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TheFluffyOwl

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The spiritual but not religious likely to face mental health issues, drug use, study says

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/09/the-spiritual-... By Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) - Can being spiritual but not religious lead to mental health issues? The answer is yes, according to a recent study.

I consider myself to be a "spiritual atheist". I know that sounds like an oxymoron but I promise you it's not, just google it. Anyway, this article states that a study found that those who consider themselves to be "spiritual but not religious" were more likely to have mental health issues as well as other emotional and addictive problems. As it so happens, I have dealt with depression most of my life and more recently anxiety. I always assumed it was due to my childhood experiences, but perhaps there's something more to it than that? What do you think? If you consider yourself to be only "spiritual", do you notice that you also suffer from mental and/or emotional problems? If you do, do you think that it has anything to do with your religious( or non religious)beliefs or is it just coincidental?

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I have to disagree in my experience. I was raised in Scientology as a child. My mother was raised a JW. She got into Scientology, converted back to a JW when I was 10. I began using shortly after. I became a spiritual agnostic after all that and got clean at 18 and choose a path. My torment came from my childhood abuse. Was neither caused or due to spirituality or religion. Why are they trying to peg this? My mothers illness comes from her trauma from childhood, her believing in the religion she believes in complicates the disorder because it feeds on it. That has nothing to do with religion or spirituality. It is sick people in a sick world that needs healing.

This is a correlational study--you can't draw conclusions about causation from it. There can be confounding variables that were not accounted for in the study. For instance, the portion of "Spiritual/Not Religious" who had the problems were not explored for an additional common variable that the others did not have (strict religious upbringing with excessive shaming; abuse or neglect in childhood; genetic factors; socioeconomic factors; etc). The religious affiliation could be a coincidence, or a side-effect itself of something else.

Or, there's another possibility: religious study subjects under-reported their answers (i.e. lied) because they did not want to admit to sinning.

I find this study shocking because I had the exact opposite experience. Religion, or possibly the dogma attached to religion, was making me feel very depressed. I have a son with cognitive disabilities who is grown now. For years, I searched for answers to why some children are born this way while others seem to be brilliant at everything. I looked at my behaviors while I was pregnant with him - did I do something to cause this? I did everything pregnant women are supposed to do to stay healthy and have healthy babies. Some of my family members were not as cautious and had healthily babies without cognitive disabilities.

So I looked to religion - why would God do thus to me and my child? I was told a variety of things that really pissed me off and made me more depressed. Things like, God gives you what He knows you can handle, you are strong enough to take this on; somewhere in your past you sinned and that is why this has happened to you and your child; it's because if original sin, someone has to pay for original sin and it just happens to be you and your child at this point in time. I stopped believing in God because not one of these answers made any sense and I began to see religion as a bunch of people trying to make sense of something without having a clue as to what they are talking about.

Eventually I discovered spirituality and began to lift out of my depression. To me, spirituality and religion CAN work together to help people understand who we are and how things work. But, if ego or dogma is layered onto the spiritual message through religion it loses its meaning. It starts to cause judgment among people. Strip away all of the dogma of any religion and you have spirituality. So to me, religion was not helping me at all and it wasn't until I dropped religion that I began to heal. That is why I say I am spiritual, but definitely NOT religious and I'm much better for it! Sorry so long!

I don't know, but it sounds like bullshit. "Spiritual but not religious" is such an open and ambiguous term that I just can't imagine how it could lead to mental illness. I'm both religious and spiritual and struggle with mental illness, and without my spirituality I probably would have committed suicide long ago. For me, spirituality is the way out of mental illness.

Not a good article in my opinion, I also dont feel like the study has enough subjects. I question the concept of asking a religious person if he/she does drugs and what the chances are of them answering truthfully in the same context as discussing their religion. My guess would be, if someone is going to say they are religious, chances are they arent going to want to talk about their drug usage afterward lol.

Spirituality uses the mind to lean on our own understanding. Meditation on our own understanding leaves us mentally confused because we are by nature wrong. Drugs can also create a sense of spirituality but drugs will always be an illusion to our spirituality. My experience with Buddhists in particular is they are self seeking and self serving.

I think depending on the religion people can let go of their own understanding, admit they need a god and let go of their own destructive ideas. They serve a god with their heart and that shuts down their mind.

Some say 'mind over matter' others say 'heart over mind'

This article sites a study, but is itself an opinion paper, a blog which doesn't actually go into any detail about the study, but instead quotes some religious guy saying that religion is good for you. I don't put much stock in it.

King's study was across a cross section of people in England, and he specifically says that there is no causal link established -- it's barely more than a poll, and were this poll conducted in America or in the Middle East or in China, we might have different results. Why shouldn't we? The definition of spirituality is loosy goosy, as well as what constitutes a mental health issue.

It's a bit of a peeve of mine that we should read an article and then determine how good the article is by how much we can relate to it. The first question that should have popped into our heads was a critical understanding of the study. How was it conducted? Does it conclude what we think it concludes?

I think there is probably something to it... I fit into that category for sure and maybe its because people like us have been through enough to know that religion isn't right for us.

Do people with a solid belief do better in life because of that belief? Even if I consider it to be wrong, maybe the trick in living in the the world is to have some kind of end result? Whatever the case is, those who have strong beliefs don't seem to struggle with the same questions as just the spiritual people do.

