Religion and Mental Illness - Is there a Relation?

[edwinic]

First of all, im sorry if this is a duplication, the mods may delete or merge with existing thread.

Does religion causes mental illness? Or are mentally-ill individual tend to be religious? is there a relation?

I do not mean to be antagonistic but would like to seek the views and opinons of members who has interests in this subject.

Thanks.

 

[Kemble]

Two reasearchers that touch on that was Julian Jaynes with Bicameralism and Michael Persinger with the God Helmet. See if you can get a hold of their material for more detail.

 

[George-ananda]

First of all, im sorry if this is a duplication, the mods may delete or merge with existing thread.

Does religion causes mental illness? Or are mentally-ill individual tend to be religious? is there a relation?

I do not mean to be antagonistic but would like to seek the views and opinons of members who has interests in this subject.

Thanks.

On the other side of the coin, I've heard atheism is more prevalent with people on the more autistic side of the spectrum.

I don't give much concern to any of these theories.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

First of all, im sorry if this is a duplication, the mods may delete or merge with existing thread.

Does religion causes mental illness? Or are mentally-ill individual tend to be religious? is there a relation?

I do not mean to be antagonistic but would like to seek the views and opinons of members who has interests in this subject.

Thanks.

You mean like the correlation between atheism and autism?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psyched/201205/does-autism-lead-atheism

Not that I consider the autistic to be mentally ill, just non-neurotypical.

 

[Riverwolf]

First of all, im sorry if this is a duplication, the mods may delete or merge with existing thread.

Does religion causes mental illness? Or are mentally-ill individual tend to be religious? is there a relation?

I do not mean to be antagonistic but would like to seek the views and opinons of members who has interests in this subject.

Thanks.

Religion is far too broad a term to determine whether it's a sole or primary cause of anything.

Were there particular aspects of religion that you had in mind?

 

[psychoslice]

Anything can be related to mental illness, mother, father, families, religion, any experience that feeds the illness. If you are paranoid you will probably fear god with all his hell fire, if your not religious, you might fear the things you hear on the news, you could write hundreds of books on the subject.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

First of all, im sorry if this is a duplication, the mods may delete or merge with existing thread.

Does religion causes mental illness? Or are mentally-ill individual tend to be religious? is there a relation?

I do not mean to be antagonistic but would like to seek the views and opinons of members who has interests in this subject.

I think the adolescent push-back against religion demonstrates, not so much a mental illness, but an intellectual and social insecurity which, hopefully, will be outgrown.

Of course, I do not mean to be antagonistic here … :no:

 

[Drolefille]

Too much of the population is religious in contrast with the percentage that has mental illness for there to be any sort of strong correlation.

 

[Skwim]

For what they're worth.

"In 1980, Albert Ellis, the founder of rational emotive therapy, wrote in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology that there was an irrefutable causal relationship between religion and emotional and mental illness. According to Canadian psychiatrist Wendall Watters, “Christian doctrine and liturgy have been shown to discourage the development of adult coping behaviors and the human to human relationship skills that enable people to cope in an adaptive way with the anxiety caused by stress.” At its most extreme, all religious experience has been labeled as psychosis."
source


​

"Schizophrenia and religious delusions

The relationship between religion and schizophrenia is of particular interest to psychologists because of the similarities between religious experiences and psychotic episodes; religious experiences often involve auditory and/or visual hallucinations, and those with schizophrenia commonly report similar hallucinations, along with a variety of delusions and faulty beliefs. A common report from those with schizophrenia is some type of a religious delusion - that is, they believe they are divine beings, God is talking to them, they are possessed by demons, etc. In a study of patients with schizophrenia that had been previously admitted to a hospital, 24% had had religious delusions. This has led some researchers to question whether schizophrenia leads an individual to become more religious, or if intense religiosity leads to schizophrenia."
source



"Strong spiritual values were positively associated with increased rates of current depressive disorder and decreased rates of current alcohol use disorder. Using "atheist" as the reference category, Catholics had higher lifetime odds of single episodes of depression whilst Protestants had higher lifetime odds of anxiety disorder and lower lifetime odds of alcohol use disorders."
source



"In summarythere are several aspects of the three main monotheistic religions which related closely to the symptoms of OCD. It could even be argued that religion represents a culturally sanctioned form of OCD,which is encouraged in order to gain favour with God. If true, then it is important to know if there is an increased prevalence of patients with strong religious beliefs amongst OCD sufferers, and also whether religious people are more at risk of developing OCD in their lifetime."
source
​

 

[Revoltingest]

You mean like the correlation between atheism and autism?
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psyched/201205/does-autism-lead-atheism
Not that I consider the autistic to be mentally ill, just non-neurotypical.

Your linked article makes the connection being "mind blind" & atheistic.
So those of us who are (to varying extents) mind blind would never experience
what believers describe as experiencing their god. Might this be a
Get-out-of-Hell-free card because we never really got the message?

 

[Riverwolf]

For what they're worth.

