Friday, March 12, 2010

pente coast mental illness

As a Physician i see many cases especially middle aged females from pente coastal christian faith comes to hospital with mental illness like depression, schizo, hysteria and some times over anxious about minor illness ..

Recently one person came to to my clinic with increased anxiety whether he has got HIV infection ..I has asked him why he is fearing as he seems no high risk .he explained me that he took person with hiv positive to pastor n the pastor tried to get rid of the evil spirit from the person ..so the person fears that evil spirit has striken him for a vengence ..

the faith creates fear among the followers about evil spirit n doom waiting to happen and black mails them.............

i always whether this is my thinking or any evidence for increased mental illness incidence among pente coastal christians??

Today i searched on net with the same query n i found this
http://atheism.about.com/od/pentecostalism/a/AnxietyDepress.htm


Religion is sometimes presented as an important means by which people can cope with the problems they face in life, but religion can also add or magnify problems. People aren't necessarily happier and better off with religion than they would be without and this may be especially true when it comes to fundamentalist Christianity, including Pentecostal forms. Research has revealed a strong correlation between Pentecostalism and higher rates of anxiety, depression, and mental health disorders.

James A. Thorson writes:

Koenig, George, Meador, Blazer, and Cyck (1994) examined religion and general anxiety, as well as depression and any DSM-III disorder, in groups of mainline and conservative Protestants as well as Pentecostals. The Pentecostals had significantly higher 6-month and lifetime rates of depression, anxiety, and any DSM-III disorder. Mainline Protestants had the lowest 6-month and lifetime rates of anxiety disorder and the lowest rates of any DSM-III disorder, and conservative Protestants had the lowest 6-month and lifetime rates of depressive disorder.

Ref: "Religion and Anxiety: Which Anxiety? Which Religion?" by James A. Thorson. Handbook of Religion and Mental Health, edited by Harold G. Koenig

Assuming for a moment that Pentecostalism is at least one of the causal factors, then, why might it be involved? It surely can't be due to basic Christian doctrines, given the differences described above between Pentecostal Christianity and other forms of Christianity. We're more likely to find something relevant by looking at the differences between Pentecostals and other Christians.

The first differences that comes to mind are speaking in tongues, faith healing, and related practices. It's not obvious why they would produce increased anxiety, but perhaps the expectations of being visited by the "Holy Spirit" cause anxiety with people who aren't feeling it when they think they should. The basis of such doctrines, which is the idea that God is communicating directly with the congregation is also relevant: given the fundamentalist, Pentecostal view of a wrathful god, the mere possibility of a direct encounter with such a being could easily create anxiety, not to mention depression at one's failures to live up to that god's demands.

Finally, there is the strong tendency towards fatalism in modern Pentecostalism. Both fundamentalists and Pentecostals share a dispensationalist theology which teaches that humanity is approaching an inevitable cataclysm which cannot be avoided. Wars, earthquakes, and other disasters are not warnings to humanity to get us to improve our behavior, but rather warnings to let us know that the end is fast approaching — an end where most of humanity will suffer terribly then be cast down to hell where they will suffer for all eternity. Only the truly faithful will be "raptured" up to heave prior to Armageddon, so only they will be assured of salvation and an eternity of peace.

Many Christians who have such a fatalist view of the future — and quite often it's believed to be the very near future — appear to take great joy in the anticipated destruction of human culture and civilization, not to mention the damnation of everyone who doesn't believe as they do. Because of the great demands placed on believers, though, it's plausible that there is more than a little anxiety and depression over the possibility that one will not be among those raptured and will at the very least have to endure Armageddon... if not worse. Some take comfort in a fatalistic view of life, imagining that everything is mapped out, while others experience anxiety over the idea because they worry about a fate they cannot escape.

What you people say???






2 comments:

www.bogy.in said...

தமிழர்கள் அனைவருக்கும் தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்

இந்த ஆண்டு உங்கள் வாழ்வில் எல்லையில்லா மகிழ்ச்சியும், நோயற்ற வாழ்வும், குறைவற்ற செல்வமும், நீண்ட ஆயுளும் மற்றும் அனைத்து நலங்களும், வளங்களும் பெற்று வாழ வாழ்த்துகிறோம்.

அன்புடன்
www.bogy.in

உலக சினிமா ரசிகன் said...

ஆரண்யகாண்டம்-படமா எடுக்கிறானுங்க.....மயிறானுங்க என்ற தலைப்பில் நானும் எனது கருத்தை சொல்லி உள்ளேன்.
மேலும் விபரமறிய எனது வலைப்பக்கம் வாருங்கள் நண்பர்களே!