Differential Diagnosis of True Spiritual States from Mental Disorders

piritual states are Divine and non-material states in human beings that are manifested in the form of emotions or behavior. Some of them are true and others are false. In fact, non-psychotic mental disorders sometimes exhibit similar to spiritual states, thus a differential diagnosis seem to be essential. Here, with an interdisciplinary look based on Islamic texts and psychology of religion and psychopathology and with a descriptive-analytical method, the characteristics of mental disorders which can be confused with spiritual states, i.e. schizophrenia, depression, conversion, anxiety, have been discussed. It is concluded that true spirituality has important differences with the above-mentioned disorders and their similarity is only superficial which will disappear by comparing their characteristics with the symptoms of disorders. That’s because hallucination, and delusion are not found in the life of the people who experience true spirituality. They try their best to obey sharia and the lifestyle of the infallibles. This plays an important role in differentiating them with the mentally disordered people. Shortage of sleep time in the people with true spirituality is caused by worship and service to people, and the change in the amount of food is resulted by the moderation in eating and the slim bodies are due to fasting, but the lack of self-esteem and problems related to sleep and food, as mentioned in specialized psychological diagnosis texts, are not found in the people who experience true spirituality. They are in fact the symptoms of the patients suffering from those mental disorders , and the people experiencing true Islamic spirituality don’t suffer from them.