is wild. I used to when I was really bad—like, fully during high school because I had a really early onset. I went through the Headspace Early Onset Psychosis program. They hooked me up with psychologists and psychiatrists, and I had to get brain scans done to make sure I didn’t have a tumour, which was always fun.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
I’m pretty sure I still have those brain scans at home. Just a big scan of my brain, my head. It was a whole rigmarole process just to make sure nothing physically underlying was causing it. Once I got through that, they were like, “Okay, we’ve got you a case manager, you’ll get psychologist appointments every week, a psychiatrist to walk you through everything,” and then I had to go to all these group events, which introverted me really hated because we were making clay pots or something like that.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
I didn’t know anyone, and I couldn’t talk to anyone because I already felt uncomfortable battling all this. But it was good, really good for me, because I met a bunch of cool people. And it’s actually really cool that Headspace exists for that purpose. Not many other countries have that sort of thing.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
I know a couple of people who’ve gone through the same process, and they’re doing really well now. I went through that, and then the psychiatrist was like, “Okay, you need to go on this medication.” I was on a really low dose, because I know people on much higher doses. I kind of lost more than I did, which I’m really lucky about.
Dave Quak:
Yeah.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
But it really messed me around because I couldn’t remember anything anymore. I have this period of my life that’s just kind of a blur, because I think one of the side effects was memory loss, and drowsiness. All the fun stuff—feeling sick and nauseous. It was a real rigmarole.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
But I only started regaining my memory properly this year or last year. Before that, I couldn’t remember holidays or events. It was kind of horrible to think about. That’s one of the main reasons I went off. It was with the recommendation of the psychiatrist, and they helped me off everything.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
The idea was that I’d go on the medication, then get all the strategies to help me out—like grounding techniques, breathing exercises to calm me down, and a whole toolkit for if I was going into an episode. Then the idea was I’d slowly get off the medication and be able to cope with it myself, which I ended up being able to do.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
So yeah, I’m not on medication now, which is pretty good. I’m pretty happy with that. It’s helped me a lot in that regard.
Dave Quak:
Yeah, you must have something real going on with God, because that would need some serious faith and dependence on Him. Yes, especially when He’s physically saying things.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Yeah.
Dave Quak:
Do you physically see them with the same depth or clarity as you see other things? Or is it more shadowy?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
It depends. I’ve had so many different sorts that it’s made it difficult to pinpoint. Stuff like shadowy figures—the most common one—is just this weird thing standing, which is like a shadow. It’s there for a blink of an eye, then it’s gone. It’s in the corner of my vision. I turn my head, I see it, but when I look at it properly, it disappears.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Most of the time, it’s like that. It’s not too bad because it’s there but not really there. Other times, though, it’s been more visible and clearer, but still blink and you miss it.I know it’s there, and it makes me feel really uncomfortable. I’m lucky that I’ve never had it where it stays there and is really visible, which I know can happen to some people.
That would scare me a lot. For the most part, it’s just blink and miss it, or I see something, then it disappears, and I’m like, “Did I actually see that? Or what just happened?”
Dave Quak:
It’s good that Caitlyn and your family are supportive. What helps you when you're in an episode, and what doesn't? The reason I’m asking is because I assume we’ll have people listening who either have schizophrenia themselves and are looking for a support network, or love someone with schizophrenia and are trying to get some tools on what they can do better, particularly from a faith point of view or even just practical t
Things—little things.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Yeah, I think what definitely doesn't work is going to people and saying, "Oh, you’re just being silly," or dismissing them like that. That doesn’t help at all. I've had that happen to me quite a lot, and it's really not useful. It’s like, well, I am dealing with this, and I don’t know how to manage it. I’m not going to talk to you about it anymore, and that ends up alienating people who should have been supporting me.
What really helps me is, when I’m having a panic attack, Caitlin just sits there, calms me down, and says, "It’s okay. I’m praying that everything will be okay." That helps me a lot. I don’t need someone to say anything profound or try to explain it away. I just need someone to be there, with me.
I like having people around me when I’m going through something. I don’t need them to say much. I don’t want them to try to explain it all or say, "That’s not real." Just having someone there with me, holding me, patting my back, or praying with me really helps because it makes me feel safe and calm. I know I can get through it, and everything will be okay.
Panic Attack
A panic attack is a sudden, intense episode of fear or anxiety, often accompanied by physical symptoms like a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling, and a sense of losing control. It typically peaks within minutes and may occur unexpectedly or in response to stress or triggers
The worst part is when you feel alone, and sometimes you don’t have the strength to talk about it, especially when you’re having a panic attack. You just want it to stop, but you don’t have the words to explain it. And when I start stuttering, it just makes things harder. It’s not helpful when people are like, "What do you want to say?" It’s just not useful.