"In 1980, Albert Ellis, the founder of rational emotive therapy, wrote in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology that there was an irrefutable causal relationship between religion and emotional and mental illness. According to Canadian psychiatrist Wendall Watters, “Christian doctrine and liturgy have been shown to discourage the development of adult coping behaviors and the human to human relationship skills that enable people to cope in an adaptive way with the anxiety caused by stress.” At its most extreme, all religious experience has been labeled as psychosis."
source

​

Worth about as much as I'd take any study that lumps all religion under Christianity. That is to say, not completely invalid, but still questionable.

Besides, I must ask how it defines "cope in an adaptive way", and why religion-based coping mechanisms are inherently contradictory to that.
​

"Schizophrenia and religious delusions

The relationship between religion and schizophrenia is of particular interest to psychologists because of the similarities between religious experiences and psychotic episodes; religious experiences often involve auditory and/or visual hallucinations, and those with schizophrenia commonly report similar hallucinations, along with a variety of delusions and faulty beliefs. A common report from those with schizophrenia is some type of a religious delusion - that is, they believe they are divine beings, God is talking to them, they are possessed by demons, etc. In a study of patients with schizophrenia that had been previously admitted to a hospital, 24% had had religious delusions. This has led some researchers to question whether schizophrenia leads an individual to become more religious, or if intense religiosity leads to schizophrenia."
source



"Strong spiritual values were positively associated with increased rates of current depressive disorder and decreased rates of current alcohol use disorder. Using "atheist" as the reference category, Catholics had higher lifetime odds of single episodes of depression whilst Protestants had higher lifetime odds of anxiety disorder and lower lifetime odds of alcohol use disorders."
source



"In summarythere are several aspects of the three main monotheistic religions which related closely to the symptoms of OCD. It could even be argued that religion represents a culturally sanctioned form of OCD,which is encouraged in order to gain favour with God. If true, then it is important to know if there is an increased prevalence of patients with strong religious beliefs amongst OCD sufferers, and also whether religious people are more at risk of developing OCD in their lifetime."
source

But does that mean 95% of the entire world's population is suffering from one mental illness or another? If a certain behavior allows a person to live the most effectively in a given environment, can we really call it a mental illness just because it might hinder effective living in the environments we're familiar with?

 

[Quintessence]

I'd like to point out that classification of mental illnesses, is, to a large extent, grounded in the normative assumptions of the culture developing these models. As a consequence, religious practices that deviate far from accepted cultural norms have an unfortunate tendency to get miscast as "mental illness."

 

[Skwim]

Worth about as much as I'd take any study that lumps all religion under Christianity. That is to say, not completely invalid, but still questionable.

Besides, I must ask how it defines "cope in an adaptive way", and why religion-based coping mechanisms are inherently contradictory to that.
​

But does that mean 95% of the entire world's population is suffering from one mental illness or another?

No. And I believe the percentage of those in the world professing a religion is 88%.

If a certain behavior allows a person to live the most effectively in a given environment, can we really call it a mental illness just because it might hinder effective living in the environments we're familiar with?

Perhaps, or perhaps not. I'm sure it depends on the specific behavior and what constitutes living most effectively.

 

[Skwim]

I'd like to point out that classification of mental illnesses, is, to a large extent, grounded in the normative assumptions of the culture developing these models."

Got a source for this conclusion?

 

[Drolefille]

I'd like to point out that classification of mental illnesses, is, to a large extent, grounded in the normative assumptions of the culture developing these models. As a consequence, religious practices that deviate far from accepted cultural norms have an unfortunate tendency to get miscast as "mental illness."

Indeed. There's a lot to say about that part in the DSM that requires it to cause problems within the person's life before it can be diagnosed as a mental illness.

 

[Quintessence]

Got a source for this conclusion?

Common sense, everyday observation, and obvious logic? Any time something is called an "illness" it presumes a normative state of operations, by definition. In the case of some - though hardly all - psychological illnesses, what is considered a normative state is quite obviously influenced by culture. Hell, if you look at previous issuances of the DSM you'll see homosexuality was regarded as a "mental illness" because it isn't the normative state. Even today, we have this nutter thing called "gender identity disorder" when gender itself is a social construct highly dependent on cultural norms.

 

[Riverwolf]

No. And I believe the percentage of those in the world professing a religion is 88%.

Close enough.

Perhaps, or perhaps not. I'm sure it depends on the specific behavior and what constitutes living most effectively.

What constitutes living most effectively is going to vary from culture to culture, and environment to environment. What works for one could be incredibly detrimental to another.

 

[Quintessence]

Indeed. There's a lot to say about that part in the DSM that requires it to cause problems within the person's life before it can be diagnosed as a mental illness.

That's it's one saving grace, in my mind. Otherwise, there are several "illnesses" in there that are pretty culturally or religiously insensitive or ethnocentric. I think about shamanism in particular with this, because your typical tribal shaman exhibits many so-called signs of mental illnesses, and the role is highly "disruptive" in their life in that these experiences end up governing their role within the tribe. Gosh, there's a book about this I heard about recently but the title is escaping me.

 

[Riverwolf]

Got a source for this conclusion?

Homosexuality used to be classified as a mental illness.

 

[edwinic]

Two reasearchers that touch on that was Julian Jaynes with Bicameralism and Michael Persinger with the God Helmet. See if you can get a hold of their material for more detail.

I took note. Thanks