Religion and Mental Health

1. Mental Illness is a Sign • Addiction and mental illness are usually a sign that something is already wrong. It could be anything from parental issues, childhood trauma or simply the response to a corrupt culture. • Carl Jung thought that unless we had unprocessed trauma, our childhood memories would not help, and it was an avoidance strategy by pushing the blame as far as possible into space and time. • Because as he concluded, most cases of neuroses were not because of a faulty brain but a faulty way of life. His first step was to make them realize that difficulties are inevitable and necessary because nothing worth doing is easy. If people think life should be easy, they will be less likely to overcome a weak character, and if you can’t overcome the weak character, you can’t overcome the neuroses. • And that was his solution: a new psychological adjustment, a new attitude which entails a “wholehearted dedication to life” and one which makes “the powerful urge to develop our own personality an imperative duty.” 2. Respond to the Sign • Many people will not heed the call of the sign and develop a deeper character, they will merely treat the symptoms of the conditions. But in doing this it only gets worse. Jung told us nearly a century ago that “…the elite still cling firmly to the notion that [anxiety] disorders originate in alterations within the brain. Unfortunately, many run of the mill doctors still swear by this gospel to the detriment of their patients, whom our age produces in swarms” and also “nearly all these patients have been convinced by the medical dogma that their sickness is of a physical nature.” • The condition often comes to those unwilling to face life’s responsibilities (having kids, social life, productive work, face death). • Freud abandoned his practice of hypnosis because it “does not permit us…to recognize the resistance with which the patient clings to his disease and thus even fights against his own recovery; yet it is this resistance alone that makes it possible to comprehend his behavior in daily life.” 3. The Culture Has No Idea • Whatever the solution is, the culture clearly does not have it, suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15–29-year-olds with 2 dying each minute. 5 times as many teenagers are reporting anxiety disorders compared to 10 years ago. • Richard Taylor points out our intuitive belief that the key to happiness is in pleasure. This is a universal but false belief. • Jim Carrey “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see it’s not the answer.” Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times produce weak men. • The truth is, we need transcendent beliefs to break the curse of the human condition, and we need to live in pursuit of righteousness (sacrifice, discipline, discomfort), not what our culture promotes-hedonism (ease, indulgence, pleasure). Our culture promotes convenience and good times and hook up culture and food to your door and marketing that revolves around making you feel like you’re less without products. 4. Is Religion Good for Mental Health? • Yes, this is why intellectuals like Bret Weinstein and Jordan Peterson say the Bible is at least metaphorically true. Because of its profoundly positive effects when applied • David Kinnaman, President of Barna Group says there are “powerful connections between practicing faith and overall wellbeing.” • World vision CEO Tim Pilkington “many elements of the findings have been illuminating, but I hope church leaders will be encouraged by the confirmation that the local church can be a place of leadership development, empowerment and a source of genuine hope.” • A 2017 review and synthesis of the literature by the director of Harvard’s School of Public Health has confirmed and bolstered the conclusion that religious participation is positively associated with a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes including even lower mortality. • Martin Seligman professor of psychology, published Character Strengths and Virtues, which features a wide-ranging review of published research to date on human development in areas like creativity, open mindedness, social intelligence, humor, gratitude and more. In an attempt to find the factors that enhance and hinder human excellence. It showed intrinsically religious beliefs are better for the individual and society. “A sizeable body of research…” says Seligman, “has demonstrated a positive link between religiosity, particularly religious involvement, and psychological and physical wellbeing.” • More striking than that, the 2012 Oxford Handbook of Religion and Health, provides comprehensive meta-analyses of all published studies on the association between religious involvement and medical and mental health. The results were:  Wellbeing: 78% of more than 300 studies report a positive association between religiosity and wellbeing.  Optimism: 81% of 32 studies.  Meaning and purpose: 93% of 45  Social support: 82% of 74  Depression: 61% of 413 report lower rates or faster recovery.  Suicide: 75% of 141 associated with less ideation, attempts, or successful.  Social capital (participation in community): 79% of 14. 5. Why Religion is the Solution • Genuine hope  Literally everything we do is motivated by hope  We can face impossible circumstances with hope.  Hope is a better predictor for achievement than intelligence, personality or academic performance.  