But just being in someone’s presence really helps me with a lot of mental health stuff.
Dave Quak:
Yeah, I think you make a really good point. Sometimes the best thing to do is just be there and say nothing. When we try to solve it, or offer advice based on our experience, it just doesn’t work. Sometimes, just sitting there quietly is the best thing we can do.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Yeah, quiet helps a lot. Obviously, there are times when you need to say something to help, and that's where prayer can be really helpful. Just saying, "Let me pray for you," or praying in tongues over someone can bring peace. That’s a whole other level, and it helps out a lot.
But, 90% of the time, it’s good to just be quiet and let the person know, "I’m here for you. Let me know if you need anything. I’m not leaving your side. You’re going to get through this. It’ll be okay."
Dave Quak:
Yeah. Have you found that to be the same with how God reveals Himself to you through this? You've mentioned a bit of your spiritual journey. It seems like you’ve got this real intimacy with God. Has that been cultivated through this journey, or what’s going on there?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Oh, yeah, definitely. It’s been quite funny because I feel like God really knows how I process things. He pushes me to my limit, and then He brings me back in with comfort. That’s how I learn best. So, I like to think that He’s got my own custom journey plan with Him. He knows that’s the best way for me to process things, and it’s how I grow.
“It’s a very strange reality when you can’t trust yourself. There’s no foundation for anything. The faith I might have had in normal things like gravity or logic or love is gone because my mind might not be reading them correctly. You can’t possibly know what it means to doubt everything. To walk into a room full of people and pretend that it’s empty because you’re not actually sure if it is or not. To never feel completely alone even when you are. ”
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
So, literally, today we're talking about prophecy. Here's a prophecy: I don't know how to handle this whatsoever. But what happened was, I was thinking, am I losing it? This must've been last year. Am I being weird for thinking this? I didn’t even know what it was.
And then suddenly, it was like, no, that was real. And I thought, okay, what does that mean for anything? Like, nothing. But then, it really pushed me beyond my comfort zone and brought me back, and I was like, is that okay? Yeah, alright, I’ll learn. Then it was like another thing that pushed me really hard and then brought me back again.
Dave Quak
Yeah.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It helped me fast-track through a lot of stuff that people my age have already gone through. At 24, I was really far away from all of that. Then, suddenly, I was brought back into the fold, and it was like, okay, you need to learn all of this very quickly so you can understand what other people are saying to you.
What happens when someone is overcome by the Spirit of God?
I remember the first time I went to a small group where they talked about something of the Spirit. I had a fit or something—like a seizure—and I just laid on the floor, having no idea what was happening. But they were like, you got slammed by the Spirit, bro. I was like, well, what does that even mean? Which is a testament to it actually happening because I didn’t know what that was, and it just happened to me.
Dave Quak
Yeah, I love it when introverted people end up in really charismatic circles. You end up doing all this extroverted stuff that you wouldn’t normally do. But there's no way you’d go to a group of people and just fall over and lay on the ground.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, that’s just the way I went about it. I’d go up to the front, unless I really felt compelled that I had to. That was fully out of my comfort zone. I did it because I felt God telling me to do it. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. It was weird. I remember feeling so out of place, seeing people stare at me. I thought, oh no, what’s going on?
Dave Quak
Yeah, I get it. Because sometimes, with any disorders that have any level of delusion—like both of our conditions—people think, okay, this person needs to stay away from supernatural encounters. They won’t be able to tell the difference. But that’s not just a problem for us. It’s for every human.
Dave Quak
First of all, I think it’s actually the opposite. The more you're susceptible to possibly being tricked by your mind, the more you need to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We need to hear from Him, because, like you said at the start, we can't trust our thinking. God is the one we can trust. So, we need to be in the Word, we need to hear from the Spirit—it’s got to be all in.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
And that’s been my experience too. I’m still learning that, especially recently. There’s this weird blend of the world and religion, gospel, where the world teaches you to do things your own way. You have to be in control, not out of control, and very sceptical about everything. But the gospel says, no, no, put your trust in God, and He’ll help you through everything.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
My battle was, I came from this background where I was taught to control everything I did. I had to be really sceptical and have a firm grip on everything. Otherwise, I might lose it. But then God was like, no, you don’t have to do that. You do need to do some things, but also, just trust Me, and I’ve got your back with everything, and you’ll be okay. It’s been a fun journey, realising that God has your back, and He’s always making things work out for good.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
Yeah, He’s never not come through.
Dave Quak
You can see how God’s been steering you your whole life—even since that scary experience as a kid. He’s been with you all along, and He won’t stop until you meet Him face to face. It’s pretty crazy.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke
It is crazy. And the funny thing is, I can see it now. I can see how He’s done that through my whole life. I can pinpoint moments where He’s pushed me in one direction, and the way I think was, oh, did I do something out of my comfort zone? But that’s exactly how He works.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Yeah, that was definitely him. It's crazy how many times that happens—it’s fun to look back on, though.