I think life has been looked at through a religious lens for a long time and not too people go independent. I suppose Buddhism is the closest you get to a better defined alternative to religion. Sorry for being all over the place with this lol Thinking too much :p

Makes sense. I suppose that the realization of your inevitable decent into nothingness can cause a great deal of despair and unrest if you're an atheist. I imagine that a believe in an afterlife must take a huge load off.

I think anyone who believes in something without evidence has a mental disorder!

Well yeah, because we have to put up with the insanity of the way the world is. ;)

I am very glad you posted this. I have been pretty opposed to religion and spirituality from a pretty early age and was not raised in any faith. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder some years ago and became Baha'i a few years later. I think that the religion has helped to structure my life and Makes me happier in many ways. I think that it gives me more hope and connects me with people all over the world. The more disconnected from people people become, the more likely they will become drugees or develop neurological disorders. I think that they are connected and that makes sense. Thank you.

Hmmm...I wonder which god someone is supposed to believe in?

Thinking you have all the answers(or all that you need anyway) can be comforting. As the article says, 'spirituality' is a concept full of grey areas. An awe of nature could be considered spiritual, but I doubt that that is what they are talking about. Is just having an appreciation of life beyond one's personal needs being spiritual? Maybe light weight mysticism is the subset of spirituality about which they are talking. Maybe the spirituality they are testing is a time of becoming, more commonly found in the young along with drug use, alienation, etc.

If the study allows subjects to decide for themselves if they are spiritual, doesn't allow for age bias, many other environmental factors... the results could be skewed or insignificant. A large life-long study employing different categories of spirituality and controls would mean more. I suspect belonging to any supportive, enjoyable, inspiring organization could lead a 'spiritual' person to prosper along with the others. What were their parents like? How have their kids turned out? Lots to consider.

That's interesting, I consider myself spiritual but not religious, and for the last year have been experimenting with psychedelic drugs. I also consider myself to be emotionally unstable at times, but not to the extent of a legitimate mental disorder.

I think I stopped being "religious" because it wasn't doing anything for my happiness. So I don't think spirituality is the cause of depression.. I don't know much though.

I have been in recovery from addiction for 23 years and consider myself spiritual but not religious. I have a support group and if anything my spirituality has helped me over come depression when it presents itself. To me one key component of my spirituality is a deep connection with my friends in recovery. To me the article really says isolation will lead to depression, etc. I think any organized group, including non-judgemental religious ones, which has healthy relationships amongst its' members is helpful to our spirituality. My two cents.

Does this study reveal anything substantially different from those who define themselves as "spiritual and unreligious" and those that identify as "non-spiritual and unreligious"? Other than the apparent susceptibility to such problems?

I consider myself a non-spiritual atheist and I've never done any drugs or even sipped alcohol but I haven't a clue why there would be any connection between that and not being "spiritual". As I've said before, I don't think this is because "spiritual" and "non-spiritual" folks experience different things. I think we all have the transcendental experiences that spirituality tries to take credit for. So the real question is: what's the appeal is thinking of the world as being "spiritual" and what type of a psyche does it tend to describe?

I definitely consider myself spiritual. I also have bouts of depression and anxiety..But really who doesn't have sad days... and get overwhelmed others? Everyone has problems. I hate blanket statements like... if your this... then your far more likely to have this xyz problem. Half the time they say coffee is bad for you.. the other time it is good. I don't think that if I found God in the traditional sense I would be magically cured of these "problems" I sometimes have.

I believe that the experts are drawing the wrong conclusions from these studies. First, finding that more spiritual people suffer from mental illness and drug addiction show a correlation but doesn't reveal that their, let's call it a "lack of grounded spirituality" is the cause of it. The article itself states that it is not necessarily being religious that makes a person less "vulnerable" but being part of a strict organizational support structure is. Think of how much better you feel about yourself when you know that you have a large and caring group to turn to during tough times. The social structure and the belief that there is at least entity out there that truly cares about your well being is bolstering to a person's self confidence. But on the other hand, the strict laws and mores within many organized religions has lead to many conflicts both internal and external.

mental health issues usually stem from a lack chemicals in the brain not from your spiritual outlook.and although people with post traumatic stress can have great amounts of anxiety,the chances are that if you are showing the symptoms repeated depression not just the occasional bout that you need to be on meds to regulate those chemicals.your spiritual outlook might help you deal with the symptoms but it wont cure the problem.I know this because my wife is a very religious person but she will need medication for the rest of her life and a lot of the time that doesn't even work

TheFluffyOwl

The spiritual but not religious likely to face mental health issues, drug use, study says

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Makes sense. I suppose that the realization of your inevitable decent into nothingness can cause a great deal of despair and unrest if you're an atheist. I imagine that a believe in an afterlife must take a huge load off.

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I think anyone who believes in something without evidence has a mental disorder!

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Well yeah, because we have to put up with the insanity of the way the world is. ;)

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Hmmm...I wonder which god someone is supposed to believe in?

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The spiritual but not religious likely to face mental health issues, drug use, study says

Makes sense. I suppose that the realization of your inevitable decent into nothingness can cause a great deal of despair and unrest if you're an atheist. I imagine that a believe in an afterlife must take a huge load off.

I think anyone who believes in something without evidence has a mental disorder!

Well yeah, because we have to put up with the insanity of the way the world is. ;)

Hmmm...I wonder which god someone is supposed to believe in?

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