Hope is associated with greater happiness and lower risk of death, less anxiety.  For the atheist, while some will take offence at this and deny it, some will embrace it: they do not have hope, ultimate futility underpins their entire worldview. • Encourages generosity  Science has demonstrated that spending money on others makes you happier than if you had spent it on yourself.  After securing food, clothing and shelter, money can’t do much for our happiness.  Those who give time, money and blood are more likely to be physically and mentally healthier. • And gratitude  Many studies have proven that people who practice a lifestyle of gratitude tend to be much happier.  Now who do you thank as an atheist? Yourself? The mindless, random, cold universe? Rational people give thanks to persons who can receive it. Atheists must live with a God shaped hole in their worldview. • And awe  Admiration, reverence, worship. Experiencing awe makes us happier, humbler, improves friendships, makes us more generous and healthier.  At least get out and admire nature, you will still be blessed with reduced mental fatigue and heightened creativity, happiness, reduced stress and immune system boost.  We have a ‘religious gene’, we always crave to be ruled over, everyone throughout the world and throughout history have always worshiped a god, it always manifests in some way even if it’s not in the transcendent, mostly in the worship of material things or of self, or celebrity here in the west. What safer thing to worship than the highest conceivable thing-God!  Christians are constantly in awe of answered prayers and miracles in their lives and lives of those around them. • And work  Being jobless is common in those with depression, because there is no routine or sense of purpose.  God created us to work which is why if we’re not doing something we deteriorate. World happiness report that drew from 11 years of gallop polls, showed this to be true.  The bible says that if we do not work we shall not eat and to do our work unto the lord. • And rest  Another commonality of those with neuroses is poor sleep.  The benefits of a good night’s sleep are endless.  The bible emphasizes rest with of course the Sabbath, and Jesus would often disappear to find rest. • And forgiveness  The benefits of forgiveness should be as obvious as the negative consequences of holding grudges and bitterness.  The bible makes a good point about it: forgive your neighbor because whatever he did against you, is nothing compared to what you yourself have done against God. The only innocent party is God. This is a good reminder and if more people remembered it then we would bring heaven down to earth.  Instead, when someone wrongs us there is a sense of a ‘debt’, most people try to make the person pay the debt by slandering them or confronting them in anger and with revenge until you think their tab is cleared. Christians are called to absorb the debt/cost on to themselves like Jesus did. • And community  Because we are social creatures, loneliness damages our health, whether we realize it or not. It predisposes people to a range of ills. The best predictor of longevity is by the quality of the person’s relationships.  “People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members of religious groups” (Pewforum.org).  Over the half the population in the west suffers from varying feelings of loneliness. • And courage  Face your fears! Avoidance weakens you and the anxiety spreads into other areas of life. It stunts development of character, skills, confidence and self-esteem.  Today’s culture promotes avoidance rather than exposure (silencing free speech, deplatforming, safe spaces, trigger words) It’s done in the name of supporting mental health but it’s doing the opposite.  Moses kept coming up with excuses as to why he shouldn’t go but did God say “I see you’re very anxious about leading my people, just forget I asked”? No, he made Moses face his fear because it is better in the long run.  Exodus 4, Matthew 10, Luke 10, 2 Tim 1, Philip 4, 1 John 4  Faith in God gives one the ability to let go of stress and concern over many things. Multiple times the bible commands readers not to stress. This makes sense if you believe in a Heavenly Father that promises the best for you whatever that may entail, which won’t always entail happiness.  This idea seems to be echoed in “moral holiday” by William James. Where you stop caring, let go of burdening thoughts and emotions. This holiday can stimulate a reaffirmation of life.  The bible causes us to regularly contemplate death. People think this is unhealthy, which seems reasonable on a surface level but goes against history’s greatest minds-countless philosophers, theologians and psychologists stretching back thousands of years. “Virtually every great thinker…has thought deeply and written about death; and many have concluded that death is inextricably a part of life, and that lifelong consideration of death enriches rather than impoverishes life” Irvin Yalom. • And superior sexual ethics  While the world mocks Christians and their rules about sex, the fact is they are there for good reason whether or not scoffers bother to look deeper.  Nothing wrong with porn? Ted Bundy thought it was what perverted him! Countless celebrities have gone from being liberal and accepting of porn, to denouncing it because of the way it has impacted their lives. There are also plenty of studies that demonstrate harm but most people these days only care about celebrity opinion.  