How can faith and trusting God help in the struggle with mental health?
I’ve met so many people with mental health struggles, people who feel isolated and really struggle to open up. It’s tough for them. I feel so blessed that I’m able to talk about my own experiences. I’m the last person you'd expect to open up like this, being so introverted and not a fan of talking. But here I am, on a podcast, sharing it all!
It’s funny, because a few years ago, I’d never have been able to do this. I was too scared. But I’m glad I’ve gotten to a point where I can talk about it. I’ve always felt comfortable sharing with people around me, knowing it could help someone else going through the same thing. I don’t care if people look at me differently when I share—it doesn’t matter. I just want to help.
Dave Quak:
Mate, that’s fantastic. God bless you, Tom. And God bless Caitlin too. How long until the big day?
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
We’re getting married in September this year!
Dave Quak:
That’s awesome! We’ll be praying for clear skies and for you both to have an amazing day. I’ll also pray for your business, your life, and everything ahead. Let’s pray.
Dave Quak:
Lord, I just want to thank You so much for Tom and for the way You’ve guarded and looked after his life from the very beginning. Even before he was born, You were there, watching over him. Thank You that he is walking a life of faith—one that’s contagious and courageous. I pray that You continue to guide him, immerse him in Your love, and pour Your blessings over him.
I pray for his business, for his family, and for his marriage in September. May it be a wonderful celebration. Thank You, Lord, for Your kindness and Your goodness in all our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Tomas Heligr-Pyke:
Amen.
Dave Quak:
For more candid conversations on faith and mental well-being, check out SunburntSouls.com. You can subscribe to our podcast on any major provider or get in touch with us if you’d like to book us for speaking or preaching. Sunburnt Souls is a faith-based ministry, and we want to thank everyone who’s supported us so far. If you want to help, please pray that our message reaches the ears of those who need to hear it. You can also donate online, but honestly, if you feel obliged or manipulated to give, you’re better off buying a coffee for a loved one instead. I’m Dave Quak from Sunburnt Souls.
Key Questions and Answers
How can Christians navigate schizophrenia while maintaining their faith?
Christians with schizophrenia often face the challenge of distinguishing between spiritual experiences and symptoms of their condition. Faith can be a source of strength, but it’s important to seek both spiritual and medical support. Prayer, Scripture, and community play a vital role, alongside professional mental health care. Grounding techniques, counseling, and medication (when needed) can help maintain stability while deepening one’s relationship with God.
Is schizophrenia a spiritual battle, a medical condition, or both?
Schizophrenia has a biological basis involving brain chemistry, but spiritual battles can also be part of the experience. The Bible acknowledges both natural illness and supernatural warfare (Ephesians 6:12). It is crucial for Christians to approach schizophrenia with a balanced perspective—seeking medical care while remaining open to God’s guidance and protection. Prayer, discernment, and wise counsel help in understanding what is medical versus spiritual.
How can churches support members struggling with schizophrenia?
Churches can support members with schizophrenia by creating a safe, non-judgmental space where they feel seen and valued. Training leaders on mental health awareness, offering prayer and practical support, and encouraging medical care alongside faith can help. The church should be a place of healing, not isolation, emphasizing love, understanding, and acceptance while guiding individuals to both spiritual and professional resources.
Can trusting God help with schizophrenia and mental illness?
Trusting God does not mean ignoring medical treatment. Instead, faith provides hope, purpose, and peace in the struggle. Many believers with schizophrenia find comfort in knowing that God is with them (Isaiah 41:10) and that their identity is in Christ, not their condition. By combining faith, therapy, and community, Christians can find strength and healing even in the midst of their mental health battles.
What does the Bible say about psychosis, visions, and spiritual experiences?
The Bible records visions and supernatural experiences, but distinguishing between divine encounters and psychosis is important. Discernment, wise counsel, and alignment with Scripture help in evaluating such experiences. While mental illness should never be mistaken for a lack of faith, Christians should seek medical help, prayer, and biblical wisdom to navigate visions or hallucinations, ensuring they align with God’s truth.
Are you struggling with faith and mental health? Find hope and support here
For more candid conversations on faith and mental well-being, check out sunburntsouls.com. You can subscribe to our podcast on any major platform, or contact us directly to book us to preach or speak. Sunburnt Souls is a faith-based ministry, and we want to thank everyone so far for their generous support.
If you want to get behind us, please pray that our message reaches those who need to hear it. Feel free to donate online, but if you feel obliged or manipulated to give, you’re better off sharing a coffee with a loved one instead. I’m Dave Quak from Sunburnt Souls.