Monogamy and sex within marriage. We release bonding/trust hormones during sex. If you’re having casual sex then you are constantly creating and breaking bonds, this does not produce good mental health. Jordan Peterson says that its been an obvious fact in anthropology and psychology that monogamy regulates female reproduction and male aggression and that most societies have come to realize this.  Marriage between a man and woman is demonstrably the best institution for raising kids in. There are countless children of gay couples who have grown up and said that while they love their parents, they know they needed to be raised with a balance of femininity and masculinity. But no one wants to talk about that!  And there must be something to it since statistically married Christian couples are the most satisfied in their sex lives. • Real meaning  Humans need meaning. Nietzsche “gradually, man has become a fantastic animal that has to fulfill one more condition of existence than any other animal: man has to believe, to know, from time to time why he exists; his race cannot flourish without a periodic trust in life.”  Ernest Becker observed some primitive tribes that dropped dead after being exposed to the west and realizing their meaning of life wasn’t written into the fabric of the universe.  It is suffering + awareness of death that = a need for meaning.  Nietzsche correctly predicted that the decline in religion would send the world into nihilism.  Walter Kaufman concurs with this analysis in his works. As well as historian Ronald Stromberg in Redemption by War “The turn of the 20th century marked a time when intellectuals in Europe were gripped by a growing sense that life was meaningless”. • Objective purpose  Jung “I have observed that a life directed to an aim is in general better, richer, and healthier than an aimless one, and that it is better to go forwards with the stream of time than backwards against it.”  Nietzsche also believed one should set a lofty goal and strive to achieve it, so that any obstacles and trials will contribute to a more developed character.  Personal Project  Doing something you are passionate about, will put you in a flow state more often which also comes with great benefits.  And if we’re passionate it can help us harness our emotions for good. Rollo May “our culture requires that we repress most of our anger, and therefore, we are repressing most of our creativity.”  Abraham Maslow didn’t think creativity was a luxury or hobby, but necessary for good mental health. Robert Greene also echoes this in Mastery. Creative individuals are those with the courage to proceed in the face of all the doubt, everyone has creative ideas but most stop at the doubts. They also have an ability to tolerate ambiguity and anxiety.  We hoist fame and adoration on to the people of society who are the polar opposite of heroic. Actors, singers, politicians, movie characters, super heroes. In doing this we diminish our own urge to heroism, an urge that is fundamental to our mental health.  Heroes usually have some form of talent or extraordinary skill but all you really need to be a hero is the willingness to live in the service of values. If you don’t you are like a ship without a rudder. The hero is committed to their values at a far greater rate than the gen pop. And the striving to honor those values also brings benefit to the world. They persevere, and are undeterred by profoundly difficult problems or people.  Colin Wilson thought too much inactivity breeds unhappiness in a plethora of mental problems. “Boredom, passivity, stagnation these are the beginning of mental illness, which propagates itself like the scum on a stagnant pond.”  Jung’s buddy Alfred Adler recommends imagining ourselves being free of the neurosis and the fear of social ridicule, asking ourselves what we would be doing. We can turn to our dreams and fantasies for clues. Jung “it would, in general, be a great mistake to deny any teleological value to the apparently pathological fantasies of a neurotic. They are, as a matter fact, the first beginnings of spiritualization, the first groping attempts to find new ways of adapting.”  Pressfield “what ails you and me has nothing to do with being sick…What ails us is that we are living our lives as amateurs. The solution…is that turn pro.” To be strong, our lives need limitations ordained by duty and voluntarily accepted. We need a pursuit that will engage us in ‘daily practice.’ • Grounded identity  Nietzsche on Christianity “It granted man an absolute value, as opposed to his smallness and accidental occurrence in the flux of becoming and passing away.”  Relying on limited sources for self-worth is the most consistent way of landing on depression. The more sources the better.  When you obsess over what everyone thinks of you, you are being self-absorbed. Epictetus “Put up with being laughed at on occasion; look around you, and give yourself a good shaking to find out who you really are.” Aurelius “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”  Kierkegaard believed many people denied their true self in order to conform. He called it the biggest danger “losing yourself” by suppressing yourself.  Build a solid identity by doing hard things and picking up responsibility. Life is a battle, against our bad habits, our weaknesses, fears, our limits of time, people who try to pull us down, depending on where we are in the cycle of societal collapse, a battle against tyranny.  Humans have a need for a positive self-image, but we also have many flaws, to reconcile this we deceive ourselves. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but not the log in your own?” This ‘noble lie’ makes it harder to pick up social cues that you are not liked. It needs to be addressed early on otherwise it never will be. • And Prayer  Socrates “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  Committing an injustice is far worse than suffering one  We’re bound to produce negative thoughts, and these thoughts have real negative physical and mental consequences on us. Research shows 75-98% of mental, physical and behavioral illness come from one’s thought life.  But we have the power to consciously squash the thought and convert it into a positive. This is neuroplasticity. Scientists have observed people changing their brains with their minds (free will).  Sceptics mock the idea of God and “thought crimes” as a type of sin, but as Marcus Aurelius says, “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”  Research shows that self-affirmations can make someone with low self-esteem feel worse.  Rom 12:2, Jam 1:21, Pro 23:7, Phil 4:8 • Stewardship  We must honor God with our body. We are a living sacrifice. Our bodies are a gift from God, how would you feel if someone didn’t look after a gift you gave them?  Diet: Junk food: obviously terrible for mental health. Many anecdotes of people alleviating their neuroses with ancient diets like keto and carnivore. If you can’t say no to your stomach, it has become an idol. Fasting (around 40 passages promoting it), another command that has a wide range of physical/mental benefits. Fasting is good because it is a hermetic stress, like extreme cold and heat exposure (cold bath, shower, sauna) which many have testified to alleviating their depression.  Exercise: Those who exercise regularly will experience at least 18 days more happiness in a year compared to those who are non-active. Physically active people have higher happiness levels than non-active people with a much higher income-even when the gap is as much as $25,000. It “can have an antidepressant effect in mild to moderately severe depression” (Karolinska Institute). It could even prevent up to 19% of divorces. 20 mins can produce a happiness boost that lasts for up to 12 hours (University of Vermont). Triggers natural opioids-endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. Helps sleep, boosts immune system and confidence. 6. Our Unconscious Shadow • Everyone has a ‘shadow’, Jung believed these were the parts in our psyche that are repressed, maybe because of society and other factors. We can repress bad traits, but also good ones like assertiveness, creativity, competitiveness. In repressing it we made ourselves tame, obedient, predictable all to be more likeable. • We need to bring this unconscious side to light lest it become blacker and denser. • The process of individuation (self-realization), striving for it brings fulfillment and empowering individuality. The process is an effective antidote to despair, anxiety, neuroses, depressions, addictions, the most common cause for those stems from an unlived life. • Almost everyone needs to integrate their aggression. Daryl Sharp “There is no generally effective technique for assimilating the shadow. It is more like diplomacy or statesmanship and it is always an individual matter. First one has to accept and take seriously the existence of the shadow. Second, one has to become aware of its qualities and intentions. This happens through conscientious attention to moods, fantasies and impulses. Third, a long process of negotiation is unavoidable.” • Like finding a sport to get your anger out. And reconnect to our aggressive instincts. • To figure out your dark side, ask yourself the differences between you when you are with others and you all alone. • It is not passive meditation, rather a constant embrace of challenges leads to the actualization of potential. And novel experiences bring unconscious contents to the light of the conscious. 7. Other Strategies • Negative thought patterns promote certain body language and movements and like a negative feedback loop, these bodily positions promote the negative mental feelings. Nietzsche understood that often it’s our actions that precede a change in our emotions and beliefs. Meaning you will first need to act in a fraudulent manner, act like what you want to become. • We must introduce a tangible degree of novelty into our life. More of the same will only perpetuate the problems in our lives. 8. Sources • The Bible • Dr John Leach • Dr James T Fisher • Thomas Aquinas • Soren Kierkegaard • Greatergoodberkeley.edu • Albert Schweitzer • Keltner and Haidt • Ludwig Wittgenstein • Fyodor Dostoyevsky • Edward Young • Jordan Peterson • Tim Keller • Caroline Leaf • C.S Lewis • Harvard University • William James • Irvin Yalom • William Buckner • Bret Weinstein • Frederick Nietzsche • Ernest Becker • Walter Kaufman • Ronald Stromberg • Victor Frankl • Aleksander Solzhenitsyn • Carl Jung • Aristotle • Rollo May • Stephen Diamond • Abraham Maslow • Robert Greene • Percy Bysshe Shelley • Sigmund Freud • Hermann Hesse • Otto Rank • Colin Wilson • Richard Taylor • Leo Tolstoy • Socrates • Stephen Pressfield • Bronislaw Malinowski • James Hillman • Seneca • Epictetus